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Salome Alexandra (139-67) ruled as Queen over Judea from 76 to her death in 67 BCE.

Biography

Salome Alexandra became Judea’s political ruler in 76 B.C.E. upon the death of her husband, Alexander Jannaeus, during the battle of Ragaba. Josephus hints that she actually held some political power during her husband’s twenty-seven year reign. He suggests this when he states that Antipas, the grandfather of Herod the Great, came to political power when “king Alexander and his wife made him general of all Idumea.” Salome Alexandra appointed her eldest son, John Hyrcanus II, as high priest. Her younger son, Aristobulus II, commanded her army.

Salome Alexandra’s reign is regarded as the pinnacle of Pharisaic power. Josephus reports that she restored the Pharisaic regulations that her father-in-law, John Hyrcanus, had abolished. She was highly regarded for her piety. Her son, Aristobulus II, opposed her support of the Pharisees, and tried to remove her from power just before her death. Although Josephus claims that she was largely a pawn of the Pharisees, the prosperity of her reign, her military expansion, and her ability to bring peace between opposing religious factions, suggests that she was a strong and competent ruler. Josephus even acknowledges that Salome Alexandra was a wonderful administrator and that her reign was largely peaceful and prosperous. Salome Alexandra ruled during the disintegration of the Seleucid kingdom. Josephus suggests that she spent considerable money doubling the size of Judea’s army, and hired a core of mercenaries.

Salome Alexandra conducted two major military campaigns. Both occurred as a result incursions into the region by Tigranes the Great. The first was an expedition against the Iturean Ptolemy, the son of Mennaeus, to prevent him from taking Damascus. Her son Aristobulus II commanded the Judean army. Josephus states that he returned home having accomplished nothing noteworthy. The extant historical sources and numismatic evidence suggest that we do not have a complete understanding of what occurred during this expedition. Tigranes minted coins in Damascus from 72/1 B.C.E. to 70/69 B.C.E. A coin of Cleopatra Selene and her son Antiochus XIII Asiaticus suggest that she held Damascus until 72/1 B.C.E. Prior to this time, the Nabatean king Aretas III occupied the city from 84/3 B.C.E. until 72 B. It is uncertain whether Aretas III or Cleopatra Selene was in possession of Damascus when Aristoublus II arrived. The Qumran text 4QHistorical Text D (4Q332) may contain an allusion to this time. Fragment two of this poorly preserved document contains an enigmatic passage that reads “[to] give him honor among the Arab[s .” This may refer to the campaign of Aristobulus II to Damascus, or perhaps to some unknown treaty Salome Alexandra made with Ptolemy or Aretas III. Line four of this text may refer to negotiations between one or more of these rulers and Salome Alexandra and reads: “with secret counsel Shelamzion came.”

Salome Alexandra’s second campaign was in reaction to Tigranes’s invasion of Syria and Judea. He had apparently taken some Jews captive before besieging Cleopatra Selene in Ptolemais. The historical sources report that Salome Alexandra won over Tigranes by treaties and presents while he was attacking the city. Tigranes left the region shortly after capturing Ptolemais. He took Cleopatra Selene prisoner. Although Salome Alexandra may have convinced Tigranes to leave Syria, the sources suggest that an invasion of Armenia by the Roman general Lucullus gave him no option but to curtail his Syrian campaign and not attack Judea.

Salome Alexandra’s reign appears to have been peaceful following Tigranes’s departure. She became ill during her final days and tried to ward off a coup by her youngest son. Sometime before her death she appointed Hyrcanus II her successor. She died in 67 BCE, at the age of seventy-three. She ruled Judea for nine years. The Talmud and other Jewish writings contain favorable references to her reign, and consider it a golden age.

Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Salome Alexandra’s exact name was the subject of a scholarly debate. In Jewish literature she is referred to as Shel-Zion, Shalmonin, Shalmza, Shlamto, and similar names. This confusion led Jacob Neusner to comment that Salome Alexandra is “…a queen whose name no one can get straight.” In 1899 the French scholar Charles Clermont-Ganneau, proposed that Shelamzion is her Semitic name. The Dead Sea Scrolls now confirm his proposal and mention her twice by this name.

