No one less than famous Pompey was coming east and Hyrcanus hastened to meet him that he might plead his cause in person.
Aristobulus no sooner heard of this than he too drove posthaste to the Roman camp to tell his side of the story and recommend himself as the most suitable(because the most obedient)candidate for whatever government the Romans intended to establish in his part of the world.
But ere Pompey fully realised what all these arguments meant,there was a blast of trumpets.
A third delegation had arrived.
The Pharisees had come to explain to Pompey that the Jewish people were as heartily tired of one prince as of the other and wished to return to the old form of a pure theocracy on a strictly Pharisaical basis.
Pompey,not caring what happened as long as caravans could safely pass from Damascus to Alexandria,listened boredly to all three,and then refused to commit himself.
He said that he would give a definite answer as soon as he returned from an expedition against certain Arab tribes who were beginning to make trouble in those districts which formerly had belonged to the Assyrian Empire.
Meanwhile,all three parties must keep the peace and wait.
Even then,the Jews did not fully understand the hopelessness of their position.For the moment Aristobulus was back in his capital,be behaved as if he were really the king of all Judah and could rule his domains as if there were not a single Roman soldier in all the world.
This lasted just as long as Pompey remained in the east.
But immediately after his victory over the Arabs,he returned westward and asked why his wishes had been disregarded in this flagrant manner.
Aristobulus,badly advised,then took another fatal step.
He tried to play the role of his great-great-grandfather.
He retired to the Temple,cut down the bridge which connected the fortress with the rest of the city and openly hoisted the flag of revolt.
It was a most unequal fight.Hyrcanus,the elder brother,went over to the enemy and the siege of the Temple began,according to the best and the most efficient methods of that day.
It lasted three months.
Inside the holy edifice,the starving garrison suffered great privations.
Their despair,however,gave them added courage.
Betrayed by Hyrcanus,they felt themselves to be the defenders of the holy cause of Jehovah and that of Jewish independence.
Deserters told Pompey of this outburst of religious fanaticism.
Remembering what the Syrians had done a few generations before,he ordered a general attack to be made on the Sabbath day.
It was the month of June of the year 63before the birth of Christ.
The Roman legions stormed the Jewish citadel and captured the Temple together with all its defenders.
According to tradition,more than twelve thousand soldiers were killed on that day.
The captive officers were decapitated,while Aristobulus and his wife and children were taken to Rome that they might march in the triumphal procession of the Roman general.
Afterwards,however,they were allowed to settle peacefully in one of the suburbs of Rome,where they laid the foundations for that Jewish colony which was to play such an important part in the imperial history of western Europe in the days of Paul and Peter.
Once the fighting was over,the Romans,with that wise moderation which characterised them until the end of their history,refrained from plundering the Temple and allowed its continued use as a place of worship.But Pompey got scant gratitude for this act of generosity.
Out of sheer curiosity and totally ignorant of the prejudices of his former enemies,Pompey and his staff in the course of a tour of inspection happened to wander into the Holy of Holies.
It proved to be a small stone room,entirely bare and empty.
As soon as the Romans had convinced themselves that this sacred chamber contained nothing of interest,they left it.
But to the Jews,this visit,however short,on the part of unclean foreigners,meant a sacrilege which must bring forth a terrible revenge on the part of Jehovah.
They never forgave Pompey.
Whatever he tried to do for his newly acquired subjects was as naught compared to this one unconscious insult to their religious pride.
Pompey,of course,never knew what he had done.
From his point of view,he had been most unusually lenient.
