148 rusalem was in, and moved so effectually for their relief, that forthwith an army made known to the king and his council the distress which this garrison at Jewith thirty-two elephants, and three hundred armed chariots of war; and the was drawn together of a hundred thousand foot,' and twenty thousand horse, marched with them into Judea, and, passing on to the borders of Idumæ, there king in person, with his tutor Lysias, having put himself at the head of them, began the war with the siege of Bethsura. Judas, having gotten his forces night, and, having slain four thousand of them before they had light enough to together, though far inferior to those of the enemy, there fell on them in the the morning was up, both sides prepared for an open battle,' and Judas and his retreated on break of day, without suffering any loss in the attempt. But, as see where to oppose him, and thereby put the whole camp into confusion, he hundred of the king's men, finding they must be overpowered at length by so men, with great fierceness, began the onset; but, after having slain about six great a number, they withdrew from the fight,' and made a safe retreat to Jerusalem. In this fight Eleazar surnamed Averan, one of Judas's brothers, was elephants. For seeing it to be higher than all the rest, and armed with royal lost by a very rash and desperate attempt which he made upon one of the king's harness, he supposed that the king himself was upon it; and therefore thinking, that, by slaying this elephant, he might with the fall of it cause the death of the king also, and thereby deliver his people, and gain to himself a perpetual name, he ran way, furiously to the beast, slaying on each hand all that stood in his till, being gotten under its belly, he thrust up his spear and slew him; whereon the beast falling dead upon him, crushed him to death with the weight thereof. After this Antiochus returned to the siege of Bethsura; and, although the besieged defended themselves with great valour, and in several sallies beat back the enemy, and burnt their engines of battery, yet at length, their provisions failing them, they were forced to yield, and surrendered the place upon articles of safety to their persons and effects 7 From thence Antiochus marched to Jerusalem, and there besieged the sanctuary: and, when they within were almost reduced to the same necessity of surrendering that those of Bethsura had been, by reason of the like failure of provisions, they were relieved by an unexpected accident. For Lysias, having received an account, that Philip, whom Antiochus Epiphanes had at his death appointed guardian of his son, had, in his absence, seized Antioch, and there taken upon him the government of the Syrian empire, he found it necessary to make peace with the Jews, that he might thereby be at liberty to return into Syria for expelling of this intruder; and accordingly peace being granted to them upon honourable and advantageous conditions, and sworn to by Antiochus, he was admitted within the fortifications of the sanctuary; but when he saw how strong they were, he caused them, contrary to the articles he had sworn to, to be all pulled down and demolished, and then returned toward Syria. 10 Menelaus, the high-priest," in expectation not only of recovering his station at Jerusalem, but also of being made governor there, accompanied the king in this expedition, and was very forward and busy in offering him his service in it against his own people. But Lysias, when he found what great inconveniences attended this war, and was, by the ill consequences of it, forced to make the peace I have mentioned, being much exasperated against this wretch, as the true and original author of all this mischief, accused him to the king for it; whereon he was condemned to death, and, being carried to Berhoa, a city of Syria, was there cast headlong into a tower of ashes which was in that place, and there miserably perished. This was a punishment then used for sacrilege, treason, and such other great crimes which this wretch was very signally guilty of: in what manner it was executed hath been before described. On his 12 2 death,' the office of high-priest was granted to Alcimus, who was called also Jacimus, a man altogether as wicked. Whereon Onias,3 the son of that Onias who by the procurement of Menelaus was slain at Antioch, whose right it was to have succeeded in this office, not being able to bear the injustice whereby he was disappointed of it, fled from Antioch, where he had hitherto resided since his father's death, and went into Egypt; where, having insinuated himself into the favour of Ptolemy Philometor, and Cleopatra his queen, he lived there all the rest of his life, and will hereafter more than once be again spoken of in the future series of this history. But This expedition into Judea is said, in the second book of Maccabees, to have been begun in the 149th year, i. e. of the era of the Selucida, and, in the first book of Maccabees," its beginning is placed in the 150th of the same era. what hath been before observed, that the first book of Maccabees reckons the beginning of these years from the time of the vernal equinox, and the second book of Maccabees from the time of the autumnal equinox, easily reconciles this