Salina or Salome Alexandra?

According to Josephus, Salome Alexandra’s husband, Alexander Jananeus, came to the throne under unusual circumstances. He writes of this transition:

Salina, called Alexandra by the Greeks, released Judah Aristobulus’s brothers—for Aristobulus had imprisoned them, as we have said before—and appointed as king Jannaeus, also known as Alexander, who was best fitted for this office by reason of his age and because he knew his place. (Ant. 13.320-1; cf. War 1.85)

Most scholarship on this period accepts the thesis that Salina Alexandra is Salome Alexandra. According to this interpretation she appointed her brother-in-law, Alexander Jannaeus, as king and high priest. She then married him in accordance with the rules of levirate marriage found in Deuteronomy 25.

Kenneth Atkinson and Tal Ilan have recently argued that Salina Alexandra is the wife of Salome Alexandra’s brother-in-law, Judah Aristobulus. According to this theory, Salome Alexandra never contracted a levirate marriage with Alexander Jannaeus. The two propose three basic arguments to support this thesis. First, no ancient writer mentions such a union. Second, marriage to a widow, a divorced woman, or a prostitute disqualified a man from serving as high priest. Yet, Salome Alexandra’s husband Alexander and her sons Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II were both high priests and kings. Third, Hyrcanus II, her eldest son, is always called the son of Salome Alexandra and Alexander Jannaeus. If Salome Alexandra had entered into a levirate marriage, he would have been referred to as the son of Judah Aristobulus and Salome Alexandra.

Salome Alexandra in ancient sources

Josephus, Jewish War

War 1.107 (1.5.1-4) Now Alexander [Jannaeus] left the kingdom to Alexandra his wife, and depended upon it that the Jews would now very readily submit to her, because she had been very averse to such cruelty as he had treated them with, and had opposed his violation of their laws, and had thereby got the good-will of the people. Nor was he mistaken as to his expectations; for this woman kept the dominion, by the opinion that the people had of her piety; for she chiefly studied the ancient customs of her country, and cast those men out of the government that offended against their holy laws. And as she had two sons by Alexander, she made Hyrcanus the elder high priest, on account of his age, as also, besides that, on account of his inactive temper, no way disposing him to disturb the public. But she retained the younger, Aristobulus, with her as a private person, by reason of the warmth of his temper.

And now the Pharisees joined themselves to her, to assist her in the government. These are a certain sect of the Jews that appear more religious than others, and seem to interpret the laws more accurately. low Alexandra hearkened to them to an extraordinary degree, as being herself a woman of great piety towards God. But these Pharisees artfully insinuated themselves into her favor by little and little, and became themselves the real administrators of the public affairs: they banished and reduced whom they pleased; they bound and loosed [men] at their pleasure; and, to say all at once, they had the enjoyment of the royal authority, whilst the expenses and the difficulties of it belonged to Alexandra. She was a sagacious woman in the management of great affairs, and intent always upon gathering soldiers together; so that she increased the army the one half, and procured a great body of foreign troops, till her own nation became not only very powerful at home, but terrible also to foreign potentates, while she governed other people, and the Pharisees governed her.

Accordingly, they themselves slew Diogenes, a person of figure, and one that had been a friend to Alexander; and accused him as having assisted the king with his advice, for crucifying the eight hundred men [before mentioned.] They also prevailed with Alexandra to put to death the rest of those who had irritated him against them. Now she was so superstitious as to comply with their desires, and accordingly they slew whom they pleased themselves. But the principal of those that were in danger fled to Aristobulus, who persuaded his mother to spare the men on account of their dignity, but to expel them out of the city, unless she took them to be innocent; so they were suffered to go unpunished, and were dispersed all over the country. But when Alexandra sent out her army to Damascus, under pretense that Ptolemy was always oppressing that city, she got possession of it; nor did it make any considerable resistance. She also prevailed with Tigranes, king of Armenia, who lay with his troops about Ptolemais, and besieged Cleopatra, by agreements and presents, to go away. Accordingly, Tigranes soon arose from the siege, by reason of those domestic tumults which happened upon Lucullus's expedition into Armenia.

