<p><SPAN name="link132HCH0007" id="link132HCH0007">
<!-- h3 anchor --> </SPAN></p>
<h3> CHAPTER 7. How Simon Confederated Himself With Antiochus Pius, And Made War Against Trypho, And A Little Afterward, Against Cendebeus, The General Of Antiochus's Army; As Also How Simon Was Murdered By His Son-In-Law Ptolemy, And That By Treachery. </h3>
<p>1. <SPAN href="#link13note-15" name="link13noteref-15" id="link13noteref-15"><small>15</small></SPAN>
Now a little while after Demetrius had been carried into captivity, Trypho
his governor destroyed Antiochus, <SPAN href="#link13note-16"
name="link13noteref-16" id="link13noteref-16"><small>16</small></SPAN> the
son of Alexander, who was also called The God, <SPAN href="#link13note-17"
name="link13noteref-17" id="link13noteref-17"><small>17</small></SPAN> and
this when he had reigned four years, though he gave it out that he died
under the hands of the surgeons. He then sent his friends, and those that
were most intimate with him, to the soldiers, and promised that he would
give them a great deal of money if they would make him king. He intimated
to them that Demetrius was made a captive by the Parthians; and that
Demetrius's brother Atitiochus, if he came to be king, would do them a
great deal of mischief, in way of revenge for their revolting from his
brother. So the soldiers, in expectation of the wealth they should get by
bestowing the kingdom on Trypho, made him their ruler. However, when
Trypho had gained the management of affairs, he demonstrated his
disposition to be wicked; for while he was a private person, he cultivated
familiarity with the multitude, and pretended to great moderation, and so
drew them on artfully to whatsoever he pleased; but when he had once taken
the kingdom, he laid aside any further dissimulation, and was the true
Trypho; which behavior made his enemies superior to him; for the soldiery
hated him, and revolted from him to Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius, who
was then shut up in Seleucia with her children. But as Antiochus, the
brother of Demetrius who was called Soter, was not admitted by any of the
cities on account of Trypho, Cleopatra sent to him, and invited him to
marry her, and to take the kingdom. The reasons why she made this
invitation were these: That her friends persuaded her to it, and that she
was afraid for herself, in case some of the people of Seleucia should
deliver up the city to Trypho.</p>
<p>2. As Antlochuswas now come to Seleucia, and his forces increased every
day, he marched to fight Trypho; and having beaten him in the battle, he
ejected him out of the Upper Syria into Phoenicia, and pursued him
thither, and besieged him in Dora which was a fortress hard to be taken,
whither he had fled. He also sent ambassadors to Simon the Jewish high
priest, about a league of friendship and mutual assistance; who readily
accepted of the invitation, and sent to Antiochus great sums of money and
provisions for those that besieged Dora, and thereby supplied them very
plentifully, so that for a little while he was looked upon as one of his
most intimate friends; but still Trypho fled from Dora to Apamia, where he
was taken during the siege, and put to death, when he had reigned three
years.</p>
<p>3. However, Antiochus forgot the kind assistance that Simon had afforded
him in his necessity, by reason of his covetous and wicked disposition,
and committed an army of soldiers to his friend Cendebeus, and sent him at
once to ravage Judea, and to seize Simon. When Simon heard of Antiochus's
breaking his league with him, although he were now in years, yet, provoked
with the unjust treatment he had met with from Antiochus, and taking a
resolution brisker than his age could well bear, he went like a young man
to act as general of his army. He also sent his sons before among the most
hardy of his soldiers, and he himself marched on with his army another
way, and laid many of his men in ambushes in the narrow valleys between
the mountains; nor did he fail of success in any one of his attempts, but
was too hard for his enemies in every one of them. So he led the rest of
his life in peace, and did also himself make a league with the Romans.</p>
<p>4. Now he was the ruler of the Jews in all eight years; but at a feast
came to his end. It was caused by the treachery of his son-in-law Ptolemy,
