several factions. For the people that crowded about the temple, being the
weaker party, became fanatical and raved wildly over the situation. But
some of the bolder men gathered together in companies, and began robbing
in many different ways and especially plundering the provisions that were
about the city, so that no food was left over for the horses or the men.
After a siege of five months some of Herod's chosen men ventured upon the
wall and fell into the city. They first captured the environs of the
temple, and as the army poured in there was a slaughter of vast multitudes
everywhere, on account of the rage in which the Romans were because of the
length of the siege, and because the Jews who were about Herod were eager
that none of their opponents should remain. Thereupon Herod made those who
were on his side still more his friends by the honors he conferred upon
them; but those of Antigonus's party he slew.

I. The Fruitless Struggle against Rome. The first quarter century of
Roman rule was in many ways the most complex in Israel's intricate
history. There were three chief actors in the drama: (1) Rome, represented
first by the leaders of the Republic and later by Pompey, Caesar, and
their successors; (2) the popular Jewish party led by Aristobulus and his
son Alexander, and Antigonus; and (3) Antipater, supported by his able
sons Phasaelus and Herod. Rome's general policy was to allow the Jews as
much freedom as possible, but above all to hold Palestine under firm
control, for it lay on the eastern border and faced Parthia, the one foe
that had successfully defied the powerful mistress of the Mediterranean.
The popular Jewish party bitterly resented Rome's interference. True, the
Pharisees welcomed the relief from civil war, but they could not hold the
majority of the people in leash. The inoffensive Hyrcanus was left in
possession of the high-priesthood and from time to time was elevated to
positions of nominal civil authority, but he was little more than the
plaything of circumstance and party intrigue. The ambitions of Aristobulus