In the mean time, Alexandra fell sick, and Aristobulus, her younger son, took hold of this opportunity, with his domestics, of which he had a great many, who were all of them his friends, on account of the warmth of their youth, and got possession of all the fortresses. He also used the sums of money he found in them to get together a number of mercenary soldiers, and made himself king; and besides this, upon Hyrcanus's complaint to his mother, she compassionated his case, and put Aristobulus's wife and sons under restraint in Antonia, which was a fortress that joined to the north part of the temple. It was, as I have already said, of old called the Citadel; but afterwards got the name of Antonia, when Antony was [lord of the East], just as the other cities, Sebaste and Agrippias, had their names changed, and these given them from Sebastus and Agrippa. But Alexandra died before she could punish Aristobulus for his disinheriting his brother, after she had reigned nine years.

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities

Ant 13.320 (13.12.1) When Aristobulus was dead, his wife Salome, who, by the Greeks, was called Alexandra, let his brethren out of prison... and made Alexander Janneus king...

Ant13.399-432 (13.15.5-16.6) When his queen [=Salome Alexandra] saw that he [=Alexander Jannaeus] was ready to die, and had no longer any hopes of surviving, she came to him weeping and lamenting, and bewailed herself and her sons on the desolate condition they should be left in; and said to him, "To whom dost thou thus leave me and my children, who are destitute of all other supports, and this when thou knowest how much ill-will thy nation bears thee?" But he gave her the following advice: That she need but follow what he would suggest to her, in order to retain the kingdom securely, with her children: that she should conceal his death from the soldiers till she should have taken that place; after this she should go in triumph, as upon a victory, to Jerusalem, and put some of her authority into the hands of the Pharisees; for that they would commend her for the honor she had done them, and would reconcile the nation to her for he told her they had great authority among the Jews, both to do hurt to such as they hated, and to bring advantages to those to whom they were friendly disposed; for that they are then believed best of all by the multitude when they speak any severe thing against others, though it be only out of envy at them. And he said that it was by their means that he had incurred the displeasure of the nation, whom indeed he had injured. "Do thou, therefore," said he, "when thou art come to Jerusalem, send for the leading men among them, and show them my body, and with great appearance of sincerity, give them leave to use it as they themselves please, whether they will dishonor the dead body by refusing it burial, as having severely suffered by my means, or whether in their anger they will offer any other injury to that body. Promise them also that thou wilt do nothing without them in the affairs of the kingdom. If thou dost but say this to them, I shall have the honor of a more glorious Funeral from them than thou couldst have made for me; and when it is in their power to abuse my dead body, they will do it no injury at all, and thou wilt rule in safety." (44) So when he had given his wife this advice, he died, after he had reigned twenty-seven years, and lived fifty years within one.

So Alexandra, when she had taken the fortress, acted as her husband had suggested to her, and spake to the Pharisees, and put all things into their power, both as to the dead body, and as to the affairs of the kingdom, and thereby pacified their anger against Alexander, and made them bear goodwill and friendship to him; who then came among the multitude, and made speeches to them, and laid before them the actions of Alexander, and told them that they had lost a righteous king; and by the commendation they gave him, they brought them to grieve, and to be in heaviness for him, so that he had a funeral more splendid than had any of the kings before him. Alexander left behind him two sons, [John] Hyrcanus [II] and [[Aristobulus II|Aristobulus II], but committed the kingdom to Alexandra. Now, as to these two sons, [John] Hyrcanus [II] was indeed unable to manage public affairs, and delighted rather in a quiet life; but the younger, Aristobulus, was an active and a bold man; and for this woman herself, Alexandra, she was loved by the multitude, because she seemed displeased at the offenses her husband had been guilty of.