difference: for the six months of this very same year which were between these two equinoxes will be in the 150th year, according to the reckoning of the first book of Maccabees, and the 149th, according to the reckoning of the second. And therefore all that can be inferred from hence is, that this expedition was first made within the time of these six months, and I reckon it was so toward the latter end of them. On the king's return to Antioch, Philip was driven thence and suppressed." I have before mentioned the flight of this Philip into Egypt, in expectation there to be assisted against Lysias. But the two brothers, who there jointly reigned at this time, being then fallen out, and at great variance with each other, he found nothing could be there done for him; and therefore returning again to the east, and having there gathered together an army out of Media and Persia, took the advantage of the king's absence on this expedition into Judea to seize the imperial city, but, being on the king's return again expelled thence, he failed of success in this attempt, and perished in it. The variance between the two Ptolemies in Egypt, which I have last above mentioned, running to a great height, the senate of Rome wrote to their ambassadors, Cneius Octavius, Spurius Lucretius, and Lucius Aurelius, whom they had a little before sent into Syria, to pass from thence to Alexandria for the composing of it. But, before they could go thither, Physcon, the younger brother, prevailing over Philometor, the elder, had driven him out of the kingdom. Whereon taking shipping for Italy, 10 he landed at Brundusium, and from thence travelled to Rome on foot in a sordid habit, and, with a mean attendance, there to pray the help of the senate for his restoration. Demetrius," the son of Seleucus Philopator, late king of Syria, who was then a hostage at Rome, as above mentioned, having gotten notice hereof, provided a royal equipage, and royal robes for him, that he might appear at Rome as a king, and rode forth to carry all this to him: but, on his meeting him on the road, at twenty-six miles' distance from Rome, and presenting him with it, Ptolemy, though he very much thanked him for the kindness and respects hereby offered unto him, yet was so far from accepting any thing of it, that he would not permit him so much as to accompany him the remainder of the journey, but entered Rome on foot, with no other than the same mean attendance, and the same sordid habit with which he first put himself on this journey, and took up his lodging in the private house of an Alexandrian painter then living at Rome. Thus he chose to do, that, by his coming in so low and mean a manner, he might the better express the calamity of his case, and the more effectually move the compassion of the Romans toward him. As soon as the senate heard of his arrival, they sent for 1 Part 1, book 6. 4 Chap. xiii. ver. 1. 71 Maccab. vi. 56. 2 2 Maccab. xiv. 3. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12. c. 15. et lib. 20. c. 8. 3 Josephus, ibid. 5 Chap. vi. ver. 20. 61 Maccab. vi. 63. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12. c. 15. 8 Polyb. Legat. 107. p. 938. 9 Porphyrius in Græcis Euseb. Scalig. p. 60. 68. 10 Diodor. Sic. in Excerptis Valesii, p. 322. Val. Maximus, lib. 5. c. 1. 11 Ibid. 150 him to the senate-house, and there excused themselves to him, that they had but merely that his coming was so sudden and private, that they knew not of were usual in this case, telling him, that this was not from any neglect of theirs, not provided him with lodgings, nor received him with those ceremonies which it till his arrival. And then, having exhorted him to lay aside his sordid habit, they, by some of their body, conducted him to lodgings suiting his royal digand ask a day to be publicly heard concerning the matter he came thither about, with all things fitting at the public charge, as long as he should stay in Rome. nity, and appointed one of their treasurers there to attend him, and provide him diately decreed his restoration, and sent Quintus and Canuleius, two of their And when he had a day of audience, and made known his case, they immetheir arrival thither, compounded the matter between the two brothers, by asbody, ambassadors with him to Alexandria, there to see it executed; who, on and Cyprus, there to reign apart, without interfering with each other in the signing to Physcon the country of Libya and Cyrene,' and to Philometor Egypt the Roman ambassadors above mentioned, being come into Syria, and finding An. 162. Judas Maccabæus 5.]