Antiquities — Book 12

Josephus · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

How Ptolemy son of Lagus took Jerusalem and Judea by trickery and deceit, and resettled many of its people in Egypt. How his son Ptolemy, called Philadelphus, translated the laws of the Jews into the Greek language and released many prisoners as a favor to Eleazar their high priest, and dedicated many offerings to God. How the kings of Asia honored

the Jewish nation and made its people citizens, settling them in the cities they founded. The recovery from the disaster that had befallen them, brought about by Joseph son of Tobias, who made friendship with Ptolemy called Epiphanes. The friendship and alliance of the Spartans with Onias the high priest of the Jews. The factional strife among the powerful men of the Jews, and how they called in Antiochus Epiphanes. How Antiochus, marching against

Jerusalem, took the city and plundered the temple. How, when Antiochus forbade the Jews to observe their ancestral laws, only Mattathias son of Asamonaeus defied the king and defeated Antiochus's generals. The death of Mattathias, already an old man, after he had handed over the leadership of affairs to his sons. How his son Judas, after fighting Antiochus's generals,

brought the Jews back to their ancestral constitution and was appointed high priest by the people. How Apollonius, Antiochus's general, invaded Judea and was defeated and killed. The campaign of Saion and Gorgias against Judea, their defeat, and the dissension in their army. How Judas campaigned against the Ammanites and conquered as far as Gilead. How his brother Simon campaigned against

Tyre and Ptolemais and defeated them. The campaign of Lysias, Antiochus's general, against the Jews, and his defeat. How Antiochus Epiphanes died in Persia. How Antiochus, surnamed Eupator, campaigning against the Jews together with Lysias, won the battle and besieged Judas, shutting him up in the temple. How, after the siege had dragged on a long time, Antiochus made peace with Judas and withdrew from Judea on honorable terms.

How Bacchides, Demetrius's general, campaigned against the Jews and returned to the king having accomplished nothing. How Nicanor, sent as general after Bacchides, perished together with his army. How Bacchides, sent out again against Judea, won. How Judas was killed in battle. This book covers a period of one hundred and seventy years.

Alexander, king of the Macedonians, having overthrown the Persian empire and settled affairs in Judea in the manner just described, ended his life. When the empire passed into the hands of many, Antigonus held Asia, Seleucus held Babylon and the nations there, Lysimachus governed the Hellespont, Cassander held Macedonia, and Ptolemy son of Lagus had taken Egypt. As these men quarreled and vied with one another for their own

dominion, continuous and lengthy wars resulted, and the cities suffered, losing many of their inhabitants in the fighting, so that all Syria, under Ptolemy son of Lagus, then styled Soter, "Savior," suffered the very opposite of what his title promised. This man took Jerusalem too, by trickery and deceit: he entered the city on the Sabbath as if

to sacrifice, and since the Jews offered him no resistance—for they suspected nothing hostile, and because of their unsuspecting nature, and because the day found them at leisure and rest—he gained control of the city without effort and ruled it harshly. Agatharchides of Cnidus, who wrote the history of the Successors, bears witness to this account, reproaching us for a superstition that, he says, cost us our freedom,

in these words: "There is a people called the Jews, who, though they possessed a strong and great city, Jerusalem, let it fall under Ptolemy's power because they refused to take up arms, but through their ill-timed superstition endured having a harsh master." This, then, is what Agatharchides declared about our nation. Ptolemy, having taken many captives from the hill country of Judea, from the region around Jerusalem,

and from Samaria and from the people at Gerizim, settled them all in Egypt, bringing them there. Knowing that the men of Jerusalem were most steadfast in keeping oaths and pledges of loyalty—as had become clear from their answer to Alexander, when he sent an embassy to them after defeating Darius in battle—he enrolled many of them in garrisons and, having granted the Macedonians in Alexandria

equal citizenship, took oaths from them as well, that they would keep faith with the descendants of those to whom this trust had been given. Not a few other Jews also came to Egypt, drawn by the richness of the land and by Ptolemy's generosity. Disputes did arise, however, between their descendants and the Samaritans, who wished to preserve the ancestral practice of their customs, and they made war on

one another, the people of Jerusalem maintaining that their own temple was the holy one and that sacrifices should be sent there, while the men of Shechem insisted on Mount Gerizim. Alexander reigned twelve years, and after him Ptolemy Soter for forty-one; then Philadelphus received the kingdom of Egypt and held it for thirty-nine years,

during which he translated the law and freed those of the people of Jerusalem enslaved in Egypt, about one hundred and twenty thousand of them, for the following reason. Demetrius of Phalerum, who was in charge of the king's libraries, was eager, if it could be done, to gather together all the books in the world, and he bought up anything he heard was worth having, in accordance with

the king's own wish, for he too took great pleasure in the collecting of books, and gave the project his full support. Once, when Ptolemy asked him how many tens of thousands of volumes he had already collected, he answered that there were about two hundred thousand in hand, and that in a short time he would bring the total to five hundred thousand. He said he had also been informed that many writings existed among the Jews as well, worthy of note and belonging to their own laws, and

worth having for the king's library, but that, being written in their own characters and in their own dialect, they would give no small trouble to translate into the Greek tongue. For their script appeared, in its particular form, similar to that of the Syrians, and their language sounded like it as well, yet it had turned out to be a distinct tongue of its own. Nothing, then, he said, prevented having these too translated, since

the king was well supplied with the funds needed for the purpose, so that the library might contain their writings as well. The king, judging Demetrius's proposal for increasing the number of his books to be excellent, wrote to the high priest of the Jews that this should be carried out. Now a certain Aristeas, a particularly close friend of the king and held by him in high regard for his moderation, had often before resolved to entreat the

king to release the Jewish captives held throughout his kingdom, and, judging this a fitting occasion for his request, he first raised the matter with the chief bodyguards, Sosibius of Tarentum and Andreas, asking them to support him in what he intended to put before the king. Having won their agreement as well, Aristeas came before the king and addressed

him in these words: "We ought not, O king, deceive ourselves and overlook the matter, but bring out the truth. Since we have resolved not only to have the laws of the Jews transcribed but also translated, to please you, by what reasoning could we justify this while so many Jews remain enslaved in your kingdom? Act in keeping with your own greatness of soul and generosity, and free them from their misery,

since the God who gave them their laws watches over your kingdom, as I have learned through careful inquiry of my own. For the God who established all things is worshipped by them and by us alike, though we call him Zeus, giving him that name rightly, from his causing life to exist in all things. For this reason, in honor of God, restore to their homeland those who have made their worship of him their particular calling,

and to the life they left behind there. Know, however, O king, that I make this request for them though I am neither related to them by descent nor of their people, but because all men alike are creatures of God; and knowing that he takes pleasure in those who do good, I urge you to this as well." When Aristeas had said this, the king looked up at him with a cheerful and delighted

expression and said, "How many tens of thousands do you suppose there will be of those set free?" Andreas, who stood beside him, answered that there would be a little more than one hundred and ten thousand. "Then it is a small gift you ask of us, Aristeas," said the king. When Sosibius and the others present said that it would befit him, in his greatness of soul, to make a thank-offering to the God who had granted him his kingdom, he was moved by their words and gave orders that,

whenever the soldiers' pay was disbursed, a hundred and twenty drachmas be paid for each of the Jewish captives in their possession. And concerning what had been asked of him, he promised to issue a decree, magnificent in its terms, confirming both Aristeas's proposal and, prior to it, the will of God—by which he declared he would free not only those brought in by his father and his father's army, but

also those already present in the kingdom before them, and any who might yet be brought in. When it was reckoned that the ransom would amount to more than four hundred talents, he agreed to this as well, and it was decided to preserve a copy of the decree as a record of the king's magnanimity. It read as follows: "As many as, campaigning with our father in Syria and Phoenicia, and, after subduing Judea,

took captives and brought them to our cities and country and sold them there, together with those who were already in my kingdom before them and any now brought in—let those who hold them release them, receiving for each person one hundred and twenty drachmas, the soldiers together with their military pay, the rest receiving the ransom from the royal

treasury. For I consider that they were taken captive against my father's intention and against what is right, that their country has been ravaged through the soldiers' license, and that their removal to Egypt has brought great profit to the soldiers. Having regard, therefore, for justice, and taking pity on men wronged beyond what is fitting, I order the release of

the Jews now held in servitude, their owners receiving the sum stated above for each; and let no one deal wrongfully with them in this matter, but let all obey what has been ordered. I wish the registration to be completed within three days of the issuing of this decree, before the officials set over them, with the persons themselves presented at once; for I judge this to serve my own interest. Let anyone who wishes report those who disobey,

whose property I wish to be confiscated to the royal estate." When this decree was read to the king, and found complete in every respect except that it had not made explicit provision for the Jews brought in earlier and those brought in later, he himself, out of his own magnanimity, added this further act of kindness as well, and ordered that the sum owed, though a single lump payment, be apportioned among the officials of

the treasury and the royal bankers. When this had been done, within seven days in all what the king had decreed was accomplished, and the ransom came to more than four hundred and sixty talents—for the owners exacted the hundred and twenty drachmas even for infants, since the king had ordered payment for them too, in prescribing that this sum be received for

each person. Once this had been carried out magnificently, in accordance with the king's wish, he ordered Demetrius to submit his proposal concerning the transcription of the Jewish books as well; for kings did nothing without careful consideration, but conducted everything with great diligence. For this reason both the copy of the proposal and of the letters have been preserved, together with a record of

the offerings that were sent and the workmanship of each, so that the craftsman's skill might be perfectly evident to those who saw them, and so that, by the excellence of what was made, the maker of each piece might at once be recognized. The copy of the proposal was as follows: "To the great king, from Demetrius. Since you have ordered, O king, concerning the writings still needed to complete the library, that they be

gathered, and concerning those that have fallen into decay, that they receive proper care, I, having applied every diligence to this task, report to you that the books of the Jewish legislation are lacking to us, along with certain others; for, being written in Hebrew characters and in the language of that nation, they are unintelligible to us. It has also happened that they have been copied out rather more carelessly than they should have been, since they have not received royal attention. It is necessary that

these too be made accurate and kept in your possession; for their legislation, being God's, turns out to be highly philosophical and pure. For this reason Hecataeus of Abdera says that neither the poets nor the writers of histories made any mention of it, nor of the men who governed themselves by it, since it is holy and ought not to be disclosed by profane lips. If, then, it seems good to you, O king, you should write

to the high priest of the Jews, asking him to send six elders from each tribe, the men most experienced in the laws, from whom, once we have learned the clear and consistent sense of the books and secured an accurate rendering of their content, we may compile them in a manner worthy of your purpose." This proposal having been submitted, the king ordered that a letter be written to Eleazar, the high priest of the Jews, concerning

these matters, informing him at the same time of the release of the Jews enslaved among his people; and for the making of bowls, phials, and libation vessels he sent fifty talents' weight of gold and precious stones in a quantity beyond counting. He also ordered the guards of the chests in which the stones were kept to allow the craftsmen a free choice of whatever kind they wished.

He also arranged that coin worth a hundred talents be given to the priest for sacrifices and other needs. I will describe the objects made, and the manner of their craftsmanship, after first setting out the copy of the letter written to Eleazar the high priest, who received this honor for the following reason: when Onias the high priest died, his son Simon became his successor.

He was called "the Just" for his piety toward God and his goodwill toward his countrymen. When he died and left an infant son named Onias, his brother Eleazar—the man this account concerns—took over the high priesthood. To him Ptolemy wrote in these terms: "King Ptolemy to Eleazar the high priest, greetings.

"Since many Jews are settled in my kingdom—men whom my father honored after they were taken captive by the Persians when the Persians held power, enrolling some of them in the army at higher pay and entrusting others, who had come to Egypt with him, with the garrisons and their guarding, so that they would be feared by the Egyptians—I, on taking over the throne, have treated everyone with kindness, and especially your countrymen. Of these I have freed more than a hundred thousand who were held as slaves, paying their masters ransom from my own funds. Those in the prime of life I have enrolled in the military register, and some of those capable of being trusted at court I have judged worthy of that trust, believing this to be a pleasing offering to God for his providence toward me, and the greatest one I could make. Wishing to show favor to these men and to all the Jews throughout the world, I have resolved to have your law translated, transcribed from Hebrew into Greek characters, and deposited in my library. You will therefore do well to select good men, six from each tribe, already advanced in years, who by reason of their age have expert knowledge of the laws and will be able to produce an accurate translation of them; for I think that when this is accomplished we shall win the greatest renown. I have sent to confer with you about these matters Andreas, the chief bodyguard, and Aristeas, men held in the highest honor by me, through whom I have also sent a hundred talents of silver as first-fruits for offerings to the temple and for sacrifices and other needs. And you, for your part, will do us a favor by writing to us about whatever you wish."

When the king's letter was delivered to Eleazar, he wrote back to it with all the goodwill he could muster: "The high priest Eleazar to King Ptolemy, greetings. If you and Queen Arsinoe and your children are in good health, all is well with us. On receiving your letter we rejoiced greatly at your intention, and we gathered the people and read it to them, showing them the piety you hold toward God. We also displayed to them the bowls you sent, twenty of gold and thirty of silver, and five mixing-bowls, and a table for dedication, together with the hundred talents for sacrifice and for whatever repairs the temple might need—all of which Andreas and Aristeas, the most honored of your friends, brought, men of quality, distinguished in learning and worthy of your virtue. Know that we will endure whatever serves your interest, even if it goes against nature, for we owe it to repay your benefactions, which have been bestowed so abundantly on our citizens. At once, then, we offered sacrifices on behalf of you, your sister, your children, and your friends, and the people made prayers that things might go according to your mind and that your kingdom might be kept in peace, and that the translation of the law might reach the completion you intend, to your advantage. I have also selected elders, six men from each tribe, whom we have sent with the law in hand. It will be a mark of your piety and justice to send the translated law back to us in safety, under the protection of those who bring it. Farewell." This is what the high priest wrote in reply.

I did not think it necessary to give the names of the seventy elders who were sent by Eleazar carrying the law, for these were recorded in the letter itself. But the costliness and workmanship of the offerings which the king sent to God I thought it not unfitting to describe, so that the king's devotion toward God might be made plain to everyone; for in furnishing unstinting expense for this purpose, and by being present continually with the craftsmen and overseeing the work, the king allowed none of the pieces to be made carelessly or casually. I will now describe the costliness of each item, though the history perhaps does not require such a report—still, I take it that the king's love of beauty and his magnanimity will thereby be made evident to my readers.

First I will set out the details of the table. The king had it in mind to make this piece of work of the very largest dimensions, and he ordered that the size of the table dedicated at Jerusalem be ascertained—how large it was, and whether a larger one could be made. On learning what its actual size was, and that nothing prevented a larger one from being made, he said he wished to have one made five times the size of the existing one, but feared that it might become unfit for its ritual use because of its excessive size; for he wished the offerings not merely to be set up for display but also to be serviceable for the rites. And so, reasoning that the earlier table had been made of a proportionate size not for lack of gold, he resolved not to exceed the existing one in size, but to make his more remarkable for the variety and beauty of its material.

Being skilled at grasping the nature of every kind of object and at conceiving new and extraordinary designs, and for whatever had not been recorded in writing supplying the invention himself through his own understanding and showing it to the craftsmen, he ordered these things to be made, and directed that whatever had been written down should likewise be carried out with precision, keeping to the record. Having thus undertaken to make the table two and a half cubits in length, one cubit in width, and one and a half cubits in height, they worked it entirely of gold, laying the whole foundation of the piece in that material. They made the crown-molding a palm's breadth wide, and wrought the wave-mouldings as twisted cable-patterns, marvelously rendered in relief on all three sides; for since these were triangular in shape, each angle bore the same pattern of relief, so that as they were turned, the same design, and not a different one, revolved with them.

Of the crown-molding, the part inclined beneath the table had a beautiful relief pattern, while the outer, projecting part had been worked with still greater beauty of craftsmanship, since it came directly under view and observation. For this reason the raised edges of both parts turned out sharp, and no one of the three angles—as we said before—appeared smaller than the others as the table was turned. Set into the cable-patterned reliefs were costly stones arranged in parallel rows, held fast by golden pins through drilled holes. Along the sides of the crown-molding, rising toward view, an ornament of eggs made from the finest stone had been set in place, worked in relief to resemble close-set rods running around the circle of the table.

Beneath the pattern of the eggs the craftsmen carried around a wreath engraved in the likeness of every kind of fruit, so that clusters of grapes seemed to hang down, ears of grain to stand upright, and pomegranates to be enclosed within their husks. They worked the stones to match every kind of these fruits, so that each bore its own natural color, and fastened them with gold all around the whole table. Below the wreath, in the same way, was set the pattern of the eggs and the relief of fluting, so that on both sides of the table the same display of variety and elegance of workmanship was achieved, with the arrangement of the other wave-mouldings and of the crown-molding showing no difference even when the table was turned to face the other way—the same appearance of craftsmanship extending even down to the feet.

For they made a plate of gold four fingers wide running the whole width of the table, and into this they set the table's legs; then with pins and clasps they fastened these to the table at the crown-molding, so that whichever side the table were set to face, it would present the same appearance of novelty and costliness. On the table itself they engraved a meander pattern, setting into its center notable stones like stars of varied form, the carbuncle and the emerald each casting a most pleasing gleam upon those who looked on them, along with stones of the other kinds that are prized and coveted by all for the costliness of their nature. After the meander came a cable-like plaited pattern running around, resembling a lozenge in its central appearance, into which crystal and amber had been set, their alternating juxtaposition producing a marvelous delight for those who beheld it.

The capitals of the legs were shaped like lilies, with the unfolding of the petals curving back beneath the table while allowing the upward growth to be seen from within. The base beneath them was made of carbuncle stone, a palm's breadth in size, forming the shape of a plinth, and eight fingers wide, on which the whole plate of the legs rested. They carved each of the legs with fine and most painstaking relief work, bringing out on them ivy and vine-tendrils together with clusters of grapes, so lifelike that one would judge them to fall nothing short of reality; for through their fineness, and through the way their outermost extensions moved in the breeze, they created an impression more of things by nature in motion than of imitations by art.

They devised the whole shape of the table as if triple-paneled, the parts fitted together in such harmony with one another that the joints were invisible and could not even be detected. The thickness of the table came to not less than half a cubit. This offering, then, was completed through the king's great devotion, both in the costliness of its material, the variety of its beauty, and the craftsmen's skill in relief work—the king having taken care that, even if it should not surpass in size the table already dedicated to God, it should in workmanship, novelty, and brilliance of construction be made far superior and an object of admiration.

Of the mixing-bowls, two were of gold, worked with scale-like relief from the base to the girdle, with stones of varied colors set into their spirals. Above this a meander a cubit high was worked in a composition of every sort of stone, and upon it fluting was carved in relief, above which a lozenge-shaped lattice pattern, resembling netting, ran up to the rim; the spaces between were filled out in beauty by small shields of stone four fingers wide. The rim of the mixing-bowl was wreathed round with lilies, bindweed, flowers, and clusters of grapes drawn together in cable-patterns forming a circle. In this manner the two golden mixing-bowls, each holding two amphorae, were made; and the silver ones proved far more brilliant in their gleam than mirrors, so that the faces of those who approached them were seen more clearly reflected in them. The king also had thirty bowls made in addition to these, and whatever part of them was gold rather than set with costly stone was shaded with skillfully carved bindweed of ivy and vine-leaves.

These things were achieved partly through the skill of the workmen, who were marvelous in their art, but far more through the king's zeal and devotion, which brought them to completion beyond the ordinary; for he not only supplied the craftsmen with unstinting and generous funding, but, setting aside his attention to affairs of state, was himself present with those making the pieces and oversaw the whole work. This was the reason for the craftsmen's diligence, for looking to the king and his own zeal they applied themselves to the work with greater industry. Such were the offerings sent to Jerusalem by Ptolemy.

The high priest Eleazar dedicated them, honored the men who had brought them, gave gifts to carry back to the king, and sent them off to him. When they arrived in Alexandria, Ptolemy, hearing of their presence and that the seventy elders had come, at once sent for Andreas and Aristeas, the envoys. On their arrival they delivered the letters they were carrying to him from the high priest, and reported all that they had been instructed to say. Eager to meet with the elders who had come from Jerusalem for the translation of the laws, he ordered that the others who happened to be present on various business be dismissed, an unusual step and contrary to custom; for those who came on such business were normally admitted to him only after five days, while envoys waited a month. Having thus dismissed the others, he waited for the men sent by Eleazar.

When the elders arrived, bringing with them the gifts which the high priest had given them to carry to the king, along with the skins on which the laws were written in golden letters, he questioned them about the books. When they unwrapped the coverings and showed them to him, the king marveled at the fineness of the parchment and the imperceptibility of the joins—so skillfully had they been fitted together—and after doing this for a considerable time he said he was grateful to them for coming, and even more to the one who had sent them, but above all to God, whose laws they turned out to be. When the elders and all present cried out together, wishing good things for the king, he broke into tears from the excess of his joy—for it is the nature of great gladness to produce the same signs as grief. Ordering that the books be given to the officials in charge of such matters, he then greeted the men, saying it was right first to speak of the business for which he had summoned them and only then to address them personally. He further promised to make the day on which they had come to him a day of note, celebrated every year for the whole span of his life, since it happened to coincide with the anniversary of his victory over Antigonus in the sea-battle. He also ordered them to dine with him, and directed that the finest lodgings near the citadel be given to them.

Nicanor, who was in charge of receiving foreign guests, summoned Dorotheus, who had responsibility for such matters, and told him to prepare for each man what was needed for his manner of living. This had been arranged by the king in the following way: for every city that followed its own customs in matters of diet, Dorotheus took care of these things, and prepared everything for those who came to him according to the custom of their homeland, so that being entertained in their accustomed manner they might enjoy themselves the more and take no offense as if treated as strangers to anything. This same care was in fact shown to these men as well.

Dorotheus had been put in charge of these matters because of his exactness in the conduct of life. Through him everything needed for such receptions was arranged, and he made the couches in two rows, as the king had ordered: half the men were to recline on one side, the rest after the king's own couch, so that nothing was wanting in the honor paid to the men. Once they were seated in this way,

the king told Dorotheus to serve them according to the customs that all who came to him from Judea regularly observed. For this reason he dismissed the sacred heralds and the sacrificers and the others who normally offered the invocations, and instead asked one of the visitors, a priest named Elisaeus, to say the blessing. He stood in the middle and prayed for the king's welfare

and for that of his subjects. Then applause rose from everyone with joy and shouting, and when it ceased they turned to the feast and to enjoying what had been prepared. After the king judged that enough time had passed, he began to converse philosophically and put questions of natural science to each of them in turn, asking each man in turn to speak with precision on whatever topic was proposed for inquiry.

He took delight in their answers to whatever was put to them, and kept the banquet going for twelve days, so that anyone who wants to learn the particulars of what was discussed at the banquet can do so by reading the book of Aristaeus, which he wrote for this purpose. The king, and Menedemus the philosopher too, marveled at them, declaring that everything is governed by providence and that this was likely why

such power and beauty had been found in their reasoning as well. When they ceased being questioned on these matters, the king said the greatest of blessings had already come to him through their presence, for he had profited by learning from them how a king ought to rule. He ordered that three talents be given to each of them, along with attendants to escort them back to their lodging. Three days later Demetrius took them, and after crossing the seven-stade

causeway from the sea to the island and passing over the bridge, he went on to the northern district and held a meeting in the house built beside the shore, a place well suited to quiet reflection on matters of business. Bringing them there, he urged them to carry out the work of translating the law without hindrance, since everything they might need for the interpretation was at hand. They then, with all the

ambition and diligence they could bring to making the translation exact, continued at the task until the ninth hour, after which they turned to the care of the body, being generously supplied with everything needed for their diet; Dorotheus, moreover, supplied them liberally, for the king had ordered it, with much of what was being prepared for himself. Early each morning they came to the court, greeted Ptolemy, and then went back to

the same place, and after washing their hands in the sea and purifying themselves they turned to the interpretation of the laws. When the law had been transcribed and the work of translation had reached completion in seventy-two days, Demetrius gathered all the Jews at the place where the laws had been translated, with the translators present,

and read the translation to them. The people welcomed the elders who had made the law clear, and they praised Demetrius as well for having conceived so great a benefit for them, and asked that he give their leaders too a reading of the law. All of them requested it — the priest, the elders among the translators, and the leaders of the community — since the translation

had been so well finished, that it should remain as it stood and not be altered. When everyone had approved this resolution, they further ordered that if anyone noticed anything added to or omitted from the law, he should examine it again and, once he had made it clear, correct it, acting prudently in this so that what had once been judged good might remain forever unchanged. The king rejoiced

to see his purpose brought to so useful a completion, and still more, once the laws had been read to him, he was struck with wonder at the intelligence and the wisdom of the lawgiver, and began to put a question to Demetrius: how was it that, the legislation being so admirable, no historian and no poet had ever made mention of it? Demetrius answered that no one had dared to undertake

a written account of these laws, because they were divine and holy, and that some who had already attempted it had been harmed by God. He explained that Theopompus, wishing to relate something about them, had his mind disturbed for more than thirty days, and that in the intervals of relief he kept propitiating God, since he suspected that this was the source of his derangement. He had even seen in a dream

that this had happened to him because he was prying into divine things and wished to publish them to ordinary people; and having drawn back, his mind was restored. Demetrius also reported a similar story told of Theodectes, the tragic poet, who, wishing to make mention in one of his dramas of things written in the sacred book, was struck blind in his eyes, and, once he understood the cause, recovered from his affliction by appeasing God.

Once the king had received these things from Demetrius, as has already been said, he bowed before the books and ordered that great care be taken of them, so that they might be preserved uncorrupted, and he invited the translators to come to him from Judea regularly, since this would benefit them both in the honor he would show them and in the profit from his gifts; for now, he said,

it was only right to send them off, but if they came to him of their own accord in the future they would obtain everything that their wisdom justly deserved and that his own generosity was able to provide. He then sent them off, giving each man three fine robes, two talents of gold, a cup worth a talent, and the couch-furnishings from the banquet. These gifts he bestowed on them;

and to the high priest Eleazar he sent, by their hands, ten couches with silver feet and their accompanying furnishings, a cup worth thirty talents, and besides these ten robes, purple cloth, a splendid crown, a hundred rolls of fine linen, and further bowls, dishes, libation vessels, and two gold mixing-bowls for dedication. He also urged him, in letters, that

if any of these men wished to come to him he should permit it, since he set great store by the company of educated men and was glad to spend his wealth on such people. Such, then, were the honors that came to the Jews from Ptolemy Philadelphus for the glory and dignity of their nation. They also received honor from the kings of Asia, since

they had fought alongside them; for Seleucus Nicator granted them citizenship in the cities he founded in Asia and lower Syria, and in the capital itself, Antioch, and made them equal in privilege to the Macedonians and Greeks settled there, so that this citizenship still remains in force today. The proof of this is that the Jews, unwilling to use foreign oil, receive a fixed

sum of money from the gymnasiarchs in place of the oil allowance, as he had ordered. When the people of Antioch wished to abolish this in the recent war, Mucianus, then governor of Syria, preserved it, and afterward, when Vespasian and his son Titus had become masters of the world, the people of Alexandria and Antioch petitioned that the rights of citizenship no longer remain in force for the Jews, but they did not

succeed. From this one may recognize the fairness and generosity of the Romans, and especially of Vespasian and Titus: although they had suffered greatly in the war against the Jews and were bitterly disposed toward them for not surrendering their weapons but holding out in resistance to the very end, they took away none of their possessions under the citizenship described above; for they mastered both

their earlier anger and the very great pleading of the peoples of Alexandria and Antioch, so that neither their favor toward these petitioners nor their hatred of wrongdoing directed against those they had fought moved them to abolish any of the ancient privileges belonging to the Jews; rather, they said that those who had taken up arms against them and gone to war had paid the penalty, but they did not think it right to deprive those who had done no wrong

of their possessions. We know that Marcus Agrippa held a similar view about the Jews; for when the Ionians rose up against them and pressed Agrippa that the Jews alone should be made to give up the citizenship that Antiochus, the grandson of Seleucus, called Theos among the Greeks, had granted them, on the ground that if the Jews were their kinsmen they ought to worship their gods as well, and when the case

concerning these matters was tried, the Jews won the right to keep their own customs, Nicolaus of Damascus having argued the case on their behalf; for Agrippa declared that it was not permitted to introduce any innovation against them. Anyone wishing to know the details may read Nicolaus's hundred and twenty-third and hundred and twenty-fourth books. As for the judgments Agrippa made, there is perhaps nothing surprising in them, since

our nation was not then at war with the Romans; but one might reasonably marvel at the generosity of Vespasian and Titus, who, after such wars and such great struggles as they had waged against us, still showed moderation. But let me return the narrative to the point from which I digressed. Under the reign of Antiochus the Great, king of Asia, the Jews happened to suffer greatly, their land being ravaged, along with those who inhabited

Coele-Syria. For while he was at war with Ptolemy Philopator and afterward with his son, called Ptolemy Epiphanes, the Jews suffered the same hardships whether Antiochus was victorious or defeated, so that they were left in no better position than a ship tossed and battered by the waves from both sides, caught between Antiochus's good fortune and the turn of events against him. When, however, Antiochus

defeated Ptolemy, he brought Judea over to his side. After the death of Philopator, his son sent out a great force under the general Scopas against the peoples of Coele-Syria, who took many of their cities, and our nation as well; for when war was made against it, it went over to him. Not long afterward Antiochus defeated Scopas in battle at the springs of the Jordan

and destroyed much of his army. Later, when Antiochus had subdued the cities in Coele-Syria that Scopas had held, along with Samaria, the Jews went over to him of their own accord and, receiving him into their city, supplied his whole army and his elephants in abundance, and readily joined him in besieging the garrison Scopas had left in the citadel of Jerusalem.

Antiochus, considering it right to reward the zeal and devotion the Jews had shown toward him, wrote to his generals and his friends, bearing witness to the good he had received from the Jews and setting out the gifts he had resolved to grant them for it. I will set forth the letters written to the generals concerning them, after first noting, as Polybius of Megalopolis confirms

our account in his sixteenth book, where he writes as follows: 'Scopas, the general of Ptolemy, marching up into the highlands, subdued the nation of the Jews during the winter.' He says further in the same book that when Scopas was defeated by Antiochus, Antiochus took over Batanea, Samaria, Abila, and Gadara,

and shortly afterward the Jews who dwelt around the temple called Jerusalem went over to him as well — about which, having much more to say, especially concerning the manifestation that occurred at the temple, I will postpone the account to another occasion. This is what Polybius recorded. Let us now return to the narrative, setting out first the

letters of King Antiochus. King Antiochus to Ptolemy, greeting. Since the Jews, as soon as we entered their territory, showed their devotion toward us, and when we arrived at the city gave us a magnificent welcome, coming out to meet us with the senate, providing abundant supplies for the soldiers and the elephants, and joining in driving out the Egyptian

garrison in the citadel, we have judged it right to repay them in turn for this, to restore their city, ruined as it was by the misfortunes of the war, and to resettle it by gathering back those who had been scattered from it. First, out of regard for their piety, we have decided to provide for the sacrifices a grant of sacrificial animals, wine, oil, and frankincense worth twenty thousand pieces of silver, and sacred fine flour in the amount

of one thousand four hundred sixty measures according to the local law, and three hundred seventy-five measures of salt. I wish these things to be furnished to them, as I have ordered, and the work on the temple to be completed, including the porticoes and whatever else needs to be built; the timber is to be brought in from Judea itself, from the other nations, and from

Lebanon, with no tax levied on it, and likewise for the other materials needed to make the restoration of the temple the more splendid. Let all those of the nation govern themselves according to their ancestral laws, and let the senate, the priests, the temple scribes, and the temple singers be released from the poll tax, the crown tax, and the

tax on other things. And so that the city may be resettled more quickly, I grant to those now living there, and to those who return by the month of Hyperberetaios, exemption from taxes for up to three years. We also release them for the future from a third part of their tribute, so that the damage they have suffered may be made good. And as for those who were carried off from the city and are now enslaved,

we set both them and their children free, and order that their property be restored to them. Such was the content of the letter. And to honor the temple further, he issued a public proclamation throughout the whole kingdom containing the following: that no foreigner should be permitted to enter the enclosure of the temple forbidden to non-Jews, except those for whom it is customary, once purified, according to the ancestral law. Nor into the

No one shall bring horse meat or mule meat into the city, nor the meat of wild or domestic asses, leopards, foxes, or hares, nor in general any of the animals forbidden to the Jews. No one shall bring in their hides, nor even raise any of these animals in the city. Only the sacrificial animals of their ancestors, from which they must also offer sacrifice to God, are they permitted to use. Whoever transgresses any of these provisions shall pay the priests three thousand silver drachmas.

He also wrote, testifying to our piety and good faith, when he learned of the uprisings in Phrygia and Lydia, while he himself was in the upper satrapies at the time, ordering Zeuxis his general and one of his closest friends to send some of our people from Babylon into Phrygia. He wrote as follows:

"King Antiochus to Zeuxis his father, greetings. If you are well, it would be good; I myself am also in good health. Learning that the people of Lydia and Phrygia were rising up, I judged this to require serious attention, and after deliberating with my friends about what should be done, it was decided to transfer two thousand Jewish households, with their property, from Mesopotamia and Babylonia to the forts and the most essential places. For I am persuaded that they will be loyal guardians of our interests because of their piety toward God, and I know, from the testimony borne to them by their ancestors, both their good faith and their eagerness in whatever they are asked to do. I wish, then, though the transfer is a laborious matter, that once they have given their pledge they be allowed to use their own laws. And when you have brought them to the places named, you shall give each of them a plot of land for building houses, land for farming and for planting vines, and you shall exempt them from the produce of the soil for ten years. Let grain also be measured out to them, until they receive the produce of the land, for the sustenance of their servants; and let those serving their needs also be given what is sufficient, so that, receiving our generosity, they may show themselves the more eager on our behalf. Take care of the nation as far as you are able, so that it is troubled by no one."

Concerning the friendship of Antiochus the Great toward the Jews, let this testimony suffice for us. After this Antiochus made friendship and a treaty with Ptolemy, and gave him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, ceding to him Coele-Syria, Samaria, Judea, and Phoenicia as a dowry, so named. When the taxes were divided between the two kings, each of the notable men bought the right to collect taxes in his own homeland, and having gathered the assessed sum, paid it to the kings.

At this time the Samaritans, being prosperous, did the Jews much harm, cutting up their land and carrying off people. This happened in the high priesthood of Onias. For when Eleazar died, his uncle Manasseh received the high priesthood, and after him, when he too had ended his life, Onias succeeded to the honor, being the son of the Simon called the Just; Simon was the brother of Eleazar, as I have said before. This Onias was small-minded and fond of money, and for this reason, failing to pay the tax on behalf of the people that his fathers had paid the kings from their own resources—twenty talents of silver—he provoked to anger King Ptolemy Euergetes, the father of Philopator. Ptolemy sent an envoy to Jerusalem accusing Onias of not paying the taxes, and threatened, if he did not receive them, to parcel out their land and send soldiers to settle it.

On hearing this message from the king, the Jews were thrown into confusion, but Onias was moved by none of it, out of his love of money. But a certain Joseph, still young in years but enjoying a reputation among the people of Jerusalem for dignity and foresight and justice—his father was Tobias, and his mother was the sister of Onias the high priest, who informed him of the envoy's arrival, since he happened to be away at the time in the village of Phicola, where he had his home—came into the city and rebuked Onias for not caring for the safety of the citizens, but wishing to expose the nation to danger for the sake of withholding money, when it was for that very money that Onias claimed to hold the leadership of the people and to have obtained the honor of the high priesthood.

"If you are so enamored of money," he said, "that you can bear to see your homeland endangered on its account, and your fellow citizens suffer whatever may come, then go to the king and beg him to release you from all the money owed, or a part of it." When Onias answered that he had no wish to hold office at all, and was ready, if it were possible, to lay down the high priesthood, but that he would not go up to the king, since he cared nothing about the matter, Joseph asked him whether he would allow him to go as ambassador to Ptolemy on behalf of the nation. When Onias said he permitted it, Joseph went up to the temple, called the people together in assembly, and urged them not to be troubled or afraid on account of the negligence of his uncle Onias toward them, but to put aside their gloomy expectations and take heart, for he himself promised to go as ambassador to the king and persuade him that they were doing no wrong.

When the people heard this, they thanked Joseph. He then went down from the temple, received the king's envoy as his guest, and after giving him lavish gifts and entertaining him generously for many days, sent him on his way to the king, telling him that he himself would follow. Indeed, the envoy had become even more eager for Joseph's arrival at the king's court, having urged and encouraged him to come to Egypt, and having promised that he would obtain from Ptolemy whatever he might ask; for he had come to love greatly Joseph's noble bearing and the dignity of his character.

When the envoy arrived in Egypt, he reported to the king Onias's ingratitude, and spoke of Joseph's excellence, and said that he was about to come to him to ask pardon for the multitude's offenses, for he was their patron. Indeed, he used such abundance of praise in speaking of the young man that he predisposed both the king and his wife Cleopatra to feel kindly toward Joseph even before he arrived.

Joseph sent word to his friends in Samaria, borrowed money, and prepared what was needed for the journey—clothing, drinking vessels, and pack animals—equipping himself with about twenty thousand drachmas' worth, and arrived in Alexandria. It happened that at that very time all the leading men from the cities of Syria and Phoenicia, along with the magistrates, were going up to bid for the tax farming; for the king sold it each year to the men of standing in each city. Seeing Joseph on the road, they mocked him for his poverty and plain dress. When he arrived in Alexandria and heard that Ptolemy was in Memphis, he went to meet him and joined him there. As the king was sitting in his carriage with his wife and with his friend Athenion—the same man who had gone as envoy to Jerusalem and had been Joseph's guest—Athenion, catching sight of him, at once made him known to the king, saying that this was the man about whom, on returning from Jerusalem, he had reported that he was a good and honorable young man. Ptolemy greeted him first of all and invited him to mount the carriage.

When Joseph had taken his seat, the king began to complain of Onias's conduct. Joseph said, "Forgive him on account of his age; for it surely does not escape you that old men and infants happen to have the same understanding. But from us, the younger men, you shall have everything, so that you have no cause for complaint." Delighted by the young man's charm and wit, Ptolemy began to love him all the more, as if he had already been tested by experience, so that he ordered him to lodge in the palace and to dine daily at his own table.

When the king came to Alexandria, the leading men of Syria, seeing Joseph seated beside him, took it badly.

When the day arrived on which the taxes of the cities were to be sold, those who held the highest rank in their own homelands were bidding. The taxes of Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, and Samaria together were being assessed at eight thousand talents, when Joseph came forward and accused the bidders of conspiring to offer the king only a low price for the taxes; he himself promised to give double, and to send to the king the property of those who committed offenses against his interest, for this too was sold along with the taxes.

The king, delighted to hear this and considering that it would increase his revenue, declared that the contract for the taxes would be awarded to him. When he asked whether Joseph also had guarantors, he answered most wittily, "I will give you good and honorable men, whom you will not distrust." When the king asked who these were, he said, "You yourself, O king, and your wife—I give you both as guarantors, one for each half." Ptolemy laughed and granted him the taxes without requiring any sureties. This greatly grieved those who had come from the cities to Egypt, feeling themselves outdone, and they returned each to their own homeland in disgrace.

Joseph, having received from the king two thousand foot soldiers—for he had asked for some assistance, so as to be able to compel those in the cities who showed contempt—and having borrowed five hundred talents in Alexandria from the king's friends, set out for Syria. Arriving at Ashkelon, he demanded the taxes from the people of Ashkelon; and when they were unwilling to give anything, and even insulted him, he seized about twenty of their leading men, put them to death, and sent their property, amounting to a thousand talents, to the king, informing him also of what had happened.

Ptolemy, amazed at his spirit, and praising what he had done, allowed him to do as he wished. When the Syrians heard of this, they were struck with terror, and having before them the harsh example of the men of Ashkelon put to death for their disobedience, they opened their gates and received Joseph eagerly, and paid the taxes. When the people of Scythopolis also attempted to insult him and withhold the taxes they had been paying without dispute, he likewise put their leading men to death and sent their property to the king. Having gathered great sums of money and made large profits from the tax farming, he used what he had acquired to secure the position of power he now held, judging it wise to preserve, from his own resources, the foundation and basis of his present good fortune. He sent many gifts, discreetly, to the king and to Cleopatra, and to their friends, and to all the powerful men at court, buying their goodwill through these means.

He enjoyed this good fortune for twenty-two years, becoming the father of seven children by one wife, and of one more, named Hyrcanus, by the daughter of his brother Solymius. He married her under the following circumstances. Once, when he had joined his brother, who was going to Alexandria bringing his daughter, who was of marriageable age, in order to give her in marriage to one of the Jews of standing, and was dining at the king's table, a dancing girl of great beauty came into the banquet, and he fell in love with her. He revealed this to his brother, begging him—since the law forbade Jews to approach a foreign woman—to conceal the offense and, acting as a good servant to him, to arrange things so as to satisfy his desire.

His brother gladly took on this service, adorned his own daughter, and brought her to him by night and had her lie with him. Being drunk, he did not perceive the truth, and lay with his brother's daughter; and this having happened repeatedly, he loved her all the more passionately. He said to his brother that he was risking his life by loving a dancing girl, whom the king would perhaps not allow him to have. His brother told him not to be anxious at all, but to enjoy the woman he loved without fear, and to have her as his wife; and he then made the truth known to him, saying that he had chosen rather to see his own daughter dishonored than to see him brought to shame.

Joseph, praising him for his brotherly love, took his daughter as his wife, and had by her a son, Hyrcanus, as I have said before. When this boy was still thirteen years old, he showed a natural courage and intelligence beyond his years, so that he was bitterly envied by his brothers, being far superior to them and likely to be resented.

When Joseph wished to know which of his sons was best suited by nature for virtue, he sent each in turn to the men then reputed to be teachers. The rest, out of laziness and a lack of diligence for hard work, returned to him foolish and ignorant; but after them, he sent the youngest, Hyrcanus, giving him three hundred yoke of oxen, and sent him a two days' journey into the wilderness to sow the land, having first hidden the yoke-straps.

When Hyrcanus arrived at the place and did not have the straps, he rejected the advice of the drovers, who counseled sending some men to his father to fetch the straps; instead, judging that the time should not be wasted waiting for those who would be sent, he devised a plan both clever and beyond his years. He slaughtered ten yoke of oxen, distributed the meat to the workers, and, cutting up their hides and making straps from them, bound the yokes with these; and in this way, having sown the land his father had assigned him, he returned to him. When his father saw him, he was filled with admiration for his spirit, and praising the sharpness of his mind and the boldness that went with it, he loved him all the more as his only true son, to the vexation of his brothers.

When someone reported to him, at this same time, that a son had been born to King Ptolemy, and that all the leading men of Syria and of the subject country were setting out for Alexandria with great preparation to celebrate the child's birthday, he himself was held back by old age,

He tested his sons to see whether any of them wished to go to the king. The elder ones excused themselves, saying they were too rough in manner for such company, and advised sending their brother Hyrcanus instead. Delighted to hear this, he called Hyrcanus and asked whether he was able and willing to go to the king. When Hyrcanus promised to go and said he needed only a modest sum for the journey—since he could live frugally enough that ten thousand drachmas would suffice him—his father was pleased at the boy's good sense.

After a short interval the boy advised his father not to send gifts to the king directly from home, but instead to give him a letter to the steward in Alexandria, instructing him to supply Hyrcanus with money to buy whatever fine and costly things he might find. His father, thinking the expense for the king's gifts would come to ten talents, and praising his son for the good advice, wrote to the steward Arion, who managed all his funds in Alexandria—no less than three thousand talents, since Joseph sent the revenues from Syria to Alexandria, and when the deadline approached for paying the king's tribute, he would write to Arion to see to it.

So Hyrcanus asked his father for this letter, took it, and set out for Alexandria. As soon as he had left, his brothers wrote to all the king's friends asking them to destroy him.

When he arrived in Alexandria and delivered the letter to Arion, the steward asked him how many talents he wished to receive, expecting him to ask for ten or a little more. But when Hyrcanus said he needed a thousand, Arion grew angry and rebuked him for having resolved to live extravagantly, pointing out how his father had built up his estate through hard labor and self-restraint, and urging him to imitate his father in this. He said he would give him nothing beyond the ten talents, and that only for gifts to the king. Provoked, the boy had Arion thrown into chains.

Arion's wife reported this to Cleopatra and begged her to rebuke the boy, for Arion was held in great honor by her, and Cleopatra made the matter known to the king. Ptolemy sent to Hyrcanus expressing his astonishment that, though sent to him by his father, he had neither come into his presence nor, worse, had thrown the steward into chains; he ordered Hyrcanus to come and explain the reason.

Hyrcanus is said to have replied to the king's messenger that there is a law among them forbidding a newborn child to taste of sacrifices before he has gone to the temple and sacrificed to God; on this same reasoning he himself had not come into the king's presence, waiting instead to bring gifts befitting one who had become his father's benefactor. As for the slave, he had punished him for disobeying his orders, for it makes no difference, he said, whether a master is small or great; if we do not punish such men, you too must expect to be despised by your subjects.

Hearing this, Ptolemy burst into laughter and marveled at the boy's greatness of spirit. When Arion learned that the king was disposed in this way and that no help was coming to him, he gave the boy the thousand talents and was released from his chains.

Three days later Hyrcanus paid his respects to the king and queen. They received him gladly and entertained him warmly out of regard for his father. Then, going privately to the merchants, he bought from them a hundred boys skilled in letters and in the prime of youth, at a talent apiece, and a hundred girls at the same price.

When he was invited to a banquet at the king's table along with the leading men of the country, he was placed below everyone, being despised as still a boy by those who assigned the places according to rank. As all the guests reclining there piled up before Hyrcanus the bones of the portions they had eaten—for they stripped off the meat themselves—until the table set before him was heaped full, Trypho, who served as the king's jester and was known for his quips and for raising laughter at drinking parties, stood beside the king, urged on by the other guests, and said, "Do you see, master, the bones piled before Hyrcanus? From this you may guess that his father stripped all of Syria bare, just as this boy has stripped these bones of their meat."

The king laughed at Trypho's remark and asked Hyrcanus why so many bones lay before him. "Naturally, master," he said. "Dogs eat the bones along with the meat—just as these men are doing, if you look at what lies before them, since nothing remains in front of them—but men eat the meat and throw away the bones, which is what I, being a man, have just done."

The king marveled at how clever his answer was and ordered everyone to applaud, welcoming him warmly for his wit.

The next day, going to each of the king's friends and to the powerful men at court, he greeted some of them, and inquired of their servants what gift they intended to give the king at his son's birthday celebration. When they said that some intended to give ten talents, others an amount suited to the scale of their own fortunes, he pretended to be distressed at being unable to bring so great a gift, since he had no more than five talents.

The servants, hearing this, reported it to their masters, who were glad, supposing that Joseph's family would be disgraced and fall out of favor with the king because of the smallness of the gift.

When the day arrived, the others brought to the king sums of no more than twenty talents even from those thought to be giving most generously, but Hyrcanus had the hundred boys and equally many girls he had purchased carry a talent apiece and brought them forward, presenting the boys to the king and the girls to Cleopatra.

Everyone, including the king and queen themselves, marveled at the unexpected extravagance of the gifts, and he further gave gifts worth many talents to the king's friends and to those attending on the king, so as to escape the danger they posed to him—for it was to these very men that his brothers had written asking them to do away with Hyrcanus.

Ptolemy, admiring the young man's magnanimity, ordered him to receive whatever gift he wished. He asked for nothing more from the king than that he write to his father and brothers on his behalf. So the king, having honored him most lavishly and given him splendid gifts, wrote to his father and brothers and to all his governors and stewards, and sent him off.

When his brothers heard that Hyrcanus had obtained these favors from the king and was returning in great honor, they went out to meet him intending to kill him, and their father knew of it; for he was angry with Hyrcanus over the money spent on the gifts and gave no thought to his safety. Joseph, however, concealed his anger toward his son out of fear of the king.

When his brothers joined battle with him, Hyrcanus killed many of those with them, including two of his brothers, and the rest escaped safely to Jerusalem to their father.

When he came to the city and no one would receive him, he withdrew in fear across the Jordan River and lived there, exacting tribute from the barbarians.

At that time Seleucus, surnamed Soter, son of Antiochus the Great, was king of Asia. And Hyrcanus's father, Joseph, a good and magnanimous man, who had raised the Jewish people from poverty and weak circumstances to a more splendid state of life, died after holding the tax collectorship of Syria, Phoenicia, and Samaria for twenty-two years. His uncle Onias also died, leaving the high priesthood to his son Simon. When Simon too died, his son Onias succeeded him in this honor.

To this Onias, Areus, king of the Lacedaemonians, sent an embassy and a letter, a copy of which reads as follows: "King Areus of the Lacedaemonians to Onias, greetings. We have found in a certain document that the Jews and Lacedaemonians are of one race, being related through Abraham. It is right, therefore, since you are our brothers, that you send to us concerning whatever you wish. We for our part will do the same, and will regard your possessions as our own, and hold what is ours in common with you. Demoteles, who carries this letter, will convey your replies to us. The document is drawn up in a square format, and its seal is an eagle grasping a serpent." Such was the content of the letter sent by the king of the Lacedaemonians.

After Joseph's death, the people fell into strife over his sons. For the elder sons made war on Hyrcanus, who was the youngest of Joseph's children, and the populace was divided. Most sided with the elder brothers, as did the high priest Simon, because of their kinship; but Hyrcanus decided never to return to Jerusalem, and settling across the Jordan, he waged continual war on the Arabs, killing many of them and taking others captive.

He built a strong fortress out of white stone, its whole surface, even the roof, carved with enormous animal figures, and around it he ran a great, deep moat. Cutting into the rock face of the mountain opposite, he carved out caves many stadia in length, and within them he made some rooms for banqueting and others for sleeping and daily life, and he brought in an abundance of running water, both for pleasure and as an ornament to the courtyard. The mouths of the caves he made narrow, so that only one person could pass through at a time, deliberately, as a safeguard against being besieged by his brothers and taken by surprise. He also built courtyards of extraordinary size, adorning them with very long garden parks. Having completed this place, he named it Tyre. This place lies between Arabia and Judea, across the Jordan, not far from the region of Heshbon.

He ruled that district for seven years, for the whole time that Seleucus reigned over Syria. When Seleucus died, his brother Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the throne after him. Ptolemy, king of Egypt, likewise surnamed Epiphanes, also died, leaving two sons still young in years, of whom the elder was called Philometor and the younger Physcon. Hyrcanus, seeing that Antiochus had great power and fearing that he might be seized and punished for what he had done to the Arabs, took his own life. Antiochus seized his entire estate.

At about the same time, Onias the high priest also died, and Antiochus gave the high priesthood to his brother Jesus, since the son Onias had left behind was still an infant. We will describe what happened to this child in its proper place.

Jesus—for this was the brother of Onias—was deprived of the high priesthood when the king grew angry with him and gave it to his youngest brother, named Onias. For Simon had had these three sons, and the high priesthood passed to all three in turn, as we have shown. Now Jesus renamed himself Jason, and Onias was called Menelaus.

When the former high priest Jesus quarreled with Menelaus, who had been installed after him, the populace split into two factions. On Menelaus's side were the sons of Tobias, while the greater part of the people supported Jason. Hard-pressed by Jason, Menelaus and the sons of Tobias withdrew to Antiochus, informing him that they wished to abandon their ancestral laws and their form of government under them, and instead follow the king's laws and adopt the Greek way of life. They asked him, therefore, to permit them to build a gymnasium in Jerusalem. When he consented, they also concealed the circumcision of their private parts, so that even when stripped for exercise they might appear Greek, and abandoning all else that was ancestral to them, they imitated the practices of the other nations.

Since his kingdom was proceeding according to his wishes, Antiochus resolved to march against Egypt, having conceived a desire for it and because he held the sons of Ptolemy in contempt, since they were still weak and not yet capable of managing affairs of such magnitude. Coming with a large force to Pelusium, he outmaneuvered Ptolemy Philometor by trickery and seized Egypt, and having occupied the region around Memphis, he set out for Alexandria, intending to reduce it by siege and to overpower Ptolemy, who reigned there. But he was driven back not only from Alexandria but from the whole of Egypt, the Romans having ordered him to keep away from the country, as we have already shown elsewhere.

I will now relate in detail the affairs of this king, how he subdued Judea and the temple; for in my earlier work I mentioned these matters only in summary, and I have thought it necessary now to return to a more precise account of them.

Having withdrawn from Egypt out of fear of the Romans, King Antiochus marched against the city of Jerusalem, and arriving there in the hundred and forty-third year after the kings descended from Seleucus, he took the city without a fight, since those of his own party opened its gates to him. Once master of Jerusalem in this way, he killed many of those who held opposing views, and having plundered a great quantity of money, he returned to Antioch.

Two years later, in the hundred and forty-fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month called by us Excelaeus and by the Macedonians Apellaeus, in the hundred and fifty-third Olympiad, it happened that the king went up to Jerusalem with a large force and, feigning peace, took the city by deceit. This time he spared not even those who had let him in, on account of the wealth in the temple, but out of greed—for he saw much gold in the sanctuary and the rest of the votive ornaments of great value—he set out to plunder it, and endured...

He stripped the temple bare, carrying off even the vessels of God—the golden lampstands, the golden altar, the table, and the sacrificial implements—not sparing even the curtains, which were made of fine linen and scarlet. He emptied out the hidden treasuries as well, leaving absolutely nothing behind, and so plunged the Jews into deep mourning. He also stopped them from offering the daily sacrifices they made to God under the law, and after plundering the whole city he killed some of the inhabitants and took others captive along with their wives and children, so that the number of those seized alive came to about ten thousand. He burned the finest parts of the city, tore down its walls, and built a citadel in the lower city, since it stood high and overlooked the temple; fortifying it with high walls and towers, he stationed a Macedonian garrison there. The impious and morally corrupt among the populace nevertheless kept living in the citadel, and through them the citizens suffered many terrible things.

The king also built an altar over the altar of God and slaughtered pigs on it, performing a sacrifice neither lawful nor traditional in the religion of the Jews. He forced them to abandon the worship of their own god and instead venerate the gods he recognized, to build shrines and set up altars in every city and village, and to sacrifice pigs on them daily. He ordered them not to circumcise their children, threatening punishment on anyone found doing so contrary to his decree, and he appointed overseers to compel them to carry out his instructions.

Many of the Jews went along with what the king had ordered, some willingly, others out of fear of the threatened punishment, but the most respected and noble in spirit paid no heed to him, valuing their ancestral customs more than the punishment he threatened against those who disobeyed. For this they were tortured and abused every day and died under bitter torments—scourged and mutilated in body, they were crucified while still alive and breathing; and the wives and children of those who had circumcised their sons against the king's decree were strangled, the children hung from the necks of their own crucified parents. Wherever a sacred book or copy of the law was found, it was destroyed, and whoever was found possessing it perished miserably along with it.

Seeing the Jews suffering these things, the Samaritans no longer admitted to being their kinsmen, nor did they call the temple on Gerizim a temple of the Most High God—acting true to their own nature, as we have shown, and claiming instead to be colonists of the Medes and Persians, which in fact they are. They sent envoys to Antiochus and delivered a letter to him reading as follows: "To King Antiochus, God Manifest, a petition from the Sidonians at Shechem. Our ancestors, on account of certain droughts in their country, and following an ancient superstition, made it their custom to honor the day called among the Jews the sabbath, and they set up an unnamed temple on the mountain called Gerizim, where they offered the appropriate sacrifices. Now that you have dealt with the Jews as their wickedness deserves, the officials administering your affairs, supposing that we do the same things as they do because of kinship, attach the same charges to us, though we are in fact by origin Sidonians, as is plain from our public records. We therefore ask you, our benefactor and savior, to instruct Apollonius the district governor and Nicanor the administrator of royal affairs not to trouble us by attaching to us the charges leveled at the Jews, since we are foreign to them in both race and customs, and to have our unnamed temple named the Temple of Zeus of the Greeks. If this is done, we shall cease being troubled and shall attend to our own affairs in security, thereby increasing your revenues." In response to this petition of the Samaritans, the king wrote back to them as follows:

"King Antiochus to Nicanor. The Sidonians at Shechem have submitted the enclosed petition. Since, when we deliberated on the matter with our friends, the envoys they sent made clear to us that they have nothing to do with the charges brought against the Jews, but choose instead to live by Greek customs, we hereby release them from those charges, and their temple, as they have requested, shall be named the Temple of Zeus of the Greeks." He sent the same instructions to Apollonius the district governor, in the forty-sixth year, on the eighteenth of the month Hecatombaeon, called Hyrcanius.

At about this same time there lived in the village of Modein in Judea a man named Mattathias, son of John, son of Simeon, of the house of Hasmon, a priest of the division of Joarib, a Jerusalemite. He had five sons: John, called Gaddis; Simon, called Thassi; Judas, called Maccabaeus; Eleazar, called Auran; and Jonathan, called Apphus. Mattathias lamented to his children the state of affairs—the plundering of the city, the pillaging of the temple, and the calamities of the people—and told them it was better for them to die for the laws of their fathers than to go on living in such impiety.

When those the king had appointed to compel the Jews to carry out his orders came to the village of Modein and commanded the people there to sacrifice as the king had directed, they asked Mattathias to take the lead in the sacrifices, both because of his reputation on other grounds and because of the excellence of his sons—reasoning that the citizens would follow his example, and that he would thereby be honored by the king. But Mattathias said he would not do it, and that even if every nation obeyed the commands of Antiochus, whether out of fear or a wish to please him, he himself, together with his sons, would never be persuaded to forsake his ancestral worship. When he fell silent, one of the Jews stepped forward and, following Antiochus's orders, offered sacrifice in full view of everyone; enraged, Mattathias rushed at him together with his sons, who carried short swords, and killed him, and along with him the king's officer Apelles, who had been enforcing the order, killing him too with the help of a few followers. He then tore down the altar and cried out, "Whoever is zealous for the customs of our fathers and for the worship of God, let him follow me!" And with these words he set out for the desert with his sons, leaving behind in the village everything he owned.

Others did the same, fleeing with their children and wives into the desert and living in caves there. When the king's officers heard of this, they took the forces stationed in the citadel at Jerusalem and pursued the Jews into the desert. Upon overtaking them, they first tried to persuade them to reconsider and choose what was to their advantage, rather than force them into a position where they would have to be treated by the law of war. When the Jews would not accept these terms but held to their contrary resolve, the officers engaged them in battle on the day of the sabbath, and burned them in the caves just as they were, since they made no defense and did not even block the entrances—for they refrained from defending themselves out of regard for the day, unwilling even amid disaster to violate the honor due the sabbath, on which, they said, it is our law to do no work. About a thousand of them died in this way, suffocated in the caves along with their wives and children, but many survivors went over to Mattathias and made him their leader. He taught them to fight even on the sabbath, telling them that if they did not do this while still observing the law, they would become their own worst enemies—for if the enemy attacked them on that day and they did not defend themselves, nothing would prevent all of them from being destroyed without a fight. By these words he persuaded them, and to this day the practice remains among us that, if ever necessary, fighting on the sabbath is permitted. Having gathered a large force around himself, Mattathias tore down the pagan altars and put to death the transgressors wherever he was able to seize them, for many scattered out of caution into the surrounding nations; he also ordered the uncircumcised children to be circumcised, expelling those who had been appointed to prevent it.

Having led for one year, Mattathias fell ill, and calling his sons to his side and gathering them around him, he said: "I, my children, am going the way appointed by fate, and I entrust to you my own resolve, urging you not to prove poor guardians of it, but, remembering the purpose of the one who fathered and raised you, to preserve our ancestral customs and to restore our ancient way of life, now in danger of being lost, rather than fall in with those who, whether by choice or under compulsion, betray it. I ask you, my sons, to stand firm and rise above every act of violence and compulsion, preparing your souls in such a way that you are ready to die for the laws, if it should come to that, bearing in mind that the divine, seeing you so disposed, will not overlook you, but, admiring your virtue, will restore you to yourselves once more, and to the freedom in which you will live enjoying your own customs in security. Our bodies are mortal and perishable, but through the memory of noble deeds we attain a kind of immortality; it is this that I want you to love and pursue—true glory—and, in undertaking the greatest things, not to shrink from giving up your lives for them. Above all I urge you to be of one mind, and where one of you is by nature superior to another in some respect, to yield to him and to make use of each other's particular strengths as your own. Regard your brother Simon, who excels in judgment, as a father, and follow whatever counsel he gives you; and let Maccabaeus, for his courage and strength, be your general in war, for he will avenge our nation and fight off its enemies. Welcome also the just and god-fearing among the people, and increase their strength." Having said these things to his sons, and having prayed that God would be their ally and would restore to the people their own accustomed way of life, he died not long after, and was buried at Modein amid great mourning by the whole people. His son Judas, called Maccabaeus, succeeded him as leader of affairs in the hundred and forty-sixth year. With the eager support of his brothers and others, he drove the enemy from the land, put to death those of his own people who had transgressed the ancestral law, and cleansed the land of all defilement.

When Apollonius, the general in Samaria, heard of this, he took his forces and set out against Judas. Judas met him in the field, engaged him in battle, and won—killing many of the enemy, including the general Apollonius himself, whose sword, which he had carried, Judas took as spoil and kept for his own use. He wounded still more of them, and after taking much plunder from the enemy's camp he withdrew. Seron, the general of Coele-Syria, on hearing that many had gone over to Judas and that he had already gathered a considerable force fit for contests and wars, judged it right to march against him, thinking he ought to try to punish those who were transgressing the king's commands. Gathering whatever forces he had on hand, and adding to them the Jewish fugitives and the impious among the Jews, he advanced against Judas; pressing on as far as the village of Beth-horon in Judea, he made camp there. Judas went out to meet him, intending to give battle, but when he saw that his soldiers hesitated to fight because of their small numbers and their lack of food—for they had been fasting—he encouraged them, telling them that victory and mastery over the enemy lay not in numbers but in piety toward the divine, and that their own ancestors offered the clearest proof of this, for by their justice and by fighting for their own laws and children they had often defeated many tens of thousands—since to do no wrong is itself a mighty power. By these words he persuaded his men, despite the numbers of their opponents, to close with Seron, and in the engagement he routed the Syrians; for once their general had fallen, all of them rushed to flee, thinking their safety lay in that alone. Pursuing them as far as the plain, he killed about eight hundred of the enemy, while the rest escaped to the coast.

On hearing of this, King Antiochus was greatly enraged at what had happened, and gathering all the forces of his own kingdom, and taking on a great many mercenaries from the islands as well, he prepared to invade Judea at the start of spring. But when, in the course of dividing out his army, he saw that his treasuries were running low and that there was a shortage of funds—since not all the tribute was being collected, owing to the revolts among the subject nations, and since, being generous and open-handed by nature, he was never satisfied with what he had—he decided to go first to Persia and collect the tribute of that region. Leaving in charge of affairs a certain Lysias, a man held in high regard by him, and entrusting to him the territory extending to the borders of Egypt and lower Asia as far as the Euphrates river, together with part of his forces and his elephants, he instructed him to raise his son Antiochus with every care until his return, and, after subduing Judea and enslaving its inhabitants, to destroy Jerusalem and wipe out their entire people. Having given Lysias these instructions, King Antiochus set out for Persia in the hundred and forty-seventh year, and after crossing the Euphrates he went up to the satraps of the upper provinces.

Lysias chose Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, Nicanor, and Gorgias, capable men among the king's friends, and, putting into their hands forty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry, sent them against Judea. They advanced as far as the city of Emmaus and made camp there on the plain. Allies joined them from Syria and the surrounding country, along with many of the Jewish fugitives, and even some merchants who came intending to buy up those who would be taken captive, bringing with them fetters to bind their prisoners, and silver and gold to pay their price. When Judas observed the size of the camp and the multitude of the enemy, he urged his own soldiers to take courage, exhorting them, with their hopes of victory fixed on God, to entreat him in the manner of their ancestors, putting on sackcloth—

...to display this to God and so persuade him to grant them mastery over their enemies. Having arranged them in the ancient, ancestral manner, by chiliarchs and taxiarchs, and having released the newly married and those who had recently acquired property, so that these men, clinging to life for the sake of enjoying it, might not fight less boldly, he took his stand and roused his own soldiers to the contest with words like these: “Comrades, no occasion could be more urgent than the present one for courage and contempt of danger.

“For now, by fighting bravely, you can recover your freedom — dear to all men for its own sake, but made still more desirable for you because it carries with it the right to worship God. Since you now stand in a position either to recover this freedom and regain the happy, blessed life you had under the laws and ancestral custom, or else to suffer the most shameful fate and leave not even a remnant of your race, should the battle go badly, fight accordingly. Consider that death awaits you even if you do not fight, but believe that by winning victory for such great prizes — freedom, homeland, laws, piety — you will secure everlasting glory. So prepare your souls, as men who at daybreak tomorrow will meet the enemy.”

So Judas spoke, encouraging his army. Meanwhile the enemy sent Gorgias with five thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry to fall upon Judas by night, having as guides for this some of the Jews who had deserted. But the son of Mattathias learned of it and himself resolved to fall upon the enemy's camp, especially since their force was divided. So, having taken supper at the proper hour and left many fires burning in his own camp, he marched all night against the enemy at Emmaus. Gorgias, not finding the enemy in their camp but supposing they had withdrawn and hidden themselves in the mountains, set out to search for them, wherever they might be.

About dawn Judas appeared before the enemy at Emmaus with three thousand men, poorly armed for want of means; and seeing the enemy superbly equipped and encamped with great professional skill, he urged his own men on, saying that God grants mastery over the many and the armed even to those who must fight with bare bodies, and admiring them for their courage — and he ordered the trumpeters to sound the signal. Then, falling upon the enemy unexpectedly and throwing their minds into confusion, he killed many who resisted, and pursuing the rest came as far as Gazara and the plains of Idumea, and Azotus, and Jamnia; about three thousand of them fell. Judas urged his soldiers not to be eager for the spoils, telling them that a contest and battle still awaited them against Gorgias and the force with him, and that once they had mastered these as well, they would then plunder at their leisure, keeping only this in mind and expecting nothing else.

While he was still saying this to his soldiers, Gorgias' men, peering out, saw that the force they had left in the camp had been routed and the camp itself burned — for the smoke, visible to them from a distance, made plain what had happened. When Gorgias' men learned how things stood and saw Judas' men ready for battle, they too took fright and fled. Judas, since Gorgias' soldiers had been beaten without a fight, turned back and gathered up the spoils, and taking much gold and silver and purple and violet cloth, returned home rejoicing and singing hymns to God for their success — for the victory contributed no small part to their freedom.

Lysias, thrown into confusion by the defeat of the men he had sent, in the following year gathered sixty thousand picked men, took five thousand cavalry besides, and invaded Judea, and going up into the hill country encamped at Bethsura, a village of Judea. Judas met him with ten thousand men, and seeing the enemy's numbers, prayed that God would be his ally, and joining battle with the enemy's advance troops defeated them, killing about five thousand of them, and became a terror to the rest. Lysias, observing the spirit of the Jews — that they were ready to die rather than live enslaved — and fearing their desperation as though it were strength, took the remainder of his force and withdrew to Antioch, where he spent his time recruiting mercenaries and preparing to invade Judea again with a larger army.

With the generals of King Antiochus so many times defeated, Judas called an assembly and said that after the many victories God had given them, they ought to go up to Jerusalem, purify the temple, and offer the customary sacrifices. When he arrived with the whole multitude at Jerusalem, he found the temple deserted, its gates burned down, and plants growing wild in the sanctuary because of the desolation; he began to mourn with his own men, overcome at the sight of the temple. Choosing some of his soldiers, he ordered them to make war on the men guarding the citadel, until he himself should have purified the temple.

Having cleansed it with care, he brought in new vessels — a lampstand, a table, an altar of incense, all made of gold — hung up the curtains of the doors and set the doors themselves in place, and, taking down the altar of burnt offering, built a new one of unhewn stones not cut by iron. On the twenty-fifth of the month Xanthicus, which the Macedonians call Apellaios, they lit the lamps on the lampstand, burned incense on the altar, set loaves upon the table, and offered whole burnt offerings on the new altar. It happened that this took place on the very day on which, three years before, their holy worship had lapsed into profanation and common use; for the temple, laid waste by Antiochus, remained in that state for three years. These events at the temple took place in the hundred and forty-fifth year, on the twenty-fifth of the month Apellaios, in the hundred and fifty-third Olympiad; and it was rededicated on the same day — the twenty-fifth of the month Apellaios — in the hundred and forty-eighth year, in the hundred and fifty-fourth Olympiad. The desolation of the temple came about, in accordance with Daniel's prophecy, four hundred and eight years before it happened; for he had foretold that the Macedonians would destroy it.

Judas celebrated with his fellow citizens the recovery of the temple sacrifices for eight days, omitting no form of pleasure, feasting them with lavish and splendid sacrifices, honoring God with hymns and psalms while delighting the people. So great was the pleasure they took in the renewal of their customs, coming to them unexpectedly after so long a time, once they found themselves in possession of the right to worship, that they made it a law for those who came after them to celebrate the recovery of the temple rites for eight days. From that time to this we keep the festival, calling it Lights — because, I think, this freedom shone upon us beyond our hopes, and so they gave the festival this name. He also walled the city all around and, to guard against enemy raids, built high towers and stationed garrisons in them; he also fortified the town of Bethsura, so that it might serve them as a stronghold against attacks from the enemy.

With these things thus accomplished, the surrounding nations, resentful at the revival and growing strength of the Jews, formed many conspiracies and, gaining the upper hand through ambushes and plots, destroyed them. Judas, waging continual wars against these nations, tried to check their raids and the harm they were doing the Jews. He fell upon the sons of Esau, the Idumeans, in the region of Acrabatene, killed many of them, and took spoil. He also shut in and besieged the sons of Baanus, who had been lying in wait for the Jews, burning their towers and destroying the men. From there he set out against the Ammanites, who had a large and populous force under the command of Timotheus; having overpowered these as well, he took the city of Jazor by storm, and, taking their women and children captive and burning the city, returned to Judea.

When the neighboring nations learned that he had gone back, they gathered in Gilead against the Jews within their borders. These Jews took refuge in the fortress of Dathema and sent word to Judas that Timotheus was eager to capture the place to which they had fled. While these letters were being read, messengers also arrived from Galilee reporting that the people of Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon, and the other nations of Galilee had banded together. Considering, then, what must be done to meet both these reported needs, Judas ordered his brother Simon to take about three thousand picked men and go to the help of the Jews in Galilee, while he himself, with his other brother Jonathan, set out for Gilead with eight thousand soldiers; he left Joseph son of Zacharias and Azarias in charge of the remaining forces, instructing them to guard Judea carefully and to engage no one in battle until his own return.

Simon, arriving in Galilee and engaging the enemy, put them to flight and pursued them to the gates of Ptolemais, killing about three thousand of them; and taking the spoils of the slain, along with the captive Jews and their baggage, he returned home. Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan crossed the Jordan river and, after a three days' march from it, met the Nabateans, who received them peaceably. When these told them of the plight of the Jews in Gilead — how many of them were suffering, shut up in the fortresses and towns of Gilead — and urged him to hasten against the foreigners and try to save their countrymen from them, Judas was persuaded and turned back into the desert, and, falling first upon the inhabitants of Bosora, took the city, killed every male able to bear arms, and set the city on fire.

Even when night fell he did not stop, but marched on through it to the fortress where the Jews were shut in, which Timotheus with his force was besieging, and arrived there at dawn. Finding the enemy already attacking the walls — some with ladders for scaling them, others bringing up siege engines — he ordered the trumpeter to sound the signal, and, urging his soldiers to risk themselves eagerly for their brothers and kinsmen, divided the army into three parts and fell upon the enemy from the rear. Timotheus' men, perceiving that it was Maccabeus — having already had experience of his courage and his success in war — took to flight; and Judas, pursuing with his army, killed about eight thousand of them. Turning aside to a city called Mella, belonging to the foreigners, he took this too, killed all the males, and burned the city. Setting out from there, he subdued Chasphomake and Bosor and many other cities of Gilead.

Not long afterward Timotheus, having assembled a large force and taken on other allies, including some Arabs whom he had persuaded with pay to join his campaign, came leading his army to the far side of the torrent opposite Raphon — for this was a city — and urged his soldiers, if they should engage the Jews in battle, to fight eagerly and prevent them from crossing the torrent, telling them that defeat awaited them if the Jews crossed. Judas, hearing that Timotheus had made ready for battle, took his whole force and hastened against the enemy; crossing the torrent, he fell upon them, killed those who came to meet him, and, throwing the rest into terror, forced them to throw down their weapons and flee. Some of them escaped, while others fled for refuge into the precinct called Egranai, hoping to find safety there. Judas, taking the town, killed them and burned the precinct, using various means to bring about the enemy's destruction.

Having accomplished this, and gathered together the Jews in Gilead with their children and wives and their belongings, he was ready to lead them back to Judea. When he came to a certain city named Ephron lying on the road — and he could neither turn aside and go another way, nor did he wish to turn back — he sent to the people in it, asking them to open the gates and allow him to pass through the city; for they had blocked the gates with stones and cut off the passage. When the people of Ephron would not agree, he roused his men, surrounded the town, besieged it, and, after pressing the siege day and night, took the city, killing every male in it and burning it entirely, and so won his way through. So great was the number of the slain that one had to walk over the corpses themselves. Crossing the Jordan, they came to the great plain facing the city called Bethshan, known to the Greeks as Scythopolis. Setting out from there, they arrived in Judea, singing psalms and hymns and performing the customary games of victory celebrations, and offered thank-offerings both for their successes and for the safety of the army — for not one of the Jews died in these wars.

Joseph son of Zacharias and Azarias, whom Judas had left as commanders at the time when Simon was in Galilee fighting the people of Ptolemais and Judas himself, with his brother Jonathan, was in Gilead, wished to win a reputation of their own as capable commanders in war, and took the force under their command and came to Jamnia. Gorgias, the general of Jamnia, met them, and in the engagement they lost two thousand of their force and, fleeing, were pursued to the borders of Judea. This setback befell them

They had disobeyed the orders Judas had sent them, not to engage anyone in battle before his own arrival. Beyond his other feats of generalship, one might well marvel at how he foresaw the defeat that Joseph and Azarias would suffer, understanding that it would follow if they departed at all from his instructions. Judas and his brothers, meanwhile, kept up their war against the Idumeans without relenting. They pressed them from every side, took the city of Hebron and tore down whatever was fortified in it, burned its towers, and ravaged the territory of the foreigners, including the city of Marisa. They also came to Azotus, took it, and plundered it. Then, carrying off much spoil and plunder, they returned to Judea.

At about this same time King Antiochus, advancing through the upper country, heard that there was a city in Persia called Elymais renowned for its wealth, and that it had a costly temple of Artemis in it, full of dedications of every kind, and moreover arms and breastplates which, he was told, Alexander, king of the Macedonians and son of Philip, had left behind. Stirred by this report he set out for Elymais, attacked it, and laid siege to it. But the people inside were not frightened by his assault or his siege; they held out stubbornly and dashed his hopes, driving him back from the city and sallying out after him in pursuit, so that he fled to Babylon, having lost much of his army.

While he was grieving over this failure, some brought him word as well of the defeat of the generals he had left behind to fight the Jews, and of the growing strength of the Jewish nation. Weighed down now by this added worry on top of the first, he fell into a despondency so overwhelming that he sank into illness. As the illness dragged on and his sufferings increased, he realized he was going to die, and he called his friends together. He told them plainly that his illness was severe, and he made clear that he was suffering this because he had wronged the Jewish nation, plundering their temple and showing contempt for their God. And with these words he breathed his last.

So it is that Polybius of Megalopolis, a trustworthy writer, expresses astonishment at this: he says Antiochus died because he had intended to plunder the temple of Artemis in Persia — as though merely resolving on a deed he never carried out deserved such punishment. But if Polybius supposes that this is why Antiochus met his end in this way, it is far more likely that the king died on account of his sacrilege against the temple in Jerusalem. On this point, however, I have no quarrel — I hold as true the very cause that the writer from Megalopolis names.

Before he died, Antiochus summoned Philip, one of his companions, and appointed him regent of the kingdom, giving him the diadem, the robe, and the signet ring, with orders to carry these to his son Antiochus and deliver them to him, and he asked Philip to look after the boy's upbringing and to keep the kingdom safe for him. Antiochus died in the hundred and forty-ninth year. Lysias announced his death to the people and proclaimed the king's son — whose care he himself had — as king, calling him Antiochus Eupator.

At this same time the garrison in the citadel of Jerusalem, along with Jewish exiles, did the Jews great harm: whenever people went up to the temple wishing to sacrifice, the garrison would suddenly rush out and kill them, for the citadel overlooked the temple. Because of what was happening to them, Judas resolved to destroy the garrison, and gathering the whole people he laid a determined siege to those in the citadel. This was the hundred and fiftieth year of the Seleucid era. He built siege engines and raised earthworks, and pressed the assault on the citadel with great diligence.

Many of the exiles inside, however, slipped out by night, gathered some other impious men like themselves, and went to King Antiochus. They protested that they should not be looked down upon while suffering terribly at the hands of their own countrymen, and enduring this on account of his father — who had put an end to their ancestral religion, while they themselves had clung to what he had commanded in its place. They said the citadel and the garrison the king had stationed there were in danger of being taken by Judas and his men, unless help were sent from him. Hearing this, the young Antiochus grew angry, summoned his commanders and friends, and ordered them to gather mercenaries and all in the kingdom of military age.

An army was assembled: about a hundred thousand foot soldiers, twenty thousand horsemen, and thirty-two elephants. Taking up this force he marched out from Antioch with Lysias in overall command of the whole army. Arriving in Idumea, he went up from there to Bethsura, a city very strong and hard to capture, and encircling it, laid siege to the town.

The people of Bethsura resisted vigorously and burned the siege equipment he had prepared — for they sallied out against him — so that much time was spent on the siege. Judas, hearing of the king's advance, gave up his siege of the citadel and, going out to meet the king, pitched camp at the pass in a place called Bethzacharia, seventy stades from the enemy. The king set out from Bethsura and led his force to the pass, to the camp of Judas, and at daybreak drew up his army for battle. Because of the narrowness of the terrain, which did not allow them to be arranged abreast, he made the elephants follow one another in single file, and around each elephant advanced a thousand foot soldiers and five hundred horsemen. The elephants carried tall towers and archers. The rest of the force he had climb the hills on either side, with friendly troops posted in front. He ordered the army to raise a war cry and attacked the enemy, baring the golden and bronze shields so that a brilliant gleam shone from them; the hills echoed with the shouting of the men.

Seeing this, Judas was not dismayed, and receiving the enemy bravely he killed about six hundred of their front-line troops. His brother Eleazar, also called Auran, saw the tallest of the elephants armored in royal trappings and, thinking the king was riding on it, charged at it with great courage. He killed many of those around the elephant and scattered the rest, then crept in beneath its belly, struck it, and killed the beast — but it fell on top of Eleazar as it collapsed and crushed him beneath its weight. So he, having bravely destroyed many of the enemy, ended his life in this manner.

Judas, seeing the strength of the enemy, withdrew to Jerusalem and prepared for a siege. Antiochus sent part of his army to Bethsura to besiege it, while he himself came to Jerusalem with the rest of the force. The people of Bethsura, terrified by his strength and seeing their provisions running short, surrendered themselves, taking oaths that they would suffer no harm from the king. Antiochus, on taking the city, did them no other injury, but only sent them out stripped of their possessions, and set his own garrison in the city.

For a long time he besieged the temple in Jerusalem, while those within defended themselves stubbornly — for every siege engine the king set up against them, they built a counter-device in turn. But food failed them, since the produce that existed had been used up, and the land had not been farmed that year because it was the sabbatical year, in which our law requires the land to be left fallow, unsown. Many of the besieged accordingly deserted because of the shortage of necessities, so that only a few were left in the temple. Such, then, was the state of affairs for those besieged in the temple.

Lysias the general and the king, when word reached them that Philip had come back from Persia and was setting things in order to seize power for himself, resolved to abandon the siege and march against Philip, but decided not to make this known to the soldiers and officers. Instead the king ordered Lysias to address him and the officers publicly, saying nothing about Philip, but pointing out that the siege was proving very long, that the place was strongly fortified, that their supplies were already failing, that there was much business in the kingdom needing attention, and that it seemed far better to make a truce with the besieged, to grant friendship to their whole nation, and to allow them to live by their ancestral laws — the laws whose loss had driven them to war — and then to march home. When Lysias said this, both the army and the officers were pleased with the proposal.

So the king sent to Judas and those besieged with him, offering peace and permission to live by their ancestral laws. They received the offer gladly, and taking oaths and pledges, came out of the temple. But when Antiochus entered it and saw how strongly fortified the place was, he broke his oaths and ordered his troops to come forward and level the wall to the ground. Having done this, he returned to Antioch, taking with him the high priest Onias, who was also called Menelaus. For Lysias had advised the king to put Menelaus to death, if he wished the Jews to remain quiet and cause him no further trouble, since it was Menelaus who had begun all the trouble by persuading the king's father to force the Jews to abandon their ancestral religion. So the king sent Menelaus to Beroea in Syria and had him killed there, after he had held the high priesthood for ten years, having proved wicked and impious, and having forced his own people to transgress their own laws so that he himself might rule the nation. After Menelaus's death, Alcimus, also called Jacimus, became high priest.

King Antiochus, seeing that Philip was now in control of affairs, made war on him, took him prisoner, and put him to death. Now Onias, son of the high priest — the boy we mentioned earlier as having been left behind, still a child, when his father died — seeing that the king had killed his uncle Menelaus and given the high priesthood to Alcimus, who was not of the priestly line, but had been persuaded by Lysias to transfer the honor from that family to another house, fled to Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Being honored by Ptolemy and his wife Cleopatra, he obtained a place he had requested in the Heliopolite district, and there built a temple resembling the one in Jerusalem. We shall have a better occasion to discuss this later.

At about this same time Demetrius, son of Seleucus, fled from Rome, and seizing Tripolis in Syria, put the diadem on himself. Gathering some mercenaries around him, he entered upon the kingdom, and everyone gladly received him and gave themselves over to him. They seized King Antiochus and Lysias alive and brought them to him. On Demetrius's order these two were put to death at once, Antiochus having reigned two years, as has already been noted elsewhere.

Many wicked Jews and exiles banded together and went to Demetrius, and with them Alcimus the high priest. They accused the whole nation, and Judas and his brothers in particular, saying that Judas had killed all of Demetrius's friends and all those in the kingdom who favored him and were waiting for him, and had driven them from their own land, making them exiles in a foreign country. They asked him to send one of his own friends to learn for himself what deeds Judas and his men had dared to commit.

Demetrius, provoked, sent out Bacchides, a friend of King Antiochus Epiphanes, an honest man entrusted with the whole of Mesopotamia, giving him an army and placing the high priest Alcimus in his charge, with orders to kill Judas and those with him. Bacchides set out from Antioch with his forces, and on arriving in Judea sent word to Judas and his brothers, speaking of friendship and peace — for he wished to take Judas by treachery. Judas did not trust him, for he saw that he had come with so large an army as one brings to war, not to peace. Some of the people, however, gave heed to what Bacchides proclaimed, and thinking they would suffer no harm from Alcimus, since he was one of their own countrymen, went over to him, and after taking oaths from both sides that neither they nor those of like mind would suffer harm, entrusted themselves to him.

But Bacchides, disregarding the oaths, killed sixty of them, while as for the others who meant to come over to him, he turned back the pledge of good faith he had given the first. When he left Jerusalem and came to a village called Bethzetho, he sent men who seized many of the deserters and some of the people, and after killing all of them, ordered everyone in the region to obey Alcimus. Leaving him with some troops to keep hold of the territory, Bacchides returned to King Demetrius at Antioch.

Alcimus, wishing to secure his position and understanding that he would rule more safely if he won the goodwill of the people, drew everyone over with agreeable words, treating each man with pleasant and gracious speech, and very quickly gathered a large body of supporters and forces. Most of these were drawn from the impious and the exiles, and using them as his agents and soldiers, he went through the country and put to death all those he found there who favored Judas's cause. Seeing that Alcimus was now growing powerful and had destroyed many of the good and pious men of the nation, Judas in turn went through the country and put to death those who shared Alcimus's views. Alcimus, seeing that he was unable to hold his own against Judas but was being overpowered by his strength, decided to turn to King Demetrius for aid, and going to Antioch, he provoked the king against Judas, accusing him of having done him many injuries already and warning that there would be more still, unless he were forestalled and made to pay the penalty by the dispatch of a strong force against him. Demetrius, thinking it now dangerous for his own affairs to overlook Judas...

...into such strength, Demetrius sent out Nicanor, the most loyal and trusted of his friends—this was the man who had fled to Rome together with him—and gave him as large a force as he judged sufficient against Judas, ordering him to show the nation no mercy whatsoever. When Nicanor arrived at Jerusalem, he decided not to fight Judas outright but resolved instead to get him into his power by deceit. He sent him peaceful proposals, saying there was no need for war and danger, and offering him oaths that he would suffer no harm; he had come, he said, with friends in order to make plain to them King Demetrius's true disposition toward their people. When Nicanor had negotiated in this way, Judas and his brothers were persuaded, and suspecting no trickery, exchanged pledges with him and received Nicanor and his force. Nicanor greeted Judas, and in the midst of conversing with him gave his own men a signal to seize him. But Judas, perceiving the plot, sprang away and fled back to his own men. Once his intent and the ambush were exposed, Nicanor resolved to make war on Judas.

He mustered and equipped his forces for battle and engaged Judas near a village called Capharsalama, and having won the victory, forced Judas to flee to the citadel in Jerusalem. As Judas was coming down from the citadel to the Temple, some of the priests and elders met him, greeted him, and showed him the sacrifices they said they were offering to God on the king's behalf. Nicanor cursed them and threatened that, unless the people handed Judas over to him, he would tear down the Temple upon his return. Having made this threat, he left Jerusalem, and the priests broke into tears from grief at what had been said, and begged God to deliver them from their enemies.

When Nicanor had left Jerusalem, he reached a village called Bethhoron and encamped there, having been joined by another force from Syria. Judas encamped at Adasa, another village thirty stades from Bethhoron, with two thousand soldiers. He urged them not to be terrified by the enemy's numbers, nor to calculate how many they were about to fight, but to consider instead who they were and for what prizes they were risking their lives, and so to go boldly to meet the enemy. He led them out to battle and engaged Nicanor; and after a hard-fought battle he defeated the enemy, killing many of them, and at last Nicanor himself fell, fighting gloriously to the end. Once he had fallen, his army did not stand its ground either, but having lost their general they turned to flight, throwing away their weapons. Judas pursued and slaughtered them,

and signaled with trumpets to the surrounding villages that he was defeating the enemy. Those in the villages, hearing this, rushed out armed and, meeting the fugitives face to face, cut them down, so that not one of the nine thousand men in that battle escaped. This victory came about on the thirteenth of the month called Adar by the Jews and Dystros by the Macedonians. They celebrate this day every year as a festival of victory. From that time, for a little while, the Jewish nation rested from war and enjoyed peace, before again being plunged into struggles and dangers.

Alcimus the high priest wished to tear down the wall of the sanctuary, which was ancient and had been built by the prophets of old, but a sudden stroke from God fell upon him: he was struck speechless and cast to the ground, and after being tormented for many days he died, having served as high priest for four years. When he died, the people gave the high priesthood to Judas, who, hearing of the power of the Romans—that they had conquered Gaul, Spain, and Carthage in Libya, and had subdued Greece besides, along with the kings Perseus, Philip, and Antiochus the Great—resolved to make an alliance of friendship with them.

He sent to Rome his friends Eupolemus, son of John, and Jason, son of Eleazar, asking them to secure for him an alliance and friendship, and to have the Romans write to Demetrius not to make war on the Jews. When Judas's envoys arrived in Rome, the Senate received them, and after debating the purpose of their mission, granted the alliance. Having passed a decree on the matter, the Senate sent a copy of it to Judea and had the original inscribed on bronze tablets and set up on the Capitol. It read as follows: a decree of the Senate concerning alliance and friendship with the nation

of the Jews. No one subject to Rome is to make war on the Jewish nation, nor to supply grain, ships, or money to those who make war on them. If anyone attacks the Jews, the Romans are to help them as far as possible; and likewise, if anyone attacks Roman territory, the Jews are to fight alongside them as allies. And if the Jewish nation should wish to add anything to or remove anything from this alliance, this is to be done by common consent of the Roman people, and whatever is added shall be binding. This decree was written by Eupolemus, son of John, and Jason, son of Eleazar, in the high priesthood of Judas over the nation and the generalship of his brother Simon. Thus it was that the first friendship and alliance between Rome and the Jews came about.

When Demetrius was informed of Nicanor's death and the destruction of the force with him, he again sent out Bacchides with an army into Judea. Setting out from Antioch and arriving in Judea, Bacchides encamped at Arbela, a city of Galilee, and besieged those who were in the caves there—for many had taken refuge in them—captured them, and then set out from there in haste for Jerusalem.

Learning that Judas was encamped in a village called Bezeth, he hastened against him with twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry; Judas had only a thousand men in all. Seeing the size of Bacchides's force, these men were afraid, and all but eight hundred abandoned the camp and fled. Left behind by his own soldiers, with the enemy pressing upon him and allowing him no time to gather more troops, Judas was forced to face Bacchides's forces with only the eight hundred. Urging them to bear the danger bravely, he called on them to go into battle. When they said they were not a match for so great an army, and advised that they withdraw for now to save themselves, and later gather their own men together to engage the enemy, he said,

"May the sun never look down on such a thing happening, that I should show my back to the enemy. Even if the present hour brings my death, and I must die fighting no matter what, I will stand my ground nobly, enduring whatever is to come, rather than bring upon my past achievements and their renown the disgrace of this present flight." Having said this to those who remained, disdaining the danger, he urged them to go and meet the enemy. Bacchides led his forces out of camp and drew them up for battle, stationing his cavalry on each wing and placing his light troops and archers in front of the whole phalanx, while he himself commanded the right wing.

Having arrayed his army in this way, when he approached the enemy's camp he ordered the trumpeter to sound the signal, and the army advanced with a battle cry. Judas did the same and engaged the enemy, and as both sides fought fiercely and the battle dragged on until sunset, Judas saw that Bacchides and the strongest part of the army were on the right wing, and taking his bravest men

he charged that part of the line, and attacking those there, broke apart their formation. Pushing into the midst of them, he forced them to flee, and pursued them as far as the mountain called Aza. But those on the left wing, seeing the rout of the men on the right, surrounded Judas as he pursued, coming up behind him and hemming him in.

Unable to flee, but surrounded by the enemy, he stood his ground and fought together with those beside him. He killed many of his opponents, but, utterly worn out, he too fell, ending his life amid successes like those he had achieved before. When Judas fell, those with him, having no one left to look to and bereft of such a general, fled.

Simon and Jonathan, Judas's brothers, obtained his body from the enemy under truce and brought it to the village of Modein, where their father too had been buried, and they buried him there, the people mourning him for many days and honoring him together according to custom. Such was the end that overtook Judas, a man of noble spirit who had proved a great warrior, mindful of his father Mattathias's commands, and who had endured all things, both doing and suffering, for the freedom of his countrymen.

Being such a man in valor, he left behind the greatest renown and monument of himself, having freed his nation and rescued it from slavery under the Macedonians. He died having held the high priesthood for three years.

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