So she made [John] Hyrcanus [II] high priest, because he was the elder, but much more because he cared not to meddle with politics, and permitted the Pharisees to do every thing; to whom also she ordered the multitude to be obedient. She also restored again those practices which the Pharisees had introduced, according to the traditions of their forefathers, and which her father-in-law, [John] Hyrcanus, had abrogated. So she had indeed the name of the regent, but the Pharisees had the authority; for it was they who restored such as had been banished, and set such as were prisoners at liberty, and, to say all at once, they differed in nothing from lords. However, the queen also took care of the affairs of the kingdom, and got together a great body of mercenary soldiers, and increased her own army to such a degree, that she became terrible to the neighboring tyrants, and took hostages of them: and the country was entirely at peace, excepting the Pharisees; for they disturbed the queen, and desired that she would kill those who persuaded Alexander to slay the eight hundred men; after which they cut the throat of one of them, Diogenes; and after him they did the same to several, one after another, till the men that were the most potent came into the palace, and Aristobulus with them, for he seemed to be displeased at what was done; and it appeared openly, that if he had an opportunity, he would not permit his mother to go on so. These put the queen in mind what great dangers they had gone through, and great things they had done, whereby they had demonstrated the firmness of their fidelity to their master, insomuch that they had recieved the greatest marks of favor from him; and they begged of her, that she would not utterly blast their hopes, as it now happened, that when they had escaped the hazards that arose from their [open] enemies, they were to be cut off at home by their [private] enemies, like brute beasts, without any help whatsoever. They said also, that if their adversaries would be satisfied with those that had been slain already, they would take what had been done patiently, on account of their natural love to their governors; but if they must expect the same for the future also, they implored of her a dismission from her service; for they could not bear to think of attempting any method for their deliverance without her, but would rather die willingly before the palace gate, in case she would not forgive them. And that it was a great shame, both for themselves and for the queen, that when they were neglected by her, they should come under the lash of her husband's enemies; for that Aretas, the Arabian king, and the monarchs, would give any reward, if they could get such men as foreign auxiliaries, to whom their very names, before their voices be heard, may perhaps be terrible; but if they could not obtain this their second request, and if she had determined to prefer the Pharisees before them, they still insisted that she would place them every one in her fortresses; for if some fatal demon hath a constant spite against Alexander's house, they would be willing to bear their part, and to live in a private station there.

As these men said thus, and called upon Alexander's ghost for commiseration of those already slain, and those in danger of it, all the bystanders brake out into tears. But Aristobulus chiefly made manifest what were his sentiments, and used many reproachful expressions to his mother, [saying,] "Nay, indeed, the case is this, that they have been themselves the authors of their own calamities, who have permitted a woman who, against reason, was mad with ambition, to reign over them, when there were sons in the flower of their age fitter for it." So Alexandra, not knowing what to do with any decency, committed the fortresses to them, all but Hyrcania, and Alexandrium, and Macherus, where her principal treasures were. After a little while also, she sent her son Aristobulus with an army to Damascus against Ptolemy, who was called Menneus, who was such a bad neighbor to the city; but he did nothing considerable there, and so returned home.

About this time news was brought that Tigranes, the king of Armenia, had made an irruption into Syria with five hundred thousand soldiers, (45) and was coming against Judea. This news, as may well be supposed, terrified the queen and the nation. Accordingly, they sent him many and very valuable presents, as also ambassadors, and that as he was besieging Ptolemais; for Selene the queen, the same that was also called Cleopatra, ruled then over Syria, who had persuaded the inhabitants to exclude Tigranes. So the Jewish ambassadors interceded with him, and entreated him that he would determine nothing that was severe about their queen or nation. He commended them for the respects they paid him at so great a distance, and gave them good hopes of his favor. But as soon as Ptolemais was taken, news came to Tigranes, that Lucullus, in his pursuit of Mithridates, could not light upon him, who was fled into Iberia, but was laying waste Armenia, and besieging its cities. Now when Tigranes knew this, he returned home.