-Cn. Octavius, Sp. Lucretius, and L. Aurelius, that the king had more ships in his navy, and more elephants in his army, than the treaty made with Antiochus the Great, after the battle of Mount Sypilus, allowed him to have,' they caused those ships to be burnt, and those elephants to be slain, that exceeded the number allowed, and settled all other things as they thought would best be for the Roman interest; which there according government. many not being able to bear, and great heartburning and discontents being thereby caused among the people, one of them, called Leptines, out of a more than ordinary indignation which he had conceived hereat, fell upon Octavius, while he was anointing himself in the gymnasium at Laodicea, and there slew him. This Octavius had been a little before consul of Rome, and was the first that brought that dignity into his family. From him was descended Octavius Cæsar, who, under the name of Augustus, was afterward made emperor of Rome. Lysias was thought underhand to have excited this act. However, as soon as it was done, he took care that ambassadors were sent to Rome, to purge the king with the senate from having had any hand in it. But the senate, after having heard those ambassadors, sent them away without giving them any answer, seeming thereby to express their resentments for the murder of their ambassador by an angry silence, and to reserve their judgment as to the authors of it to a future inquiry. 4 Demetrius, thinking this murder of Octavius might so far have alienated the senate from Eupator, as that they would no longer for his sake retard his dismission, addressed himself the second time to them for it. Apollonius, a young nobleman of Syria, who was bred up with him, and son of that Apollonius who was governor of Cole-Syria and Phoenicia in the reign of Seleucus Philopater, advised him in this address, contrary to the advice of his other friends, whose opinion it was, that he had nothing else to do for his getting away but to make his escape as privately as he could. And the second repulse which he had from the senate (for they still having the same reason, from their interest, to detain him, persisted still in the same resolution so to do) soon convinced him, that this last was the only course he had to take for his return into his country, and the recovering of the crown which was there due unto him. And Polybius the historian, who was then at Rome, and with whom Demetrius consulted in all this matter, earnestly pressed him to the attempt. Whereon having, by the help of Menithyllus of Alabanda, hired passage in a Carthaginian ship, then lying at Ostia, and bound for Tyre, he sent most of his retinue with 1 Polyb. Leg. 113, 114. p. 941. 943. Epit. Livii, lib. 46. Zonaras, lib. 2. 122. p. 954. Ciceronis Philippic. 9. his hunting equipage to Anagnia, making show of following them the next day thither to divert himself in that country for some time in hunting. But, as soon as he was risen from supper, getting privately that night to Ostia, he there went on board the Charthaginian ship, and, causing it forthwith to set sail, made his escape therein. For, it being thought that he had been at the place where he had appointed his hunting, it was the fourth day after he had sailed from Ostia, before his escape was known at Rome; and when, on the fifth day, the senate was met about it, they computed, that by that time he had passed the straits of Messina, and got on from thence in his voyage too far to be overtaken, and therefore took no farther notice of it. Only some few days after, they appointed Tiberius Gracchus, L. Lentulus, and Servilius Glaucias, their ambassadors, to pass into Syria, to observe what effect the return of Demetrius into that country would there produce. The occasion which brought Menithyllus of Alabanda to Rome at this time, was an embassy' on which he was thither sent by Ptolemy Philometor to defend his cause before the senate against Physcon his brother: for Physcon, not being content with the share allotted him in the partition of the Egyptian empire between him and his brother, desired that, besides Libya and Cyrene, he might have Cyprus also assigned to him. And, when he could not obtain this of the ambassadors, he went himself to Rome, there to solicit the senate for it. When he appeared before the senate with his petition, Menithyllus made it out, that Physcon owed not only Libya and Cyrene, but his life also, to the favour and kindness of his brother. For he had made himself so odious to the people, by his many flagitious maleadministrations in the government, that they would have permitted him neither to reign nor live, had not Philometor interposed to save him from their rage. And Quintus and Canuleius, who were the ambassadors that made the agreement between the two brothers, being then present in the senate, did there attest all this to be true; yet, notwithstanding, the senate, having more regard to their own interest than the justice of the cause, decreed Cyprus to be given to Physcon, because they thought Philometor would be too potent with that and Egypt together: and therefore they appointed Titus Torquatus and Cneius Merula to go with him as their ambassadors for the putting him in possession of it, according as they had decreed. While Physcon was at Rome on this occasion,' he courted Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, desiring to have her for his queen: but she being the daughter of Scipio Africanus, and the widow of Tiberius Gracchus, who had been twice consul, and once censor of Rome, she despised the offer, thinking it to be a greater honour to be one of the prime matrons of Rome, than to reign with Physcon in Libya and Cerene. In the interim, Demetrius,3 landing at Tripolis in Syria, made it believed, that he was sent by the Roman senate to take possession of the kingdom, and that he would be supported by them in it. Whereon Eupator's cause being in the general opinion given for lost, all