The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [47]
Salome Alexandra was born in 140 BC. Not much is known of her girlhood. Her Judean name was Shelamzion, which is translated as Salome. Her Greek name was Alexandra, after Alexander the Great, who brought his Greek armies to the region nearly 200 years earlier. Like many people of her time, Salome lived amid her family and clan and spoke their language, Aramaic. She was also versed in the Hellenistic culture and Greek language that united the many lands around the Mediterranean Sea, including the nearby empires of Egypt and Syria.
From what historians can piece together, it seems Salome Alexandra first married in her late twenties. Her choice of husband—Aristobulus, the eldest son of the native ruler of Judea—led her both to royal life and to the beginning of her family problems. Aristobulus was intensely ambitious. When his father the king died in 104 BC, he willed the country to Aristobulus’ mother. But his eldest son would have none of it. He imprisoned his mother, starved her to death, and jailed three of his brothers.
In this brutal way, Judea became his, and Salome became the reigning queen. Just a year later, though, Aristobulus died of a mysterious disease. As Salome performed the proper funeral rites over him, she learned that he had bequeathed the kingdom to her.
Salome was faced with another complicated decision: should she rule by herself or share the throne? She released the three royal brothers from jail and chose the eldest of them to be king and high priest. His name was Alexander Janneus. She married him and continued her life as queen.
Her second husband, Alexander, was a tough man to live with. He was mean-tempered and he drank too much. He was fond of raiding and pillaging nearby cities, and he was cruel to his own people. He reigned for twenty-seven years. The historian Josephus tells us that as much as the people hated Alexander, they adored Salome, and considered her wise, kind, strong and reliable, decent, fair, and a person of good judgment. It’s possible that during Alexander’s long rule, the people didn’t rise to overthrow him because they loved Salome so much.
In 76 BC, Alexander was on his deathbed. He called Salome close and bequeathed the kingdom to her, returning the favor she had granted him twenty-seven years before.
Alexander presented Salome with a plan: “Conceal my death until, under your command, the soldiers will have won this battle we are now fighting. March back to the capital Jerusalem and hold a Victory. I have oppressed many people, and they now hate me. Make peace with them. Tell them you will include their leaders as advisors in your government. Finally, when you return to Jerusalem, send for the leading men. Show them my dead body and give it over to them. Let them defile it, if they wish, or honor me with a proper burial. The choice will be theirs. And then, they will support you.” Quite a beginning for the new reigning queen.
As queen, ruling from her palace in Jerusalem, Salome faced immediate challenges from her family once more, this time from her two grown sons. Salome anointed her oldest son, Hyrcanus, a quieter and more private sort of man, to be high priest. Hebrew religious law forbade women from overseeing the Temple and performing the animal sacrifices, so although she was queen, she couldn’t be high priest, as her husband had been. Her younger son, named Aristobulus after Salome’s first ruthless husband, was a much bigger problem. Like his father, he was very ambitious. He wanted Salome’s throne from the start. Soon he would rise against her.
True to her promises and King Alexander’s plan, Salome delegated the domestic affairs and a good deal of the power over the nation’s religious life to the elders of Judea. This helped to end the civil war that had simmered under her husband’s rule, during which he had killed a great many of the elders’ group. Still, the remaining elders wanted revenge. Before Salome could stop them, they slit the throat of one of Alexander’s ringleaders, Diogenes, and set out to find more.
The ambitious son Aristobulus