The Hasmonean story began with the heroic Hanukka tale but ended in a civil war sparked by two rival royal brothers. Two cultural elites – Pharisee and Sadducee – vied for dominance in the death throes of the Hasmonean dynasty

The Hasmonean kingdom’s end was as tragic and as its beginning was heroic. Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the two sons of King Alexander Jannaeus and Queen Shlomzion (a.k.a. Salome and Salome Alexandra [141–67 bce]) squabbled over the throne, creating a power vacuum into which Rome elegantly stepped, conquering Judea and ultimately destroying the Second Temple. The brothers’ rivalry was the final power struggle in a series that had simmered for decades, with factions locking horns over issues of conscience and culture. 

John Hyrcanus I, son of Simon Thassi (brother of Judah Maccabee), was the first to stabilize and expand the tiny kingdom: 

Now he was accounted by God worthy of three of the greatest privileges, the rule of the nation, the office of the high-priest, and the gift of prophecy […]. (Josephus, Antiquities, book xiii, ch. 10:7 [Loeb Classical Library (LCL), book 365, pp. 377–9])

Hyrcanus extended his country’s borders, increased its power and diplomatic standing, strengthened its economy, and conquered the local Idumeans, converting them to Judaism. Many consider him the most successful Hasmonean monarch, yet in his later days a crisis divided the kingdom until its eventual downfall.

The prosperous fortunes of John and his sons, however, provoked a sedition among his envious countrymen, large numbers of whom held meetings to oppose them and continued to agitate, until the smouldering flames burst out in open war and the rebels were defeated. (Josephus, Jewish War, book i, ch. 2:8 [LCL, book 203, pp. 33–4])

Josephus explains the background to this insurrection as a clash between the Sadducees, who supported the king, and the Pharisees, leaders of the people’s faction. The royal sword soon prevailed, and John Hyrcanus overcame his enemies. Yet discontent was rekindled under his son and successor, Judah Aristobulus. Although Aristobulus reigned just one year, his accomplishments were substantial. Not only did he capture the Galilee and add it to the Hasmonean kingdom, he also subjugated the Itureans – evidently a group of Arabian tribes living in today’s Golan Heights – and incorporated them into the Jewish people.

According to Josephus, illness, court intrigue, tragedy, grief, and remorse combined to kill off Judah Aristobulus at a young age, and his childless widow, Shlomzion, selected one of his brothers, Alexander Jannaeus, in keeping with the laws of levirate marriage, and had him crowned king. 

This new monarch followed the Hasmonean pattern of expansive conquest, beginning by besieging Akko, then known as Ptolemais. Egypt under Ptolemy IX intervened and Alexander retreated, only to try his luck farther south. He captured the port of Gaza, but Ascalon (Ashkelon) remained a Philistine enclave in the growing kingdom’s footholds along the coast.

 

Two Crowns, One Head

As stated, John Hyrcanus was backed by the Sadducee sect, dominated by the same priestly elite from which the Hasmoneans descended. The Sadducees ranked high in his regime and in return supported his expansionism and authoritarian rule in the style of the Hellenist basileii (kings or potentates) governing Judea’s neighbors. 

The Pharisees opposed this concentration of political power and John Hyrcanus’ joint role of monarch and high priest, a Hellenistic combination contrary to Jewish tradition. They demanded that he limit his jurisdiction and renounce the high priesthood. 

Both the Hasmonean rulers and the Pharisees regarded kingship as secondary to control of Temple ritual and religious leadership. Without the priesthood, the king would be like any other political ruler. Yet in Judaism, the position of king was a hereditary one reserved for Davidic descendants. Priestly families hailed from the tribe of Levi and were therefore ineligible to reign. And the high priesthood had traditionally been held for many generations by the House of Zadok, to which the Hasmoneans did not belong. Thus, in the Pharisaic view, Alexander Jannaeus was a usurper on both counts. 

The apocryphal Psalms of Solomon, dating from the first century bce (the late Hasmonean era) and mimicking the style of the biblical book of Psalms, expresses both opposition to a non-Davidic dynasty of kings (presumably the Hasmoneans) and elation over their defeat at the hands of Rome: 

Lord, You chose David as the king over Israel […]. But because of our sins, sinners rose up against us, they attacked us and expelled us. Those to whom You did not promise robbed [us] by force […]. They set up a monarchy for the sake of their haughtiness; they threw down the throne of David with a mighty shout. But You, O God, reduced them and eradicated their seed from the earth when a man alien to our race rose up against them. (Psalms of Solomon 17:4–10)

Though unnamed, the Hasmoneans are implicitly censured for seizing undestined powers and adopting the trappings of foreign monarchy. Their actions were punished by invasion, leading to the interlopers’ downfall.