After this, when the queen was fallen into a dangerous distemper, Aristobulus resolved to attempt the seizing of the government; so he stole away secretly by night, with only one of his servants, and went to the fortresses, wherein his friends, that were such from the days of his father, were settled; for as he had been a great while displeased at his mother's conduct, so he was now much more afraid, lest, upon her death, their whole family should be under the power of the Pharisees; for he saw the inability of his brother, who was to succeed in the government; nor was any one conscious of what he was doing but only his wife, whom he left at Jerusalem with their children. He first of all came to Agaba, where was Galestes, one of the potent men before mentioned, and was received by him. When it was day, the queen perceived that Aristobulus was fled; and for some time she supposed that his departure was not in order to make any innovation; but when messengers came one after another with the news that he had secured the first place, the second place, and all the places, for as soon as one had begun they all submitted to his disposal, then it was that the queen and the nation were in the greatest disorder, for they were aware that it would not be long ere Aristobulus would be able to settle himself firmly in the government. What they were principally afraid of was this, that he would inflict punishment upon them for the mad treatment his house had had from them. So they resolved to take his wife and children into custody, and keep them in the fortress that was over the temple. (46) Now there was a mighty conflux of people that came to Aristobulus from all parts, insomuch that he had a kind of royal attendants about him; for in a little more than fifteen days he got twenty-two strong places, which gave him the opportunity of raising an army from Libanus and Trachonitis, and the monarchs; for men are easily led by the greater number, and easily submit to them. And besides this, that by affording him their assistance, when he could not expect it, they, as well as he, should have the advantages that would come by his being king, because they had been the occasion of his gaining the kingdom. Now the elders of the Jews, and [John Hyrcanus [II] with them, went in unto the queen, and desired that she would give them her sentiments about the present posture of affairs, for that Aristobulus was in effect lord of almost all the kingdom, by possessing of so many strong holds, and that it was absurd for them to take any counsel by themselves, how ill soever she were, whilst she was alive, and that the danger would be upon them in no long time. But she bid them do what they thought proper to be done; that they had many circumstances in their favor still remaining, a nation in good heart, an army, and money in their several treasuries; for that she had small concern about public affairs now, when the strength of her body already failed her.

Now a little while after she had said this to them, she died, when she had reigned nine years, and had in all lived seventy-three. A woman she was who showed no signs of the weakness of her sex, for she was sagacious to the greatest degree in her ambition of governing; and demonstrated by her doings at once, that her mind was fit for action, and that sometimes men themselves show the little understanding they have by the frequent mistakes they make in point of government; for she always preferred the present to futurity, and preferred the power of an imperious dominion above all things, and in comparison of that had no regard to what was good, or what was right. However, she brought the affairs of her house to such an unfortunate condition, that she was the occasion of the taking 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.

Dead Sea Scrolls: Nahum Pesher

(4QpNah [4Q169] Frgs. 3-4 Col. II lns. 8-11)

Because of the countless fornications of the prostitute, the alluring mistress of sorcery, who ensnares nations with her harlotries and people with her sorcery. .. See, I am against you! Oracle of the Lord of H[ost]s-You shall lift up [your] skirts to your face and show the nations [your] nudity and king […] your shame.

Epiphanius of Salamis

(Fourth C.E. Christian Writer)

And then Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judaea and began to preach, after the last of the anointed rulers descended from Judah and Aaron had come to an end—their line had continued until the anointed ruler Alexander (Jannaeus), and Salina, or Alexandra. This was the fulfillment of Jacob’s prophecy (Gen. 49:10), “There shall not fail a ruler from Judah and a governor from his loins, till he come for whom it is prepared, and he is the expectation of the nations”—a reference to the birth of the Lord. (Panarion).

