Aristobulus

Youngest brother of Agrippa I.; son of Herod's son Aristobulus; flourished during the first half of the first century. He was left an infant, together with his two brothers, Agrippa and Herod, when his father was executed (7 B.C.). He married Jotape, the daughter of Sampsigeram (), king of Emesa (Josephus, "Ant." xviii. 5, § 4). With his brother Agrippa he lived on bad terms; and when the latter came to the court of Flaccus, the governor of Syria, to find refuge after his escapades at Rome, Aristobulus managed to cause his banishment. Flaccus had been appealed to as judge in a dispute between the inhabitants of Damascus and those of Sidon concerning their boundary. The Damascenes, it appears, bribed Agrippa to intercede on their behalf with his patron. This intrigue was discovered by Aristobulus, who forthwith disclosed it to Flaccus; as a consequence Agrippa was bidden to leave the court ("Ant." xviii. 6, § 3). Aristobulus made an eloquent and successful plea also before Publius Petronius (40), the governor of Syria, against the erection of Caligula's statue at the Temple of Jerusalem ("Ant." xviii. 8, § 4).

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