Pompey Reorganises the East — The Settlement of 63 BCE
Pompey's eastern command gave him powers unprecedented in Roman history. With Mithridates destroyed and the pirate menace eliminated, he turned to political reorganisation on a grand scale, founding or refounding dozens of cities. In Syria the last Seleucid king was a nullity. Pompey annexed Syria as a Roman province in 64 BCE, ending a dynasty founded by Alexander's general Seleucus in 312 BCE. The province would remain Roman for seven centuries. In Judaea two Hasmonean brothers — Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II — were fighting over the throne and high priesthood. Pompey sided with Hyrcanus. Pompey besieged Jerusalem in 63 BCE and after a three-month siege broke through the walls. He opened the Holy of Holies — the innermost sanctuary where only the High Priest could go once per year. He looked inside and left without touching anything. Jewish sources regarded the very act of entry as a profound defilement. Pompey returned to Rome having doubled Rome's eastern revenues. But politically the East was a patchwork of client kingdoms and provinces that would be contested and rearranged for another century.
- Year: 63 BCE
- Category: Political
