ey came to Damascus, and marched over
Celesyria; at which time there came ambassadors to him from all Syria,
and Egypt, and out of Judea also, for Aristobulus had sent him a great
present, which was a golden vine [3] of the value of five hundred
talents. Now Strabo of Cappadocia mentions this present in these words:
"There came also an embassage out of Egypt, and a crown of the value
of four thousand pieces of gold; and out of Judea there came another,
whether you call it a vine or a garden; they call the thing Terpole, the
Delight. However, we ourselves saw that present reposited at Rome, in
the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, with this inscription, 'The gift of
Alexander, the king of the Jews.' It was valued at five hundred talents;
and the report is, that Aristobulus, the governor of the Jews, sent it."

2. In a little time afterward came ambassadors again to him, Antipater
from Hyrcanus, and Nicodemus from Aristobulus; which last also accused
such as had taken bribes; first Gabinius, and then Scaurus,--the one
three hundred talents, and the other four hundred; by which procedure he
made these two his enemies, besides those he had before. And when Pompey
had ordered those that had controversies one with another to come to him
in the beginning of the spring, he brought his army out of their winter
quarters, and marched into the country of Damascus; and as he went along
he demolished the citadel that was at Apamia, which Antiochus Cyzicenus
had built, and took cognizance of the country of Ptolemy Menneus, a
wicked man, and not less so than Dionysius of Tripoli, who had been
beheaded, who was also his relation by marriage; yet did he buy off the
punishment of his crimes for a thousand talents, with which money
Pompey paid the soldiers their wages. He also conquered the place called
Lysias, of which Silas a Jew was tyrant. And when he had passed over the
cities of Heliopolis and Chalcis, and got over the mountain which is on
the limit of Colesyria, he came from Pella to Damascus; and there it was
that he heard the causes of the Jews, and of their governors Hyrcanus
and Aristobulus, who were at difference one with another, as also of
the nation against them both, which did not desire to be under kingly'
government, because the form of government they received from their
forefathers was that of subjection to the priests of that God whom
they worshipped; and [they complained], that though these two were the
posterity of pries