The First Jewish Shekels. 337 



to the plunder of the temple and its sacred treasures by Crassus, 

 then holding- the chief command in Syria. Hyrcanus, who had 

 been ]eft in the government of Judea by Pompey and Crassus, 

 but only with the title of high priest, received back his title of 

 king from Julius Cassar, in return for services rendered during 

 the Egyptian war. Hyrcanus had betrothed his daughter 

 Mariamne to Herod, the son of Antipater,who had been appointed 

 governor of the newly-subdued province of Idumsea. The 

 influence of Herod rapidly increased after this alliance. His 

 military talents, and general capacity for government, were 

 of a high order, and he eventually usurped the throne, 

 Hyrcanus being put to death. There are doubtful coins both 

 of Aristobulus II. and Hyrcanus II., those of the latter bearing 

 the original Asmonasan inscriptions and types. 



Antigonus, a son of Aristobulus II., succeeded with the aid 

 of a Parthian army in driving the usurper Herod out of Judaaa. 

 Flying to Rome, however, Herod obtained, through the influence 

 of Antony, a recognition of his assumed title of King of Judasa. 

 Antigonus endeavoured to defend himself; but Herod, sup- 

 ported by Sosius, a lieutenant of Marc Antony, took Jerusalem 

 after an obstinate siege, and Antigonus, the last of the Macca- 

 bees, who surrendered himself to the Roman general, Sosius, 

 was sent to Antony, then at Antioch, who ordered the un- 

 fortunate prince to be executed as a common malefactor, in 

 the year 37 B.C. Most of the coins issued by Antigonus have 

 for principal type a single horn of plenty, with the legend 

 Kohen Gadol (illustrious and high priest ?) in old Hebrew cha- 

 racter ; and on the other side (in Greek characters) the name 

 of Antigonus, abbreviated, with the title of king, as shown at 

 Fig. 5. Antigonus also bore the national name Mattathias, in 

 honour of the founder of the dynasty; but the Roman and 

 Greek interests combined had thrown the Jewish character- 

 istics into the shade, and the once honoured name of Matta- 

 thias does not appear on the national coin as the native name 

 of the last of this line of native princes. 



Herod, surnamed the Great, lifted to the chief power in 

 Judasa by the influence of Marc Antony, issued coins which 

 have still more or less of the character of those of the Asmona3an 

 race. Some of these, all small copper, have even the type of 

 the two cornucopias. Others, issued before he was allowed by 

 the Roman authorities to assume the title of king, bear that of 

 tetrarch. Many foolish fables once existed respecting some of 

 the types of the coins of Herod ; among others that the star, a 

 Syrian emblem used by some of the Asmonasan princes, was the 

 " star of Bethlehem/' though certainly the last emblem in the 

 world likely to be adopted by the first enemy of Christianity. 

 The most common types of the coins of Herod are the helmet, 