Moses of Khoren

(5th century writer, the father of Armenian history)

Immediately thereafter [Tigranes] attacked Palestine to seek vengeance from Cleopatra [daughter] of Ptolemy for the crimes of her son Dionysius against his own father. He took many captives from among the Jews and besieged the city of Ptolemais. But the queen of the Jews, Alexandra—also known as Messalina—who was the wife of Alexander (Jannaeus), son of John (Hyrcanus), son of Simon the brother of Judas Maccabaeus, and who at that time held the throne of the Jews, by giving him many presents turned him back. For he heard a report that a certain brigand called Vaykun was causing a tumult in Armenia, holding the inaccessible mountain that up to now is called Vaykunik after the name of the brigand. (H. Manandyan and G. A. Bournoutian, trans. Tigranes Ii adn Rome [Mazda, 2007])

George Syncellus

(9th century Christian Writer)

Alexandra, also known as Salina, was entirely lacking in the brutality of her husband Jannaeus, also known as Alexander. By bestowing benefits, she gained the favor of the Jewish people, and because of her reputation for piety, her righteous trust in divinity, and her strictness in observing the ancestral laws, she reigned with steadfastness for nine years. She cultivated the Pharisaic system, considering it more devout than those of the other two, the Sadducees and Essenes; and since she was a religious woman, she entrusted the management of affairs of state to them. (Chronography 356)

Talmud

The story is told that in the days of Simeon b[en] Shetah and in the days of Salome the Queen, that the rains would come down from Sabbath eve to Sabbath eve, until the wheat became like kidneys, the barley like olive pits, and the lentils like golden denars. (Ta’anit 23a)

Azariah dei Rossi

(16th century Jewish Writer)

It is stated that of the Hasmoneans, Johanan the first, also Hyrcanus, was the father of Jannaeus Alexander, the husband of Queen Alexandra. On his deathbed, he advised her to transfer her allegiance from the Sadducees to the Pharisees who would be supportive of her rule. … It would seem that it is to these stories about the man and his wife, which the sages’ statement in tractate Sota refer: “Jannai the king said to his wife, ‘Do not fear the Pharisees or the non-Pharisees, but rather the hypocrites.’” (Joanna Weinberg, trans. The Light of the Eyes [Yale University Press, 2001).

Salome Alexandra in Scholarship

In 1972 Solomon Zeitlin emphasized the many similarities between the fictional character of Judith and Salome Alexandra. Zeitlin however did not see any major political event in the life of Alexandra that could have prompted such a connection. The revised edition of Schurer in 1973 also reiterated the view that "no political events of any importance occurred during her reign." In 2005 Samuel Rocca first suggested that the story of Judith could contains echoes of the crisis generated by the invasion of the Armenian King Tigranes the Great. The argument was taken up in 2009 by Gabriele Boccaccini who drew attention on the Armenian and Roman sources that seem to confirm the chronological and geographical details provided in the Book of Judith about the military campaign of the new "Nebuchadnezzar," Tigranes the Great. Tal Ilan has recently published a book that examines rabbinic accounts of Salome Alexandra, and the various spellings of her name in antiquity. Ernst Axel Knauf has recently proposed that Salome Alexandra’s reign is reflected in canonical Psalms 148 and 2, and that the latter contains an acrostic that mentions her and her husband.

Salome Alexandra in Fiction

The Israeli author, playwright, and politician, Moshe Shamir (1921-2004) includes Salome Alexandra in his 1958 novel The King of Flesh and Blood, which is a fictional account of a portion of Alexander Jannaeus’s reign. The contemporary playwright Lauri Donahue has written a 2003 play focusing on Salome Alexandra titled “Alexandra of Judea.”

Popular Culture

Following the creation of the modern State of Israel, Jerusalem’s authorities changed the name of Princess Mary Street to Queen Shlomzion Street to honor Salome Alexandra. In 1977, Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli politician, general, and prime minster, named his now-defunct political party, Shlomtzion (“Peace of Zion”).

Related categories

• Maccabees
• Book of Judith

External links

• Wikipedia

Pictures on the web

• Map of the Hasmonean Kingdom under Salome Alexandra