who caught also his wife, and two of his sons, and kept them in bonds. He
also sent some to kill John the third son, whose name was Hyrcanus; but
the young man perceiving them coming, he avoided the danger he was in from
them, <SPAN href="#link13note-18" name="link13noteref-18" id="link13noteref-18"><small>18</small></SPAN> and made haste into the city
[Jerusalem], as relying on the good-will of the multitude, because of the
benefits they had received from his father, and because of the hatred the
same multitude bare to Ptolemy; so that when Ptolemy was endeavoring to
enter the city by another gate, they drove him away, as having already
admitted Hyrcanus.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link132HCH0008" id="link132HCH0008">
<!-- h3 anchor --> </SPAN></p>
<h3> CHAPTER 8. Hyrcanus Receives The High Priesthood, And Ejects Ptolemy Out Of The Country. Antiochus Makes War Against Hyrcanus And Afterwards Makes A League With Him. </h3>
<p>1. So Ptolemy retired to one of the fortresses that was above Jericho,
which was called Dagon. But Hyrcanus having taken the high priesthood that
had been his father's before, and in the first place propitiated God by
sacrifices, he then made an expedition against Ptolemy; and when he made
his attacks upon the place, in other points he was too hard for him, but
was rendered weaker than he, by the commiseration he had for his mother
and brethren, and by that only; for Ptolemy brought them upon the wall,
and tormented them in the sight of all, and threatened that he would throw
them down headlong, unless Hyrcanus would leave off the siege. And as he
thought that so far as he relaxed as to the siege and taking of the place,
so much favor did he show to those that were dearest to him by preventing
their misery, his zeal about it was cooled. However, his mother spread out
her hands, and begged of him that he would not grow remiss on her account,
but indulge his indignation so much the more, and that he would do his
utmost to take the place quickly, in order to get their enemy under his
power, and then to avenge upon him what he had done to those that were
dearest to himself; for that death would be to her sweet, though with
torment, if that enemy of theirs might but be brought to punishment for
his wicked dealings to them. Now when his mother said so, he resolved to
take the fortress immediately; but when he saw her beaten, and torn to
pieces, his courage failed him, and he could not but sympathize with what
his mother suffered, and was thereby overcome. And as the siege was drawn
out into length by this means, that year on which the Jews used to rest
came on; for the Jews observe this rest every seventh year, as they do
every seventh day; so that Ptolemy being for this cause released from the
war, <SPAN href="#link13note-19" name="link13noteref-19" id="link13noteref-19"><small>19</small></SPAN>
he slew the brethren of Hyrcanus, and his mother; and when he had so done,
he fled to Zeno, who was called Cotylas, who was then the tyrant of the
city Philadelphia.</p>
<p>2. But Antiochus, being very uneasy at the miseries that Simon had brought
upon him, he invaded Judea in the fourth years' of his reign, and the
first year of the principality of Hyrcanus, in the hundred and
sixty-second olympiad. <SPAN href="#link13note-20" name="link13noteref-20" id="link13noteref-20"><small>20</small></SPAN> And when he had burnt the
country, he shut up Hyrcanus in the city, which he encompassed round with
seven encampments; but did just nothing at the first, because of the
strength of the walls, and because of the valor of the besieged, although
they were once in want of water, which yet they were delivered from by a
large shower of rain, which fell at the setting of the Pleiades <SPAN href="#link13note-21" name="link13noteref-21" id="link13noteref-21"><small>21</small></SPAN>
However, about the north part of the wall, where it happened the city was
upon a level with the outward ground, the king raised a hundred towers of
three stories high, and placed bodies of soldiers upon them; and as he
made his attacks every day, he cut a double ditch, deep and broad, and
confined the inhabitants within it as within a wall; but the besieged
contrived to make frequent sallies out; and if the enemy were not any
