‘Oh, Just Something Interesting I Saw in Josephus the Other Day. No Special Reason…’

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews — Book XIII (Containing the Interval of 82 Years. From the death of Judas Maccabeus to the Death of Queen Alexandra), end of chapter 13 [bolding added]:

5. [An. 91.] As to Alexander, his own people were seditious against him. For at a festival which was then celebrated, when he stood upon the altar, and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose upon him, and pelted him with citrons. [Which they then had in their hands, because] the law of the Jews required, that at the feast of tabernacles every one should have branches of the palm tree and citron tree: which thing we have elsewhere related. They also reviled him, as derived from a captive, and so unworthy of his dignity, and of sacrificing. At this he was in a rage, and slew of them about six thousand. He also built a partition wall of wood round the altar; and the temple; as far as that partition; within which it was only lawful for the priests to enter. And by this means he obstructed the multitude from coming at him. He also maintained foreigners of Pisidiæ and Cilicia. For as to the Syrians, he was at war with them, and so made no use of them. He also overcame the Arabians; such as the Moabites, and Gileadites, and made them bring tribute. Moreover he demolished Amathus: while Theodorus durst not fight with him. But as he had joined battel with Obedas, King of the Arabians, and fell into an ambush, in places that were rugged and difficult to be travelled over, he was thrown down into a deep valley, by the multitude of the camels, at Gadara, a village of Gilead, and hardly escaped with his life. From thence he fled to Jerusalem. Where, besides his other ill success, the nation insulted him, and he fought against them for six years, and slew no fewer than fifty thousand of them. And when he desired that they would desist from their ill will to him, they hated him so much the more, on account of what had already happened. And when he had asked them what he ought to do? They all cryed out, that “he ought to kill himself.” They also sent to Demetrius Eucerus, and desired him to make a league of mutual defence with them.

Disclaimer: Nothing in the above is intended in any seasonable, practical manner, of course.