deserted from him to Demetrius; and Eupator, and Lysias his tutor, being siezed by their own soldiers, in order to be delivered up to the new comer, were, by his order, both put to death. And so without any farther opposition he became thoroughly settled in the whole. kingdom. As soon as Demetrius was fixed on the throne, one of the first things he did was to deliver the Babylonians from the tyranny of Timarchus and Heraclides. These being the two great favourites of Antiochus Epiphanes, he made the first of them governor, and the other treasurer of that province. Timarchus having added rebellion to his other crimes, Demetrius caused him to be put to death, and the other he drove into banishment. This was so acceptable a deliverance to the Babylonians, whom these two brothers had most grievously oppressed, 1 Polyb. Legat. 113. p. 941. et Legat. 117. p. 950. 2 Plutarch. in Tiberio Graccho. 31 Mac. vii. 1—4. 2 Mac. xiv. 1, 2. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12. c. 16. Appian. in Syriacis. Justin. lib. 34. c. 3. 4 Appian. in Syriacis. hi n V put 152 afterward bore. that they from hence called him Soter, i. e. the Saviour; which name he ever pointed high-priest of the Jews,' not being received by them, because he had polluted himself, by conforming to the ways of the Greeks in the time of AnAlcimus, who, on the death of Menelaus, was by Antiochus Eupator aptioch Epiphanes,' got together all the other apostate Jews, then living at Antioch, who had for their apostacy been expelled Judea, and went at the head the country, as particularly they had them his petitioners, for no other reason, cusing them of slaying many of the king's friends, and driving others out of of them to the new king to pray his relief against Judas and his brethren, acwho had reigned before him. And hereby he so exasperated Demetrius against but that they had obeyed the royal edicts of Antiochus Epiphanes his uncle, of Mesopotamia, with an army,3 into Judea, and having confirmed Alcimus in Judas and the people with him, that he forthwith ordered Bacchides, governor of Mice of high-priest, joined him in the same commission with Bacchides for On their first coming into Judea, they thought to the carrying on of this war. have circumvented Judas and his brethren, and by fair words under the show of making peace with them, to have drawn them into their power, and so have taken them. But they being aware of the fraud, kept out of their reach: which others not being so cautious of, fell into their snare, and being taken in it, were all destroyed by them; among whom were sixty of the Asidians, and several the scribes or doctors of their law. For being fond of having a high-priest settled among them, and thinking they could suffer no wrong from one again that was of the sons of Aaron, they took his oath of peace, and trusted themBut he had no sooner gotten them within his power, but he selves with him. them all to death; with which the rest being terrified, durst no more confide in him. After this Bacchides returned to the king, leaving with Alcimus part of his forces, to secure him in the possession of the country; with which prevailing for a while, and drawing many deserters to him, he much disturbed the state of Israel. For the remedy whereof, Judas, after Bacchides was fully gone, coming out with his forces again into the field, went round the country, and took vengeance of those that had revolted from him, so that Alcimus and his party were no more able to stand against him. Whereon that wicked disturber of his people went again to the king, and having presented him with a crown of gold and other gifts, renewed his complaints against Judas and his brethren, telling him, that as long as Judas lived, his authority could never be quietly settled in that country, or matters be there ever brought to a lasting state of peace; and all that were there about the king, out of hatred to the Jews, saying the same thing, Demetrius was hereby so incensed, that he sent another army against the Jews, under the command of Nicanor their old enemy, commanding him, that he should cut off Judas, disperse his followers, and thoroughly establish Alcimus in his office of high-priest. But Nicanor, knowing the prowess of Judas, as having been vanquished by him in a former expedition, was loath to make another trial of it for fear of another defeat; and therefore endeavoured to compose matters by a treaty: and accordingly articles of peace were agreed on between them. And after this Judas and Nicanor conversed in a friendly manner together: but Alcimus not liking this peace, as thinking his interest not sufficiently provided for in it, went the third time to the king, and so possessed him against it, that he refused to ratify what was agreed, and sent his positive orders to Nicanor to go on with the war, and not to cease prosecuting it, till he should have slain Judas, or taken him prisoner, and sent him bound to Antioch. Whereon Nicanor was forced, much against his will, again to renew his former hostilities against Judas and his brethren. 1 2 Maccab. xiv. 3. 4 1 Maccab. vii. 21, 22. 21 Maccab. vii. 5-7. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12. c. 16. 7 1 Maccab. vii. 26. 29. 2 Mac. xiv. 12-25. 31 Maccab. vii. 8. 20. |