[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

orion-list Re: Copper Scroll Mercenaries

    [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
    [Your display is set for the "ISO-8859-8" character set]
    [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]

Russell's argument:

> The (Sadducee) former partisans on Alexander Jannaeus exiled to the
> Judean fortresses in 76 returned to power under Aristobulus II in the
years
> 67-63 BCE.  Doubtless they recovered their hoarded treasures.  Josephus,
Ant.
> 13.427 states that "in barely fifteen days he [Aristobulus] occupied
> twenty-two fortresses, and obtaining resources from these, he gathered an
> army from Lebanon, Trachonitis and the local princes."  That is,
Aristobulus
> hired mercenaries for his revolt using funds provided by his loyalists in
the
> fortresses to .  (At 13.429 the same word "resources" is applied to both
an
> army and "money in the various treasuries.")

------------------------------------------------

So it had rained Hellenistic (probably Idumaean) mercenaries to increase the
military efficiency of an Anti-Hellenistic uprising vs. Antipater and Hyrcan
II (which after all had led to the dominion of the Pax Romana).
But that sounds like Western (i.e., Hellenistic) way of war, introduced by a
certain Alexander, surnamed the Great; or more likely, it sounds like
thinking exclusively in Western categories of warfare.
Following the inner logic of Russell's argument, Peitholaos' professionals
likewise were mercenaries. If so, why did these Idumaean continue their
military operations vs. Gabinius 56/5 BC and Cassius 53/2 BC (cf. Jos. Bell.
1.8.3 ff., Jos. Ant. xiv 5.2, 6.1, 7.3) by defending after all lost
strategic positions? That's an utmost atypical (emotional) behavior for
mercenaries, who normally prefer to retreat or to change the frontline when
the spring of money runs dry "in the end of the(ir) days".

Dierk



For private reply, e-mail to "Dierk van den Berg" <haGalil@gmx.net>
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to majordomo@panda.mscc.huji.ac.il with
the message: "unsubscribe Orion." For more information on the Orion Center
or for Orion archives, visit our web site http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.