 

Royal War Crimes

The currents of rebellion against Alexander Jannaeus came to a head during the festival of Sukkot:

As for Alexander, his own people revolted against him – for the nation was aroused against him – at the celebration of the festival [Sukkot], and as he stood beside the altar and was about to sacrifice, they pelted him with citrons […]. And they added insult to injury by saying that he was descended from captives and was unfit to hold office and to sacrifice. (Josephus, Antiquities, book xiii, ch. 13:5 [LCL, book 365, p. 413])

According to Josephus, the king’s mercenaries promptly slaughtered six thousand of these upstarts. Although this assault granted Jannaeus a respite, it ultimately fanned the flames of rebellion. So when the monarch was wounded in Petra during a military campaign that subdued Moab and Gilead, the insurgents seized the moment: 

But when the nation attacked him upon this misfortune, he made war on it and within six years slew no fewer than fifty thousand Jews. And so when he urged them to make an end of their hostility towards him, they only hated him the more, on account of what had happened […]. (ibid., p. 415)

Josephus doesn’t reveal the outcome of this unrest. There seem to have been several battles over the course of six years, during which Seleucid king Demetrius III (ruler of Syria) happily meddled in Judean affairs by supporting the rebels. Alexander Jannaeus’ Hellenist mercenaries apparently crushed both his Jewish opponents and Demetrius’ troops who fought alongside them. The king’s vengeance was a heinous spectacle:

And after taking the city, and getting them back into his power, he brought them back to Jerusalem; and there he did a thing that was as cruel as could be: while he feasted with his concubines in a conspicuous place, he ordered some eight hundred of the Jews to be crucified, and slaughtered their children and wives before the eyes of the still living wretches. (ibid., ch. 14:2 [p. 417])

Evidence of this butchery was discovered in the autumn of 2018 during excavations in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound, near the city center. The remains of roughly 125 individuals were found in a Hasmonean cistern; twenty had been beheaded. The skeletons included not only women and children but fetuses, indicating that some female victims had been pregnant. 

Despite his viciousness, Jannaeus evidently compromised with the Pharisees to achieve lasting peace. Coins minted in the latter part of his reign bear Hebrew rather than Greek inscriptions, and the term basileus (king) – appearing on his earlier coinage – is omitted. Yet the resulting calm was only on the surface.

 

The Pharisees’ Revenge

Over a decade later, as her husband lay on his deathbed, Shlomzion reproached him:

“To whom are you thus leaving me and my children, who are in need of help from others, especially when you know how hostile the nation feels towards you?” (ibid., ch. 15:5 [p. 429])

Alexander Jannaeus advised his wife, soon to replace him as ruler, to smooth over his disputes with the Pharisees. She dutifully heaped honors and favor on the sages, and they warmed to her in turn, even if she was only continuing her late husband’s appeasement policy. 

As for the queen herself, she was loved by the masses because she was thought to disapprove of the crimes committed by her husband. (ibid., ch. 16:1 [p. 433])

While Shlomzion (also known as Alexandra) might have been capable of pulling her kingdom back together, as a woman she couldn’t inherit the high priesthood.  

Alexandra then appointed Hyrcanus as high priest because of his greater age but more because of his lack of energy; and she permitted the Pharisees to do as they liked in all matters, and also commanded the people to obey them. And whatever regulations, introduced by the Pharisees, in accordance with the tradition of their fathers, had been abolished by her father-in-law Hyrcanus [I], she again restored. And so, while she had the title of sovereign, the Pharisees had the power. For example, they recalled exiles, and freed prisoners, and, in a word, in no way differed from absolute rulers. (ibid., ch. 16:2 [p. 433])

The Pharisees swore vengeance on their enemies under Jannaeus and asked the queen to put their adversaries to death, even taking matters into their own hands with summary executions: 

Later they themselves cut down one of them, named Diogenes; and his death was followed by that of one after another. (ibid.)

The Pharisees’ witch hunt essentially targeted the Hasmonean dynasty’s home base. Shlomzion’s commanders and inner circle were directly in the opposition’s sights, and the queen’s second son, Aristobulus (who had his own distinguished military record), demanded that she stop the purge. He threatened mass desertion by his mother’s own troops unless she handed over the kingdom’s garrisoned fortresses. 

With little choice, the queen relinquished all but three: the desert palaces of Alexandreion (also known as Sartaba), Machaerus, and the fortified hilltop of Hyrcania, among which her greatest treasures were divided. In return, the generals under Aristobulus kept a low profile, until conditions ripened for a new confrontation with the Pharisees.