ving reigned a year. He was called
a lover of the Grecians; and had conferred many benefits on his own
country, and made war against Iturea, and added a great part of it to
Judea, and compelled the inhabitants, if they would continue in that
country, to be circumcised, and to live according to the Jewish laws.
He was naturally a man of candor, and of great modesty, as Strabo bears
witness, in the name of Timagenes; who says thus: "This man was a person
of candor, and very serviceable to the Jews; for he added a country to
them, and obtained a part of the nation of the Itureans for them, and
bound them to them by the bond of the circumcision of their genitals."

CHAPTER 12. How Alexander When He Had Taken The Government Made An
Expedition Against Ptolemais, And Then Raised The Siege Out Of Fear Of
Ptolemy Lathyrus; And How Ptolemy Made War Against Him, Because He Had
Sent To Cleopatra To Persuade Her To Make War Against Ptolemy, And Yet
Pretended To Be In Friendship With Him, When He Beat The Jews In The
Battle.

1. When Aristobulus was dead, his wife Salome, who, by the Greeks, was
called Alexandra, let his brethren out of prison, [for Aristobulus had
kept them in bonds, as we have said already,] and made Alexander Janneus
king, who was the superior in age and in moderation. This child happened
to be hated by his father as soon as he was born, and could never
be permitted to come into his father's sight till he died. [32] The
occasion of which hatred is thus reported: when Hyrcanus chiefly loved
the two eldest of his sons, Antigonus and Aristobutus, God appeared to
him in his sleep, of whom he inquired which of his sons should be his
successor. Upon God's representing to him the countenance of Alexander,
he was grieved that he was to be the heir of all his goods, and suffered
him to be brought up in Galilee However, God did not deceive Hyrcanus;
for after the death of Aristobulus, he certainly took the kingdom; and
one of his brethren, who affected the kingdom, he slew; and the other,
who chose to live a private and quiet life, he had in esteem.

2. When Alexander Janneus had settled the government in the manner that
he judged best, he made an expedition against Ptolemais; and having
overcome the men in battle, he shut them up in the city, and sat round
about it, and besieged it; for of the maritime cities there remained
only Ptolemais and Gaza to be conquered, besides Strato's Tower
and Dora, which were held