Aristobulus (son of Herod)

Aristobulus (* around 35 BC; † 7 BC in Sebaste ) was a son of the Jewish king Herod and his second wife, the Hasmonean princess Mariamne (I). His older brother Alexander (* around 36 BC) also came from this marriage. Both sons were considered heir apparent for a long time, but became 7 BC. Executed at the instigation of her father for alleged plans to overthrow.

origin

Mariamne (I), the mother of Aristobulus and Alexander, was a daughter of the Hasmonean Alexandra and her cousin Alexandros . Her great-grandmother was the Jewish Queen Salome Alexandra . From the marriage of Mariamne to Herod, apart from Alexander and Aristobulus, their sisters Salampsio and Kypros emerged as well as another (not known by name) brother who died early.

A traumatic experience for Aristobulus and Alexander that would shape (and ultimately destroy) their entire lives was the execution of their mother Mariamne by their father Herod in 29 BC. Because of alleged infidelity. Aristobulus was about six years old at the time of this tragedy.

Training in Rome

Together with his brother Alexander, Aristobulus was born around 22 BC. Sent to Rome and educated there first in the house of the private citizen Pollio. Later the brothers received apartments directly in the palace of the emperor Augustus . They stayed in Rome for a total of about five years.

In the role of the heir to the throne

When she returned to Judea in 17 BC 18-year-old Aristobulus and his 19-year-old brother Alexander were greeted with joy by the Jewish population. Both brothers were very popular with all nationally-minded Jews because of their beauty and stately stature as well as their descent from the earlier Hasmonean royal house.

The self-confident announcements by the two brothers that they would one day avenge the death of their mother Mariamne aroused the greatest concern for their own safety among all those at the royal court who had contributed to the conviction and execution of Mariamne (I). Among them were Salome , Herod's sister, and Pheroras , his brother.

Aristobulus was conquered by his father, King Herod, who endeavored to combine the Hasmonean branch of the family with the Idumaean, after his return in 17 BC. Chr. With Berenice , daughter of Salome and Costobarus married. The marriage resulted in the following children:

• Herod , later King of Chalcis,
• Herod Agrippa I , later King of Judea (37-44 AD),
• Aristobulus , later married to Jotape, daughter of King Sampsigeramos II of Emesa (Homs),
• Herodias , later married to 1. Herodes Boethos and 2. the tetrarch Herodes Antipas ,
• Mariamne, later wife of the ethnarch Herod Archelaos .

Because of the ambiguous and clumsy behavior of Aristobulus and Alexander, who openly displayed their pride in their Hasmonean origins and the family members who came from Idumea showed their disdain, but also as a result of intrigues spun against them, she subsequently cooled down Relationship with her father Herod.

Herod responded to this development by recalling his eldest son Antipater from his first marriage to Doris to the royal court, where he now (13 BC) also treated him as a possible heir to the throne in the expectation that Aristobulus and Alexander would now reflect and would behave a little more modestly. The opposite happened, however: Aristobulus and Alexander reacted with indignation and became even more estranged from their father. Antipater, for his part, used the situation to stir up suspicions of the Hasmonean descendants wherever he could, with Pheroras, Herod's brother and uncle of Aristobulus, and Salome, Herod's sister and aunt of Aristobulus, supporting him. Salome was also informed by her daughter Berenike, the wife of Aristobulus, who also suffered from the Hasmonean aristocratic pride of her husband, of all the humiliations she had to experience on his part.

11 v. Both brothers were accused by their father Herod in Aquileia before Emperor Augustus, who, however, achieved a reconciliation of the family through his mediation.

Three years later, however, Aristobulus was again confronted with his brother on charges of conspiracy against the king. This time, however, King Archelaus of Cappadocia , Alexander's father-in-law, intervened and achieved a reconciliation.

Execution by King Herod

A third charge against the two brothers, triggered by the scheming actions of the Lacedaemonian adventurer Eurykles , ultimately turned out to be fatal for Aristobulus and his brother Alexander. With the permission of Emperor Augustus, the two princes were brought before a court in Beirut , at whose deliberations they were neither allowed to be present nor to defend themselves. Shortly after their conviction, they were found in Sebaste 7 BC. Chr. Strangled. They were buried in the crypt of the Alexandreion royal castle .

See also

• Herodians

literature

• Edward Elder: 4. Aristobulus . In: William Smith (Ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . tape 1 : Abaeus – Dysponteus . Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1870, p. 301 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Ulrich Wilcken : Aristobulus 8 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 909 f.
• Richard Gottheil , HG Enelow:  Aristobulus. In: Isidore Singer (Ed.): Jewish Encyclopedia . Funk and Wagnalls, New York 1901-1906.
• Linda-Marie Günther : Herod the Great. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-15420-7 .
• Gerhard Prause: Herod the Great. The correction of a legend. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-421-06558-6 .
• Peter Richardson: Herod. King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans. T&T Clark Publisher, Edinburgh 1999, ISBN 0-8006-3164-1 .
• Julia Wilker: For Rome and Jerusalem. The Herodian dynasty in the 1st century AD. Verlag Antike, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-938032-12-1 , pp. 24, 27, 54 fua (see register).

Remarks

1. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus: Antiquitates iudaicae , 15, 10, 1.
2. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus: Antiquitates iudaicae. 16, 1-4, 8, 10, 11; De Bello Judaico. 1, 23-27;
   Strabo, Earth Description, Book 16, p. 765.