Heir to the Hasmonean
dynasty that had ruled Judea for more than a century & progenitor
of the branch of the house of Herod that
dominated Palestinian politics for much of the 1st c. CE.
Aristobulus was both descendent & ancestor of Jewish kings who
controlled all Palestine, but lived much of his own life outside Judea.
As second son of Herod
by his favorite wife, the Hasmonean princess Mariamne,
Aristobulus was next to his brother in Herod's line of succession but fell victim to his own
arrogance & court intrigues. He was barely 3 yrs. old when his father
executed his mother on false rumors of her infidelity spread by his
paternal aunt Salome (29 BCE).
When he reached age 10, Herod sent him & his older brother
Alexander to Rome to be schooled in the household of
Augustus
(23 BCE). When the handsome youths
returned to Jerusalem 6 yrs. later, they
attracted the adulation of many Jews. But the imperious manner of
these Hasmonean princes who had lived for much of their lives at the very
center of Roman imperial power frequently offended Herod & incited the
jealousy of their older half-brother, Antipater
III, who skillfully fed the aging king's fury with rumors of his
favored sons' disloyalty. Finally in 7 BCE, after many failed attempts at
reconciliation between the king & his presumed heirs, the ailing
Herod had Aristobulus & Alexander strangled on charges of treason
& elevated Antipater to the rank of his co-regent & heir
apparent. Yet Herod retained his affection for Aristobulus' children
(his grand-children by Mariamne), three of whom -- Agrippa
I, Herod III & Herodias
-- rose to prominence in the politics of the next generation of Jewish
rulers.
References: Josephus,
Antiquities
15.342;
16.11,
133,
201,
249,
311, 322,
394.
_____, War
1.478-479,
516-520,
528-529,
534-535,
550-551.
Other online
resources: