aking away that authority from it, and that in no long
time afterward, which she had obtained by a vast number of hazards
and misfortunes, and this out of a desire of what does not belong to a
woman, and all by a compliance in her sentiments with those that bare
ill-will to their family, and by leaving the administration destitute
of a proper support of great men; and, indeed, her management during her
administration while she was alive, was such as filled the palace after
her death with calamities and disturbance. However, although this had
been her way of governing, she preserved the nation in peace. And this
is the conclusion of the affairs of, Alexandra.

BOOK XIV. Containing The Interval Of Thirty-Two Years.

From The Death Of Queen Alexandra To The Death Of Antigonus.

CHAPTER 1. The War Between Aristobulus And Hyrcanus About The Kingdom;
And How They Made Anagreement That Aristobulus Should Be King, And
Hyrcanus Live A Private Life; As Also How Hyrcanus A Little Afterward
Was Persuaded By Antipater To Fly To Aretas.

1. We have related the affairs of queen Alexandra, and her death, in the
foregoing book and will now speak of what followed, and was connected
with those histories; declaring, before we proceed, that we have nothing
so much at heart as this, that we may omit no facts, either through
ignorance or laziness; [1] for we are upon the history and explication
of such things as the greatest part are unacquainted withal, because of
their distance from our times; and we aim to do it with a proper beauty
of style, so far as that is derived from proper words harmonically
disposed, and from such ornaments of speech also as may contribute to
the pleasure of our readers, that they may entertain the knowledge of
what we write with some agreeable satisfaction and pleasure. But the
principal scope that authors ought to aim at above all the rest, is to
speak accurately, and to speak truly, for the satisfaction of those
that are otherwise unacquainted with such transactions, and obliged to
believe what these writers inform them of.

2. Hyrcanus then began his high priesthood on the third year of the
hundred and seventy-seventh olympiad, when Quintus Hortensius and
Quintus Metellus, who was called Metellus of Crete, were consuls at
Rome; when presently Aristobulus began to make war against him; and
as it came to a battle with Hyrcanus at Jericho, many of his soldiers
deserted him, and went over to his brother