Josippon

Succeeding him was his son Aristobulus, the one called Great King, for he greatly expanded the border of Israel. He fought against Tyre and Sidon, killing men without number; he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins and subdued them under the rule of Judaea until the arrival of the Roman general Pompey. This was Aristobulus who defiled the priesthood and downgraded it by placing the great crown of kingship on his head.

While sitting on the throne of his kingdom, he was incited to cruelty; he bound his mother and brother in chains, for he was jealous of his mother and his brother regarding the kingship. He loved his younger brother Antigonus and clothed him in purple and bestowed many royal honors on him; he sent him to war with his entire army of warriors to fight against any nation that rebelled against King Aristobulus. Antigonus went and fought the king's wars wherever his brother, the king, sent him. Antigonus defeated all the rebels who had raised their hand against the king, killing many men and slaying great multitudes; then he returned and entered Jerusalem in triumph.

King Aristobulus fell ill with a sickness, and his illness was very severe. Antigonus heard on the way that his brother, the king, was sick; so when the lad arrived in the city, he did not go to the palace but went to the Temple to pray for the deliverance of his brother, for he could no longer stand his brother's suffering.

That day happened to be the festival of Sukkoth, in which it is a law unto the Jews to receive in honor and to praise God with four kinds of trees. A great crowd of men of Israel was there, and Antigonus passed through with his troops into the Temple court in the midst of the crowd; he was girt with battle gear and dressed in silver armor embroidered with gold; the lad was very handsome in appearance and good looking, and all the people were amazed at his beauty and looks.

A man named Yehudah was there, one of the most important Hasidim. He raised his eyes and saw that Antigonus was passing in the court of the Temple. Yehudah said to his disciples: "I would rather die today than see the death of this lad Antigonus; would that I shall die and not witness his death, for I foresee that Antigonus will die this day in a place called Straton's Tower." His disciples said to him: "Rabbenu, you have spoken falsehood, for the Straton's Tower you mention is some six hundred stadia distant from Jerusalem, and it is midday already. How could what you said come to be?" He replied, saying to them: "My sons, I wish I were wrong about this matter!" With this statement, he fell to the ground and was silent and, behold, slept like a man exhausted and wearied from the great anxiety that was in his heart.

After this, wicked men went and told the king as follows: "Behold, Antigonus, your brother is coming to kill you; he is standing in the Temple court in battle gear, dressed for war, arrayed with his troops to attack you suddenly and seize you and all your entire household." The king became very alarmed and set guards at the gates and in the streets and at all the pathways to the king's house. He ordered the guards, saying: "Anyone who dares come to me girt with weapons of war, neither ask him nor answer him but draw your swords and kill him instantly. As for the rest of the people who do not have weapons, do not kill them, only prevent them from coming to me, for I am sick, excepting only Antigonus, my brother: he alone may come to me, and I shall question him and examine him concerning the rumor that I heard, whether it be true or false." Thus, the king commanded the guards at that time. All the guards were warriors well trained in war. Following this, the king sent greetings to his brother Antigonus, saying: "Throw off your breastplate and take off the weapons of war from your loins; hasten to me and don't tarry!" But the queen, Aristobulus's wife, and her counselors of wickedness changed the king's message to cruelty; she called the king's emissary and said to him: "When you go to Antigonus, speak thus to him—'Your brother heard that you have donned the trappings of war and girded weapons of battle, and the king is eager to see the trappings of war that are upon you, and he has commanded that you come to him girt with weapons of battle and dressed in the trappings of war.'" The emissary went and told Antigonus all that the queen, Aristobulus's wife, had commanded him. The lad believed him and went confidently, for he trusted the love of his brother, the king. As he was going through the pathways to the palace, hurrying to his brother, the king, dressed in the trappings of war and girded with the weapons of battle, behold, along the path was a tower called Straton after the name of the city six hundred stadia distant from Jerusalem; this tower in Jerusalem was also called Straton's Tower, and it is adjacent to the king's palace. Antigonus passed this place confidently when the king's guards leaped upon him with their drawn swords and struck him, spilling the innocent blood of the lad who had neither sinned nor rebelled. They killed the innocent and righteous one on that spot just as the sage Yehudah, one of the most important Hasidim, had said.

Later on, when Aristobulus was told that his brother was killed, his compassion for his brother was stirred, and he wept and cried in an exceedingly great and bitter outpouring. He beat his breast with both his fists and, flinging himself to the ground, ruptured a lung in his bosom; the streams of blood in his chest opened, and the king began to vomit blood from his mouth. Vomiting blood day after day into a gold basin, he gave the basin to a boy, who was to carry it to the king's physicians. The boy carried the vessel, and, passing the spot where Antigonus, the king's brother, was killed, behold, the dead man's spilled blood still stained the marble pavement; all the stones of the floor were colored with the blood of Antigonus. The boy's feet slipped, and he slid, overturning the basin and spilling the king's blood over the blood of his murdered brother; and the blood of the king mixed with the blood of Antigonus, his brother. The king's troops shouted and scolded the boy, saying: "Wicked one, what have you done, spilling the king's blood over the blood of his slain brother?" The boy answered, saying: "I did not do this intentionally, for I slipped on the marble; that is why the basin in my hand overturned and the blood was spilled, as you see."

When Aristobulus heard the sound of the crowd's shouting, he asked: "What is this noise these troops make, and what is the sound of this rebuking and quarrelling that I hear?" But his troops and the eunuchs serving him were silent and did not answer him at all. Because they were silent, the king became more distressed over the matter. The king asked again more persistently, as kings do: "Tell me what the crowd is shouting about, and if you do not tell, you shall surely die!" They answered and told the king what had happened, namely, that the blood was spilled over the blood of his brother.

The king sighed and cried out, saying: "Blessed be the righteous judge, the true judge, and blessed be the Avenger of innocent blood in that the blood of the wicked was spilled over the blood of the righteous who was killed." The king said to his body: "How long, wicked body, will you imprison the soul and not let it take leave to join the souls of my people? Rather, you cast my blood and spilled it out, sacrificing it, giving it to lap up to the devils who are with Satan, for they have incited and driven me in this affair to do such things and to kill my brother." As he was speaking these words, he ended his life, died, and was gathered to his people. The days that he reigned were one full year. All Judah wept for him exceedingly, for the Jews loved him because he was beneficent and victorious, for he vanquished a great nation called the Ituraei and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin, subduing them under the yoke of Judah. The Greeks called him Aristobulus Philelleni, that is, beloved of Greeks. And the rest of his words and mighty deeds are written in the book of Joseph ben Gurion and in the book of the kings of Roma and in the book of Strabon of Caphtor and in the book of Timagenes the Jerusalemite.