and at the riches of the Temple, again restored, not in
the glory of Solomon, but in a magnifience of which few temples could
boast,--the pride once more of the now prosperous Jews, who had by
their persistent bravery earned their independence. In the year 143
B.C., the Jews began a new epoch in their history, after twenty-three
years of almost incessant warfare.

Yet Simon was destined, like his brothers, to end his days by violence.
He also, together with two of his sons, was treacherously murdered by
his son-in-law Ptolemy, who aspired to the exalted office of
high-priest, leaving his son John Hyrcanus to reign in his stead, in the
year 136 B.C. The rule of the Maccabees,--the five sons of
Mattathias,--lasted thirty years. They were the founders of the Asmonean
princes, who ruled both as kings and high-priests.

With the death of Simon, the last remaining son of Mattathias, this
lecture properly should end; yet a rapid glance at the Jewish nation,
under the rule of the Asmonean princes and the Idumaean Herod, may not
be uninteresting.

John Hyrcanus, the first of the Asmonean kings, was an able sovereign,
and reigned twenty-nine years. He threw off the Syrian yoke, and the
Jewish kingdom maintained its independence until it fell under the Roman
sway. His most memorable feat was the destruction of the Samaritan
Temple on Mount Gerizim, which had been an eye-sore to the people of
Jerusalem for two hundred years. He then subdued Idumaea, and compelled
the people of that country to adopt the Jewish religion. He maintained a
strict alliance with the Romans, and became master of Samaria and of
Galilee, which were incorporated with his kingdom, so that the ancient
limits of the kingdom of David were nearly restored. He built the castle
of Baris on a rock within the fortifications that surrounded the hill of
the Temple, which afterward was known as the tower of Antonia.

On his death, 105 B.C., Hyrcanus was succeeded by his son
Aristobulus,--a weak and wicked prince, who assassinated his brother,
and starved to death his mother in a dungeon. The next king of the
Asmonean line, Alexander Jannaeus, was brave, but unsuccessful, and died
after an unquiet and turbulent reign of twenty-seven years, 77 B.C. His
widow, Alexandra, ruled as regent with great tact and energy for nine
years, and was succeeded by her son Hyrcanus II. This feeble and
unfortunate prince had to contend with the intrigues and violence of his
more able bu