**At the end** of the days of Queen Alexandriada, which was year 3697, the advisors of Rome renewed the covenant with the princes of Yehudah and they engraved it with an iron pen on two tablets of copper as a memorial, one in Yerushalayim and one in Rome [(Josephus chapter 36)].

**Aristobulus** son of King Alexander and Queen Alexandriada was the 9th king of the Chashmona'im. He reigned in year 3697 by force before his mother's death, and he went up against his brother Hyrkanos in Yerushalayim after he had reigned for 3 months. And he laid siege to the city. Then the elders of Israel made peace between them - that Aristobulus would reign over Israel and Yehudah, and Hyrkanos would be Kohen Gadol in the Temple of HaShem.

And they made a covenant and swore each to his brother [(Tzeda)].

**Antipater** a cunning sage and clever, he took a wife from the seed of the king of Edom named Kafron. And she bore him a son named Hordos (Herod) - from his father's side he was from the servants of Yehudah. And Antipater was a faithful friend to King Hyrkanos and loved the Perushim. And a great quarrel intensified between the two brothers until each of them sent a large bribe to Pompeius, general of the Romans - both of them themselves went up to him.

And they brought him to Yerushalayim and much blood was shed of the Yehudim and the Romans. And Pompeius prevailed but did not stretch out his hand against the Temple and did not want to touch anything that was in the Temple of HaShem. And Pompeius made Hyrkanos the third, brother of King Aristobulus, king. [And Pompeius, general of the Romans, captured Yerushalayim and entered the Holy of Holies with the heads of his armies, and because of fear of the Place he retreated and did not stretch out his hand against the Temple and its vessels.

And the next day he restored Hyrkanos the Kohen Gadol to his position and the Leviyim to their watches (Tzeda chapter 2).] And he killed all the supporters of Aristobulus, and him he led bound in chains to Rome. And the days that Aristobulus reigned over Israel were 3 years and 6 months. [(Seder Olam Zuta writes, Yuchsin at the end, and Aristobulus ben Yanai Alexander stood 12 years and was killed, and after him Antigonus his son reigned 26 years and was killed in year 102 of the Chashmona'im kingdom, and so it is.

Meaning 37 of Yochanan ben Shimon, and Yanai 27, and Aristobulus 12, and Antigonus 26, that is 102. And 25 in Avodah Zarah 9b.)] The two brothers Hyrkanos and Aristobulus, both of them caused evil by bringing Pompeius to Yerushalayim, for from that day Yerushalayim and Yehudah became subject to Rome for tribute. [(And in chapter Merubah (82) Hyrkanos from inside and Aristobulus from outside, and Menachot (64) and at the end of Sotah, Hyrkanos from outside and Aristobulus from inside, and they would lower a basket of dinars and raise up the daily offerings, and once they raised up a pig for them, etc.)] And around this time signs of heaven were seen, and for 9 days the constellation of the bucket was in a bad alignment that brings evil to the haters of Israel [(as the Ra'avad wrote in Parashat Tisa chapter 6, and they fell, etc.)].

Afterwards Aristobulus fled with his son Antigonus from Rome and gathered his camp and rebelled against the Romans and made great slaughter among them. In the end the Romans besieged them and the elders and old men commanded to hang him, but the executioners had mercy on him and hanged another man in his place. And afterwards when Aristobulus went out to meet Pompeius by command of Caesar Julius, the men of Yerushalayim plotted against him so he would not be a stumbling block to all Israel, and they gave him poison [(Tzeda)].

**Choni HaMe'agel** was killed outside Yerushalayim in the wars of the brothers mentioned above [(Sha'ar HaDorot 24, and see above year 3622)].