where upon their guard, they fell upon them, and did them a great deal of
mischief; and if they perceived them, they then retired into the city with
ease. But because Hyrcanus discerned the inconvenience of so great a
number of men in the city, while the provisions were the sooner spent by
them, and yet, as is natural to suppose, those great numbers did nothing,
he separated the useless part, and excluded them out of the city, and
retained that part only which were in the flower of their age, and fit for
war. However, Antiochus would not let those that were excluded go away,
who therefore wandering about between the wails, and consuming away by
famine, died miserably; but when the feast of tabernacles was at hand,
those that were within commiserated their condition, and received them in
again. And when Hyrcanus sent to Antiochus, and desired there might be a
truce for seven days, because of the festival, he gave way to this piety
towards God, and made that truce accordingly. And besides that, he sent in
a magnificent sacrifice, bulls with their horns gilded, with all sorts of
sweet spices, and with cups of gold and silver. <SPAN href="#link13note-22"
name="link13noteref-22" id="link13noteref-22"><small>22</small></SPAN> So
those that were at the gates received the sacrifices from those that
brought them, and led them to the temple, Antiochus the mean while
feasting his army, which was a quite different conduct from Antiochus
Epiphanes, who, when he had taken the city, offered swine upon the altar,
and sprinkled the temple with the broth of their flesh, in order to
violate the laws of the Jews, and the religion they derived from their
forefathers; for which reason our nation made war with him, and would
never be reconciled to him; but for this Antiochus, all men called him
Antiochus the Pious, for the great zeal he had about religion.</p>
<p>3. Accordingly, Hyrcanus took this moderation of his kindly; and when he
understood how religious he was towards the Deity, he sent an embassage to
him, and desired that he would restore the settlements they received from
their forefathers. So he rejected the counsel of those that would have him
utterly destroy the nation, <SPAN href="#link13note-23"
name="link13noteref-23" id="link13noteref-23"><small>23</small></SPAN> by
reason of their way of living, which was to others unsociable, and did not
regard what they said. But being persuaded that all they did was out of a
religious mind, he answered the ambassadors, that if the besieged would
deliver up their arms, and pay tribute for Joppa, and the other cities
which bordered upon Judea, and admit a garrison of his, on these terms he
would make war against them no longer. But the Jews, although they were
content with the other conditions, did not agree to admit the garrison,
because they could not associate with other people, nor converse with
them; yet were they willing, instead of the admission of the garrison, to
give him hostages, and five hundred talents of silver; of which they paid
down three hundred, and sent the hostages immediately, which king
Antiochus accepted. One of those hostages was Hyrcanus's brother. But
still he broke down the fortifications that encompassed the city. And upon
these conditions Antiochus broke up the siege, and departed.</p>
<p>4. But Hyrcanus opened the sepulcher of David, who excelled all other
kings in riches, and took out of it three thousand talents. He was also
the first of the Jews that, relying on this wealth, maintained foreign
troops. There was also a league of friendship and mutual assistance made
between them; upon which Hyrcanus admitted him into the city, and
furnished him with whatsoever his army wanted in great plenty, and with
great generosity, and marched along with him when he made an expedition
against the Parthians; of which Nicolaus of Damascus is a witness for us;
who in his history writes thus: "When Antiochus had erected a trophy at
the river Lycus, upon his conquest of Indates, the general of the
Parthians, he staid there two days. It was at the desire of Lyrcanus the
Jew, because it was such a festival derived to them from their
forefathers, whereon the law of the Jews did not allow them to travel."
And truly he did not speak falsely in saying so; for that festival, which
we call Pentecost, did then fall out to be the next day to the Sabbath.
