Antiquity
Parthian invasion and then siege by Herod and Sossius
40-37 av. J.-C.·Jérusalem
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
massacres in the streets and even in the Temple courts
The Parthians crossed the Euphrates and placed Antigone, last of the Hasmoneans, on the throne of Judea, against Hyrcan, whom they took captive after having his ears cut off — a mutilation that excluded him forever from the priesthood. Herod fled to Rome, where the Senate granted him the title of king of the Jews.
He returned with the legions of Sossius and laid siege to Jerusalem. The city was taken quarter by quarter; the Roman soldiers, exasperated by the length of the siege, killed in the streets and even in the courts of the sanctuary, without distinction of age or sex. Herod had to buy from the legionaries a halt to the pillaging so as not to reign over an empty city.
With the execution of Antigone at Antioch the Hasmonean dynasty was extinguished, and there began the reign of a king whom the population considered a foreigner.
- Period :
- Antiquity
- Type :
- Military repression
- Region :
- Land of Israel
- Country :
- Terre d'Israël
Flavius Josèphe, Guerre des Juifs et Antiquités judaïques ; Dion Cassius, Histoire romaine.