Salome Alexandra
Salome Alexandra ruled Judaea for nine years and it was the last peace the Hasmonean state had. She was married first to Aristobulus I and then, on his death, to his brother Alexander Jannaeus - a king who spent his reign at war and crucified eight hundred Pharisee opponents while dining with his concubines, according to Josephus. He is said to have advised her on his deathbed to make peace with the Pharisees and let them share in the victory, having concluded that his own method had failed. She took the throne in 76 BC, which a woman could do in a Hellenistic kingdom but not the high priesthood, so she made her elder son Hyrcanus high priest and kept the government herself. She reversed the persecution, brought the Pharisees into the council, and let them settle the legal disputes of the previous reigns - and later rabbinic tradition remembers her years as a time when the rain fell on the sabbaths and the grains grew to the size of olive pits. She doubled the army and hired mercenaries, and no foreign power attacked. The Pharisees also settled scores with the men who had advised her husband, which is the part her supporters pass over. She died in 67 BC, having named Hyrcanus her heir while Aristobulus was already raising troops. The brothers went to war within months, both appealed to Pompey, and Rome took Jerusalem in 63 - so the nine quiet years are bracketed by her husband's wars on one side and the end of Jewish independence on the other. She is the only queen regnant the Hasmoneans had.
- Lived: 141 BCE – 67 BCE
- Nationality: Judaean
- Roles: head_of_state