Nor is it lawful for us to journey, either on the Sabbath day, or on a
festival day <SPAN href="#link13note-24" name="link13noteref-24" id="link13noteref-24"><small>24</small></SPAN> But when Antiochus joined
battle with Arsaces, the king of Parthin, he lost a great part of his
army, and was himself slain; and his brother Demetrius succeeded in the
kingdom of Syria, by the permission of Arsaces, who freed him from his
captivity at the same time that Antiochus attacked Parthin, as we have
formerly related elsewhere.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link132HCH0009" id="link132HCH0009">
<!-- h3 anchor --> </SPAN></p>
<h3> CHAPTER 9. How, After The Death Of Antiochus, Hyrcanus Made An Expedition Against Syria, And Made A League With The Romans. Concerning The Death Of King Demetrius And Alexander. </h3>
<p>1. But when Hyrcanus heard of the death of Antiochus, he presently made an
expedition against the cities of Syria, hoping to find them destitute of
fighting men, and of such as were able to defend them. However, it was not
till the sixth month that he took Medaba, and that not without the
greatest distress of his army. After this he took Samega, and the
neighboring places; and besides these, Shechem and Gerizzim, and the
nation of the Cutheans, who dwelt at the temple which resembled that
temple which was at Jerusalem, and which Alexander permitted Sanballat,
the general of his army, to build for the sake of Manasseh, who was
son-in-law to Jaddua the high priest, as we have formerly related; which
temple was now deserted two hundred years after it was built. Hyrcanus
took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the
Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would
circumcise their genitals, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they
were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they
submitted to the use of circumcision, <SPAN href="#link13note-25"
name="link13noteref-25" id="link13noteref-25"><small>25</small></SPAN> and of
the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell
them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.</p>
<p>2. But Hyrcanus the high priest was desirous to renew that league of
friendship they had with the Romans. Accordingly, he sent an embassage to
them; and when the senate had received their epistle, they made a league
of friendship with them, after the manner following: "Fanius, the son of
Marcus, the praetor, gathered the senate together on the eighth day before
the Ides of February, in the senate-house, when Lucius Manlius, the son of
Lucius, of the Mentine tribe, and Caius Sempronius, the son of Caius, of
the Falernian tribe, were present. The occasion was, that the ambassadors
sent by the people of the Jews <SPAN href="#link13note-26"
name="link13noteref-26" id="link13noteref-26"><small>26</small></SPAN> Simon,
the son of Dositheus, and Apollonius, the son of Alexander, and Diodorus,
the son of Jason, who were good and virtuous men, had somewhat to propose
about that league of friendship and mutual assistance which subsisted
between them and the Romans, and about other public affairs, who desired
that Joppa, and the havens, and Gazara, and the springs [of Jordan], and
the several other cities and countries of theirs, which Antiochus had
taken from them in the war, contrary to the decree of the senate, might be
restored to them; and that it might not be lawful for the king's troops to
pass through their country, and the countries of those that are subject to
them; and that what attempts Antiochus had made during that war, without
the decree of the senate, might be made void; and that they would send
ambassadors, who should take care that restitution be made them of what
Antiochus had taken from them, and that they should make an estimate of
the country that had been laid waste in the war; and that they would grant
them letters of protection to the kings and free people, in order to their
quiet return home. It was therefore decreed, as to these points, to renew
their league of friendship and mutual assistance with these good men, and
who were sent by a good and a friendly people." But as to the letters
desired, their answer was, that the senate would consult about that matter
when their own affairs would give them leave; and that they would
endeavor, for the time to come, that no like injury should be done to
them; and that their praetor Fanius should give them money out of the
public treasury to bear their expenses home. And thus did Fanius dismiss
the Jewish ambassadors, and gave them money out of the public treasury;
and gave the decree of the senate to those that were to conduct them, and
to take care that they should return home in safety.</p>
<p>3. And thus stood the affairs of Hyrcanus the high priest. But as for king
Demetrius, who had a mind to make war against Hyrcanus, there was no
opportunity nor room for it, while both the Syrians and the soldiers bare
ill-will to him, because he was an ill man. But when they had sent
ambassadors to Ptolemy, who was called Physcon, that he would send them
one of the family at Seleueus, in order to take the kingdom, and he had
sent them Alexander, who was called Zebina, with an army, and there had
been a battle between them, Demetrius was beaten in the fight, and fled to
Cleopatra his wife, to Ptolemais; but his wife would not receive him. He
went thence to Tyre, and was there caught; and when he had suffered much
from his enemies before his death, he was slain by them. So Alexander took
the kingdom, and made a league with Hyrcanus, who yet, when he afterward
fought with Antiochus the son of Demetrius, who was called Grypus, was
also beaten in the fight, and slain.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />