Josephus · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
How Jonathan, Judas's brother, took over the leadership when Judas died. How, warring against Bacchides, he forced him to make friendship with him and leave the country. That Alexander, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, came to Syria and made war on Demetrius. How Demetrius sent envoys to Jonathan and made an alliance with him, giving many gifts both to him and to our nation. How Alexander, hearing of this and outbidding Demetrius's offers, made Jonathan high priest and persuaded him to become his ally.
The friendship of Onias with Ptolemy Philometor, which arose at the same time, and how he built the temple called Onias's Temple, modeled on the one in Jerusalem. That Alexander, after Demetrius died, honored Jonathan greatly. How Demetrius, son of Demetrius, sailed to Syria from Crete, made war on Alexander, defeated him, and became king himself, making friendship with Jonathan. How Trypho of Apamea, having defeated Demetrius in war, handed the kingdom over to Antiochus, son of Alexander, and made Jonathan his own ally as well. How, when Demetrius was taken captive by the Parthians, Trypho broke faith with Jonathan, seized him by treachery, killed him, and made war on his brother Simon.
How the nation entrusted the command to Simon, Jonathan's brother, and appointed him high priest. How he besieged Trypho at Dora, having become the ally of Antiochus, brother of Demetrius, who was surnamed Eusebes. How, after Trypho was put to death, Antiochus made war on Simon, and Simon, defeating his general Cendebaeus, drove him out of Judea. That Simon was murdered by treachery at a banquet by his son-in-law Ptolemy, and Ptolemy, having bound Simon's wife and children, tried to seize the government for himself.
How Hyrcanus, the youngest of Simon's sons, got ahead of him, took over the leadership, and besieged Ptolemy, shutting him up in a fortress called Dagon. How Antiochus, called Eusebes, campaigned against Hyrcanus and, having sat down before the city of Jerusalem, broke off the siege after taking three hundred talents from Hyrcanus and concluding an alliance and friendship with him.
Hyrcanus's campaign into Syria after the death of Antiochus, who died among the Medes, and how he took many cities by force. The friendship with Hyrcanus of Alexander, called Zabinas. How Antiochus Cyzicenus, defeated by Hyrcanus, was driven out of Judea. How Aristobulus, on taking over the rule, was the first to put on a diadem. How, after Aristobulus died, his brother Alexander took over the rule, campaigned into Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia, and subdued many of the nations.
The battle and victory of Ptolemy Lathyrus against him. How Demetrius, called Eucaerus, campaigned against Alexander and defeated him. The campaign of Antiochus, also called Dionysus, against Judea, and how he prevailed in the battle. How, after Alexander's death, his wife Alexandra held the kingdom for nine years, and, having lived out her life in peace and honor, died. This book covers a period of eighty-two years.
In what manner, then, the Jewish nation, once the Macedonians had enslaved it, recovered its freedom, and through how many and how great struggles its general Judas went forth and died fighting on their behalf, we have shown in the book before this one.
After the death of Judas, everything among the Jews that was still impious and had transgressed the ancestral constitution sprang up and, flourishing on every side, afflicted them. Famine joined forces with their wickedness and seized the land as well, so that many, for want of necessities and unable to hold out against the twin terrors of famine and enemy, deserted to the Macedonians.
Bacchides gathered together those Jews who had abandoned the ancestral way of life and preferred the common cause with the enemy, and entrusted to them the oversight of the country. These men seized Judas's friends and those loyal to his cause and handed them over to Bacchides, who first tortured them and abused them for his pleasure before putting them to death in this way.
Since so great a calamity had befallen the Jews, of a kind they had not experienced since their return from Babylon, the surviving companions of Judas, seeing the nation perishing so pitiably, came to his brother Jonathan and asked him to imitate his brother and the concern he had shown for their kinsmen, who had died for their freedom, and not to allow the nation to go without a leader nor to be destroyed further.
Jonathan said he was ready to die on their behalf, and, being judged in no way inferior to his brother, was appointed general of the Jews. Bacchides, hearing this, was afraid that Jonathan, like Judas before him, would cause trouble for the king and the Macedonians, and sought to kill him by treachery.
This intention of his did not escape Jonathan or his brother Simon. Learning of it, they took all their companions and fled at once into the wilderness nearest the city, and coming to the water called the Cistern of Asphar, they stayed there. Bacchides, perceiving that they had gone off and were in that place, set out against them
with his whole force, and, encamping beyond the Jordan, let his troops rest. Jonathan, learning that Bacchides was coming against him, sent his brother John, also called Gaddis, to the Nabatean Arabs, so that he might deposit their baggage with them until they had fought Bacchides, for the Nabateans were their friends. But as John was going to the Nabateans, the sons of Amaraeus, out of
the city of Medaba, ambushed him, seized him and those with him, plundered everything he was carrying, and killed John and all his companions. They paid a fitting penalty for this to his brothers, however, which we shall relate shortly. Bacchides, learning that Jonathan was encamped in the marshes of the Jordan, watched for the Sabbath
day and came against him on it, supposing he would not fight because of the law. But Jonathan roused his companions, telling them that their very lives were at stake, hemmed in as they were between the river and the enemy with no way to flee — for the enemy were advancing in front and the river was behind them — and, praying that God would grant them victory,
he joined battle with the enemy. Having cut down many of them, when he saw Bacchides boldly bearing down on him, he stretched out his right hand as if to strike him. But Bacchides saw it coming and dodged the blow, and Jonathan leapt away with his companions and swam across the river, and in this manner they made their escape to the other side of the Jordan, since the enemy no longer crossed the river after Bacchides at once turned back
to the citadel in Jerusalem. He had lost about two thousand of his army. Bacchides then took and fortified many cities of Judea — Jericho, Emmaus, Beth-horon, Bethel, Timnath, Pharatho, Tochoa, and Gazara — and, building towers in each of the cities and surrounding them with strong and remarkably large walls, he stationed a garrison
in them, so that his men, setting out from there, could harass the Jews. Above all he fortified the citadel in Jerusalem. He also took the sons of the leading men of Judea as hostages and shut them up in the citadel, and kept watch over them in this way. At the same time someone came to Jonathan and his brother Simon and reported that the sons of Amaraeus
were celebrating a marriage and bringing the bride from the city of Nabatha — the daughter of one of the notable men among the Arabs — and that a splendid and lavish procession for the girl was about to take place. Jonathan and Simon, thinking this the most fitting occasion to avenge their brother, and supposing they could exact justice for John from these men with great advantage,
set out for Medaba and lay in ambush, waiting in the mountain for their enemies. When they saw them bringing the bride and the bridegroom, along with the crowd of friends that naturally accompanies a wedding, they leapt out of the ambush and killed them all, and, taking the jewelry and all the other plunder that then accompanied the people, withdrew. And so they exacted vengeance for
their brother John from the sons of Amaraeus in this way: these men themselves, along with the friends who had joined them, and their wives and children, perished, four hundred in all. Simon and Jonathan then withdrew to the marshes of the river and stayed there. Bacchides, having secured all of Judea with garrisons, returned to the king, and for two years
the affairs of the Jews remained at peace. But the fugitives and the impious, seeing Jonathan and his companions living in the country in great security because of the peace, sent to King Demetrius, urging him to send Bacchides to capture Jonathan; for they claimed it could be done without effort, and that by falling upon them in a single night, while they did not expect it, he could kill them all.
The king sent Bacchides, who, on arriving in Judea, wrote to all his friends and to the Jews and allies to seize Jonathan for him. But though all made every effort, they could not get hold of Jonathan, for he was on his guard, having learned of the plot. Bacchides, enraged at the fugitives for having deceived both himself and the king, seized fifty of their leaders and put them to death.
Jonathan, together with his brother and their companions, withdrew, out of fear of Bacchides, to Bethalagon, a village in the wilderness, and, building towers and surrounding himself with walls, kept himself securely guarded. Bacchides, hearing of this, took the army with him, along with the Jewish allies he gathered, and came against Jonathan, and, attacking his fortifications, besieged him for many
days. But Jonathan did not yield to the pressure of the siege; standing firm, he left his brother Simon behind in the town to fight Bacchides, while he himself slipped out secretly into the country, and, gathering a large force from those loyal to him, fell by night upon Bacchides's camp, and, destroying a great many of them, made himself known to his brother
Simon as well by falling upon the enemy. For Simon, perceiving that the enemy were being killed by Jonathan, sallied out against them too, burned the siege engines of the Macedonians, and inflicted heavy slaughter on them. Bacchides, seeing himself hemmed in by the enemy, with some pressing him from the front and others from behind, fell into
despondency and confusion of mind, thrown into disorder by this unexpected turn against the siege. He vented his anger over this on the fugitives who had summoned him from the king, as men who had deceived him, and wished, if possible, to bring the siege to an honorable end and return home. Learning his intention, Jonathan sent envoys to him concerning friendship and alliance, so that they might restore
to each other the prisoners each side had taken. Bacchides, judging this the most honorable way to withdraw, made a treaty of friendship with Jonathan, and they swore no longer to campaign against one another; and, having returned the prisoners and recovered his own men, he went back to Antioch to the king, and after this withdrawal he never again invaded Judea. Jonathan, taking hold of this
peace and making his residence in the town of Michmash, governed the people there, punishing the wicked and impious and so cleansing the nation of them. In the hundred and sixtieth year it happened that Alexander, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, went up to Syria and took Ptolemais by the treachery of the soldiers within it; for they held Demetrius in hatred
because of his arrogance and his unwillingness to be approached. For he had shut himself up in a royal residence with four towers, which he had built himself not far from Antioch, and admitted no one, but was careless and negligent about affairs, so that the hatred of his subjects toward him blazed up all the more, as we have already shown elsewhere. Demetrius, hearing that Alexander had arrived at Ptolemais,
gathered his whole army and led it against him. He also sent envoys to Jonathan concerning alliance and goodwill, for he had resolved to forestall Alexander, lest, without prior negotiation with him, Alexander should secure his help instead. He did this out of fear that Jonathan, remembering old grievances against him, might join in the hostilities against him. He therefore ordered him to gather a force, prepare weapons, and recover the hostages
whom Bacchides had shut up from among the Jews in the citadel of Jerusalem. When this message from Demetrius reached him, Jonathan came to Jerusalem and read the king's letter aloud in the hearing of the people and of those guarding the citadel. When it had been read, the impious men and fugitives from the citadel were greatly afraid, since the king had entrusted Jonathan
with gathering an army and recovering the hostages. Jonathan gave each hostage back to his own parents. And so Jonathan made his residence in Jerusalem, renewing the state of the city and arranging everything according to his own wishes. He ordered the walls of the city to be rebuilt with squared stones, so that they would be more secure against attacks. When
the guards of the fortresses in Judea saw this, they all abandoned their posts and fled to Antioch, except those in the town of Bethsura and those in the citadel of Jerusalem; for these were mostly impious and fugitive Jews, and for that reason they did not abandon their garrisons. When Alexander learned of the promises
Demetrius had made to Jonathan, and of Jonathan's courage and all he had accomplished in fighting the Macedonians, and again of all he himself had suffered at the hands of Demetrius and of Bacchides, Demetrius's general, he said that in the present circumstances one could not find a better ally for one's friends than Jonathan, a man who was both brave in war and bore a personal hatred toward Demetrius after all he had suffered
...and had suffered many wrongs at his hands. If, then, it seemed good to make him a friend against Demetrius, now was no less useful a moment than any other to invite him into the alliance." This resolved, Alexander and his friends decided to send to Jonathan, and he wrote him the following letter:
"King Alexander to his brother Jonathan, greetings. We have long heard of your courage and loyalty, and for this reason we have sent to you concerning friendship and alliance. We hereby appoint you high priest of the Jews today, and you are to be called our friend." He sent him gifts as well, a purple robe and a golden crown, and urged him, now that he had been honored by us, to become likewise disposed toward us.
When Jonathan received the letter, he put on the priestly robe at the coming Feast of Tabernacles, four years after his brother Judas had died; for not even during that time had anyone become high priest. He gathered a large force and had a great quantity of weapons forged. Demetrius, on learning of this, was greatly distressed, and blamed himself for his slowness, in that he had not forestalled Alexander by showing kindness to Jonathan himself, but had left the occasion open to him. He too, therefore, wrote a letter to Jonathan and to the people, declaring the following:
"King Demetrius to Jonathan and to the nation of the Jews, greetings. Since you have preserved your friendship toward us, and have not gone over to my enemies though they tested you, we commend you for this loyalty and urge you to remain in the same course, and you shall receive rewards and favors from us in return. I will release most of you from the taxes and the tributes which you used to pay to the kings before me and to me, and I now remit to you the taxes you have always paid. In addition, I grant you exemption from the tax on salt and from the crowns you used to offer us, and instead of a third of the grain and half of the fruit of the trees, the portion that fell to me I remit to you from this day forward.
And as to the tax due to me for each head of those dwelling in Judea, and for the three toparchies attached to Judea — Samaria, Galilee, and Perea — these I concede to you from now for all time. And I wish the city of Jerusalem to be holy and inviolable, and free, together with its territory, from the tithe and from the tolls. I also grant the citadel to your high priest Jonathan, that he may station in it as guards whomever he judges trustworthy and friendly, so that they may keep it for us. And I release free all Jews who have been taken captive and are enslaved in our realm. I also order that the beasts of burden belonging to Jews not be requisitioned for forced service, and that the Sabbaths and every festival, together with three days before each festival, be exempt from taxation.
In the same way I release free and unmolested the Jews dwelling within my realm, and I permit those who wish to serve in my army to do so, up to thirty thousand in number, and these shall receive the same allowances my own army receives. Some of them I will station in the garrisons, others about the guard of my own person, and I will make some of them commanders among those of my court. I also permit them to live by their ancestral laws and to keep them, and I wish them to be subject to the three districts attached to Judea in accordance with those laws. I also charge the high priest to see to it that no Jew has any other temple to worship at except the one in Jerusalem alone. And out of my own funds I give fifteen thousand shekels yearly toward the expense of the sacrifices,
and whatever surplus of the money remains, I wish it to be yours. And the ten thousand drachmas which the kings used to take from the temple, I remit to you, since they properly belong to the priests who serve in the temple. And whoever takes refuge at the temple in Jerusalem, or within its precincts, whether owing money to the royal treasury or for any other cause, let these be released, and let their property remain secure. I also permit the renewing and rebuilding of the temple, the expense for this being met out of my own funds, and I likewise grant that the walls of the city be rebuilt and that high towers be raised, this too at my own expense.
And if there is any fortress that it is advantageous for the country of the Jews to have made secure, let this too be built at my expense." With these promises and favors Demetrius wrote to the Jews. But king Alexander, having gathered a large force of mercenaries and of the soldiers who had joined him from Syria, marched against Demetrius. And when battle was joined, the left wing of Demetrius's army routed the enemy opposite it and pursued them a great distance, killing many of them and plundering their camp; but the right wing, where Demetrius himself happened to be, was defeated.
All the rest fled, but Demetrius, fighting nobly, killed no small number of the enemy, and while pursuing the others drove his horse into a deep and impassable swamp, where it happened that his horse fell and he, unable to escape, was killed there. For the enemy, seeing what had happened to him, turned back and, surrounding Demetrius, all hurled their javelins at him. He, fighting on foot, defended himself nobly, but at last, having received many wounds and no longer able to hold out, he fell. Such was the end that overtook Demetrius, who had reigned eleven years, as we have also shown elsewhere.
Now the son of Onias the high priest, who bore the same name as his father, and who, as we have said before, had fled to Alexandria and was living there with king Ptolemy called Philometor, when he saw Judea being mistreated by the Macedonians and their kings, wishing to secure for himself glory and everlasting remembrance, resolved to send to king Ptolemy and to queen Cleopatra and ask their permission to build a temple in Egypt like the one in Jerusalem, and to install Levites and priests of his own people.
He was moved to this above all by his confidence in the prophet Isaiah, who, having lived more than six hundred years before, had foretold that a temple must certainly be built in Egypt to the Most High God by a Jewish man. Moved by these considerations, then, Onias wrote the following letter to Ptolemy and Cleopatra:
"Having rendered you many great services in matters of war, with God's help, and having been present in Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, and having come with the Jews to the city of Leontopolis in the Heliopolite nome and to other places of the nation, and finding that most of them had shrines that were not fitting and were for this reason at odds with one another — a thing that has also happened to the Egyptians because of the multitude of their shrines and the disagreement among them over their forms of worship — I found a most suitable place in the fortress called that of the wild Bubastis, abounding in varied timber and full of sacred animals, and I ask that I be permitted to cleanse this ownerless and ruined shrine
and to build there a temple to the Most High God, modeled after the one in Jerusalem and of the same dimensions, on behalf of you and your wife and your children, so that the Jews dwelling in Egypt may have a place to gather in harmony with one another and thereby serve your interests; for indeed the prophet Isaiah foretold this too: 'There shall be an altar in Egypt to the Lord God,' and he prophesied many other such things concerning this place."
This, then, is what Onias wrote to king Ptolemy. And one may observe the piety of him and of Cleopatra his sister and wife from the letter they wrote in reply; for they laid the sin and the transgression of the law upon the head of Onias himself. For they wrote back as follows:
"King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra to Onias, greetings. We have read your letter asking to be permitted to cleanse the ruined shrine in the city of Leontopolis in the Heliopolite nome, called that of the wild Bubastis. We are amazed, therefore, that a temple should be pleasing to God when set up in so impure a place and one full of sacred animals. But since you say that the prophet Isaiah foretold this a long time ago, we grant you permission, if this is indeed to be in accordance with the law, so that we may not appear to have committed any sin against God."
Having received the place, then, Onias built a temple and an altar to God like the one in Jerusalem, though smaller and poorer. Its dimensions and its furnishings I have not thought it necessary to describe here, for they have been recorded in my seventh book of the Jewish War. And Onias found certain Jews like himself, priests and Levites, to conduct worship there. But concerning this temple enough has now been said by us.
Now the Jews of Alexandria, and the Samaritans, who worshiped at the temple on Gerizim, happened in the time of Alexander to quarrel with one another, and they contended before Ptolemy himself about their respective temples, the Jews maintaining that the one in Jerusalem had been built according to the laws of Moses, and the Samaritans that the one on Gerizim had. They asked the king to sit in judgment with his friends and hear the arguments on these matters, and to punish those who lost the case with death.
The case for the Samaritans was argued by Sabbaeus and Theodosius, and that for the people of Jerusalem and the Jews by Andronicus son of Messalamus. They swore by God and by the king that they would indeed present their proofs according to the law, and they asked Ptolemy that whichever of them he found transgressing the oaths, he should put to death. The king, then, taking many of his friends into his council, sat to hear the arguments of both sides. The Jews then present in Alexandria were greatly anxious for the men,
for it distressed them that anyone should try to overthrow the temple in Jerusalem; for they took it hard that some should attempt to destroy a temple so ancient and so renowned throughout the inhabited world. When Sabbaeus and Theodosius had granted Andronicus the right to speak first, he began his proofs from the law and from the succession of the high priests, showing how each had received the honor from his father and had presided over the temple, and how all the kings of Asia had honored the temple with dedications and the most splendid gifts, while no one had ever taken any account or notice of the temple on Gerizim, as though it did not even exist. By saying these things, and many others like them, Andronicus persuaded the king to decide that the temple in Jerusalem had been built according to the laws of Moses, and to put to death Sabbaeus and Theodosius.
Such, then, were the events that befell the Jews of Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philometor. And when Demetrius had died in battle, as we have shown above, Alexander, having taken over the kingdom of Syria, wrote to Ptolemy Philometor asking for his daughter's hand in marriage, saying that it was fitting that he, having recovered his father's kingdom and having been advanced to it by the providence of God, and having overcome Demetrius, and being in every other respect not unworthy of kinship with him, should be joined to him by marriage.
Ptolemy, receiving the proposal of marriage gladly, wrote back saying he rejoiced that Alexander had recovered his father's kingdom, and promised to give him his daughter, and bade him come to Ptolemais to receive the daughter he was about to bring; for he himself would escort her that far from Egypt and there give the girl in marriage to him. Having written this, Ptolemy came in haste to Ptolemais, bringing his daughter Cleopatra. Finding Alexander there, as he had written, already arrived to meet him, he gave him the girl, along with a dowry of silver and gold as much as it was fitting for a king to give. And while the wedding was being celebrated, Alexander wrote to Jonathan the high priest
and ordered him to come to Ptolemais. Jonathan, arriving before the kings and presenting them with gifts, was received with splendid honor from both. Alexander compelled him to take off his own garments and put on the purple, and, having him sit down together with himself on the dais, ordered his commanders to go with him into the middle of the city and proclaim that no one was permitted to speak against him or to cause him trouble.
When the commanders had done this, those who had been prepared to accuse Jonathan and were hostile to him, seeing the honor proclaimed for him by the king, fled away, fearing that they too might suffer some harm. So great was the regard king Alexander showed for Jonathan that he had him enrolled first among his friends. Now in the hundred and sixty-fifth year, Demetrius son of Demetrius, with many mercenaries which Lasthenes the Cretan had supplied him, set out from Crete and sailed to Cilicia.
When Alexander heard of this, he was thrown into anxiety and confusion, and at once hurried from Phoenicia to Antioch, in order to secure affairs there before Demetrius arrived. He left Apollonius the Daosite as governor of Coele-Syria, who, coming to Jamnia with a large force, sent to Jonathan the high priest, saying that it was unjust that he alone should live in security and with full authority, not being subject to the king; that this brought reproach upon him from everyone, that he had not brought Jonathan into subjection to the king.
"Do not, then, deceive yourself by sitting in the mountains and imagining that you have strength; rather, if you trust in your own power, come down into the plain and match yourself against our army, and the outcome of the victory will show who is the bravest. Know, too, that the best men from every city march with me; indeed, these are the very men who have always defeated your ancestors. You will fight your battle against us on such ground that there are no stones with which to defend yourself, only weapons, and no place to which you might flee if defeated."
Provoked by this, Jonathan chose ten thousand soldiers and set out from Jerusalem, together with Simon his brother, and, arriving at Joppa, encamped outside the city, the people of Joppa having shut its gates against him; for they had a garrison inside stationed there by Apollonius. But while Jonathan was preparing to besiege them, the people, fearing that...
When Apollonius heard that Jaffa had been taken by Jonathan, he took three thousand cavalry and eight thousand infantry and marched to Ashdod. From there he set out again, moving slowly and deliberately, and on reaching Jaffa he pulled back, drawing Jonathan out onto the plain, confident in his cavalry and expecting an easy victory. Jonathan advanced and pursued Apollonius toward Ashdod. But once the enemy had reached open ground, Apollonius wheeled around and joined battle. He had stationed a thousand cavalry in ambush in a nearby ravine so that they could appear behind the enemy's lines, but Jonathan noticed them and was not shaken. He drew up his army in a square, facing the enemy on both sides at once, front and rear. As the fighting dragged on until evening, he gave part of his force to his brother Simon and ordered him to engage the enemy's main line, while he himself commanded the rest to lock shields and absorb the cavalry's volleys. His men did as ordered, and although the enemy cavalry kept shooting at them until their quivers were empty, the arrows did no harm: they could not penetrate bodies protected by shields packed so tightly together that the missiles were easily deflected and fell useless. When the enemy had worn themselves out shooting from morning until late afternoon, Simon, seeing that they were exhausted, engaged their infantry line, and with his soldiers fighting eagerly he routed the enemy. Seeing the infantry in flight, the cavalry did not hold their ground either; already exhausted from fighting since dawn, and now with no hope of support from their infantry, they fled in disorder and confusion, scattering across the whole plain. Jonathan pursued them all the way to Ashdod, killing many who had given up hope of escape, and forced the rest to take refuge in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. Jonathan took the city itself by storm and burned it along with the surrounding villages. He did not spare the temple of Dagon either, but burned that too, destroying everyone who had fled inside for safety. In all, the enemy dead -- those killed in battle and those burned in the temple -- numbered eight thousand. Having won so decisive a victory, Jonathan left Ashdod and marched to Ashkelon, and when he camped outside the city the people of Ashkelon came out to meet him bearing gifts and honoring him. He accepted their goodwill and returned from there to Jerusalem, bringing with him the great quantity of plunder he had taken from the defeated enemy.
When Alexander heard that his general Apollonius had been defeated, he pretended to be pleased, on the grounds that Apollonius had fought against his own wishes with Jonathan, who was his friend and ally. He sent word to Jonathan commending him, and granting him honors and rewards -- a gold clasp, of the kind customarily given to relatives of kings -- and assigning him Ekron and its district as his own holding. About this same time King Ptolemy, surnamed Philometor, arrived in Syria with a naval and land force to support Alexander, since he was his father-in-law. All the cities, at Alexander's command, welcomed him eagerly and escorted him as far as Ashdod, where the people all cried out against him, denouncing Jonathan for destroying their temple of Dagon, burning their territory, and killing many of their people.
Ptolemy heard all this out but said nothing. Jonathan, meanwhile, went to meet Ptolemy at Jaffa, where he received splendid gifts from him and every mark of honor; he then escorted him as far as the river called Eleutherus, before returning again to Jerusalem. When Ptolemy reached Ptolemais, he narrowly escaped assassination -- quite unexpectedly, since the plot against him came from Alexander himself, carried out through Ammonius, who happened to be his friend. Once the plot came to light, Ptolemy wrote to Alexander demanding that Ammonius be handed over for punishment, saying that he had been the target of the man's scheme and insisting he answer for it. When Alexander refused to surrender him, Ptolemy realized that Alexander himself was behind the plot and grew bitterly hostile toward him. The people of Antioch, too, already had a grievance against Alexander over Ammonius, since they had suffered greatly at the man's hands.
Ammonius did in the end pay the penalty for his crimes: he was slaughtered in disgrace like a woman, having tried to hide himself in women's clothing -- as we have related elsewhere. Ptolemy, now regretting that he had given his daughter in marriage to Alexander and joined him in alliance against Demetrius, broke off the family tie; he took his daughter away from Alexander and sent her at once to Demetrius, opening negotiations for an alliance and a marriage. He promised to give Demetrius his daughter as wife and to restore him to his father's kingdom.
Demetrius, delighted by this embassy, accepted both the alliance and the marriage. One task alone remained for Ptolemy: to persuade the people of Antioch, who were hostile toward Demetrius on account of the wrongs his father had done them, to accept him. He accomplished this too. The Antiochenes, hating Alexander because of Ammonius, as we have said, easily drove him out of Antioch, and he, expelled from the city, fled to Cilicia. Ptolemy then came before the Antiochenes and was proclaimed king by them and by the army, and -- reluctantly -- assumed two crowns, that of Asia and that of Egypt. But being naturally decent and just, and having no craving for such grandeur, and moreover shrewd enough to foresee what was coming, he judged it wise to avoid arousing the resentment of the Romans. He therefore called the Antiochenes to an assembly and persuaded them to accept Demetrius instead, saying that, for the benefits their father had shown him, he would bear the son no grudge on their account.
He also pledged that he himself would act as Demetrius's good counselor and guide, and promised not to let him undertake any base course of action, adding that the kingdom of Egypt was enough for him. With these words he persuaded the Antiochenes to accept Demetrius. When Alexander then set out from Cilicia with a large army and great preparations, marched into Syria, and burned and plundered the territory of Antioch, Ptolemy took the field against him together with his son-in-law Demetrius -- for he had by now given him his daughter in marriage -- and together they defeated Alexander and put him to flight. Alexander fled to Arabia. In the course of the battle it happened that Ptolemy's horse, startled by the trumpeting of an elephant, threw him off, and when the enemy saw him fall they rushed at him and struck him with many wounds to the head, bringing him to the point of death; his bodyguards snatched him away, but he was in such a bad state that for four days he could neither recognize anyone nor speak.
The Arab chief Zabdiel cut off Alexander's head and sent it to Ptolemy, who, having by the fifth day recovered enough from his wounds to understand what was set before him, both heard the news of Alexander's death and saw the head -- the most welcome sight and report he could have received. Not long afterward, filled with joy at Alexander's death, he himself also died. Alexander, surnamed Balas, had reigned over Asia for five years, as we have also related elsewhere. Once Demetrius, surnamed Nicator, had taken over the kingdom, in his wickedness he set about undermining Ptolemy's forces, forgetting the alliance between them and the fact that Ptolemy was his father-in-law and kinsman through the marriage to Cleopatra. Ptolemy's soldiers fled his overtures to Alexandria, and Demetrius took possession of the elephants. Meanwhile Jonathan the high priest gathered an army from all of Judea and laid siege to the Akra in Jerusalem, which held a Macedonian garrison and some renegade Jews who had abandoned their ancestral customs.
At first these men scorned Jonathan's efforts against the fortress, trusting in the strength of the place, but some of the wicked men inside slipped out by night and went to Demetrius, informing him of the siege of the citadel. Enraged by this news, Demetrius took his army and marched from Antioch against Jonathan. On reaching Ptolemais he wrote ordering him to come to him there at once. Jonathan did not lift the siege, but taking with him the elders of the people, the priests, gold, silver, clothing, and a great quantity of gifts, he went to Demetrius and, by these presents, won over the king's anger. Honored by him, he secured confirmation of the high priesthood, on the same terms he had held it under the kings before Demetrius. When the exiles brought accusations against him, Demetrius did not believe them; instead, at Jonathan's request that all Judea and the three districts of Samaria, Jaffa, and Galilee should pay three hundred talents, he granted this and issued letters covering the whole matter, which read as follows:
"King Demetrius to his brother Jonathan and to the nation of the Jews, greetings. We are sending you a copy of the letter we wrote to our kinsman Lasthenes concerning you, so that you may be informed of it. King Demetrius to his father Lasthenes, greetings. To the nation of the Jews, being our friend and keeping faith with us, we have decided, out of regard for their goodwill, to grant a favor. We release to them the three districts of Aphairema, Lydda, and Ramathaim, which were added to Judea from the territory of Samaria, along with everything belonging to them; likewise everything that the kings before me received from those who offered sacrifices in Jerusalem, and whatever comes from the produce of the land and from its crops, and all other dues owed to us, together with the salt pools and the crowns brought to us -- all of this we release to them, and none of it shall be revoked from now on for all time. See to it, then, that a copy of this be made and given to Jonathan, and set up in a conspicuous place in the holy temple." Such was the content of the letter.
Once Demetrius saw that peace prevailed and there was no danger or fear of war, he disbanded his army and cut its pay, keeping full pay only for the mercenaries who had come up with him from Crete and the other islands. This earned him the hatred and enmity of the soldiers, whom he no longer supported at all, whereas the kings before him had continued to support them even in peacetime, so as to keep their goodwill and have them ready to fight eagerly if ever the need arose. Noticing this resentment of the soldiers toward Demetrius, a certain general of Alexander's, a native of Apamea named Diodotus, also called Trypho, went to Malchus the Arab, who was raising Alexander's son Antiochus, and, informing him of the army's hostility to Demetrius, urged him to hand Antiochus over to him, promising to make him king and restore to him his father's kingdom.
Malchus at first resisted, distrusting him, but after Trypho had pressed his suit for a long time, he was won over and yielded to what Trypho urged. Such was the state of affairs concerning this man. Meanwhile the high priest Jonathan, wanting to force out those in the Akra of Jerusalem, along with the Jewish exiles and renegades and the garrisons throughout the whole country, sent gifts and envoys to Demetrius asking him to expel those in the Judean strongholds. Demetrius promised not only to grant this but even more once the war he currently had on his hands was settled, since for now he had no time to spare for it. He also asked Jonathan to send him military support, indicating that his own army had deserted him.
So Jonathan chose three thousand soldiers and sent them. The people of Antioch, hating Demetrius for the wrongs he had done them, and hostile to him also on account of his father, who had wronged them greatly, were watching for an opportunity to attack him. Learning that Jonathan's reinforcements had arrived to support Demetrius, and realizing that he would gather a large force unless they moved first to seize him, they took up arms, surrounded his palace in the manner of a siege, blocked the exits, and sought to overpower the king. Seeing the people of Antioch in open war against him and under arms, Demetrius took his mercenaries together with the Jewish troops sent by Jonathan and engaged the Antiochenes, but, overwhelmed by them -- for they were many tens of thousands -- he was defeated.
When the Jews saw the Antiochenes gaining the upper hand, they climbed onto the roofs of the palace buildings and shot down at the Antiochenes from there; being at a great height, they themselves suffered nothing from the enemy, while doing them great harm by fighting from above, and they drove the Antiochenes back from the houses nearby. They then set those houses on fire at once, and since the buildings were closely packed and mostly built of wood, the flame spread and consumed the entire city. Unable to fight the fire or bring help, the Antiochenes turned to flight. As the Jews leapt from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of them, the chase took on a remarkable character. Seeing the Antiochenes intent on saving their children and wives, and therefore no longer fighting, the king attacked them through other side streets, and in the engagement killed many of them, forcing the rest to throw down their weapons and surrender to Demetrius. He forgave them their audacity and put an end to the uprising. He also rewarded the Jews with the spoils taken, and, thanking them as the ones chiefly responsible for his victory, sent them back to Jonathan in Jerusalem with a testimonial of their loyal service.
Later, however, he turned base toward Jonathan, went back on his promises, and threatened war unless Jonathan paid him all the tribute that the Jewish nation had owed the earlier kings. He would have carried this out had Trypho not held him back, diverting his preparations against Jonathan by drawing his attention to his own affairs instead. For Trypho, returning from Arabia to Syria with Alexander's boy Antiochus -- who was still a mere youth -- placed the crown on him. When the whole army that had abandoned Demetrius for lack of pay came over to Antiochus's side, he opened war against Demetrius, engaged him in battle, and defeated him.
Jonathan's preparations, which Antiochus had drawn together to move against him, were redirected instead toward his own troubles. For Antiochus, returning from Arabia into Syria with his son Antiochus — the boy was still young in years — placed the diadem on him. When the whole army that had abandoned Demetrius for want of pay came over to him, he opened war against Demetrius, met him in battle, and won the day, capturing both the elephants and the city of the Antiochenes. Demetrius, defeated, withdrew into Cilicia, while the boy Antiochus sent envoys and letters to Jonathan, made him his friend and ally, confirmed him in the high priesthood, and ceded to him the four districts that had been added to the territory of the Jews. He further sent him golden vessels and cups, granted him the right to wear purple, gave him a golden clasp, and ranked him among his foremost friends. He also appointed Jonathan's brother Simon general of the forces from the Ladder of Tyre to Egypt.
Jonathan, delighted at Antiochus's favor toward him, sent envoys to him and to Tryphon and pledged to be their friend and ally and to make war alongside them against Demetrius, pointing out that he owed Demetrius no gratitude for the many benefits he claimed to have granted, since in every case where Jonathan had needed his help he had found none, but had instead been wronged in return for the good he had done him. Antiochus therefore allowed him to gather a large force from Syria and Phoenicia to fight Demetrius's generals, and Jonathan set out at once for the cities. They received him splendidly, but gave him no troops. Moving on from there to the city of Ashkelon, where the people of Ashkelon met him eagerly with gifts, he urged them, and every city in Coele-Syria that revolted from Demetrius, to join Antiochus and, by fighting alongside him, to try to exact from Demetrius satisfaction for whatever wrongs he had ever done them; there were, he said, many grounds on which they might wish to think this way.
Having persuaded the cities to agree to ally themselves with Antiochus, he came on to Gaza, meaning to win their goodwill toward Antiochus as well. But he found the people of Gaza far more hostile than he had expected: they shut their gates against him and, abandoning Demetrius, still refused to go over to Antiochus. This provoked Jonathan to besiege them and ravage their land; stationing part of his army around Gaza, he went with the rest through the countryside himself, destroying and burning it. Seeing themselves suffering this, and no help coming from Demetrius, but their present distress immediate while any relief was still far off and uncertain whether it would even come, the people of Gaza judged it wise to let go of that hope and attend instead to what lay before them. They therefore sent to Jonathan and pledged friendship and alliance — for men, before they have felt disaster, rarely grasp their own advantage, but once caught in some misfortune, they choose, too late and to their cost, the course that reasoning could have shown them without any harm at all. Jonathan, having made this pact of friendship with them and taken hostages, sent the hostages to Jerusalem, while he himself passed through the whole country as far as Damascus.
When he heard that Demetrius's generals had advanced with a large force to Kedesh, which lies between the territory of Tyre and Galilee — for they supposed that this would draw him away from Syria to defend the Galileans, since they assumed he would not overlook his own people being attacked while they were in Galilee — he went to meet them, leaving his brother Simon behind in Judea. Simon, gathering as large a force as the country allowed, laid siege to Beth-zur, the strongest fortress in Judea, which a garrison of Demetrius's still held; we have spoken of this place before as well. When Simon had raised earthworks and set up siege engines and was pressing the siege of Beth-zur with great energy, the garrison, fearing that if the place were taken by storm they would be destroyed, sent to Simon and asked, on receiving oaths that they would suffer no harm from him, to be allowed to leave the place and withdraw to Demetrius. Simon gave them this pledge, expelled them from the city, and stationed a garrison of his own there.
Jonathan, meanwhile, broke camp from Galilee, from the waters called the waters of Gennesaret — for he had been encamped there — and advanced to the plain called Hazor, unaware that the enemy were in it. Learning a day beforehand that Jonathan was about to march against them, Demetrius's men set an ambush for him, stationing men to lie in wait in the hills while they themselves, with the army, went out to meet him on the plain. When Jonathan saw them ready for battle, he too made his own soldiers ready for the contest as best he could. But when the men Demetrius's generals had stationed in ambush came up behind the Jews, they were struck with fear that, caught between the two forces, they would be destroyed, and rushed to flee. All the rest abandoned Jonathan, but a few — about fifty in number, with Mattathias son of Absalom and Judas son of Chalphi, commanders of the whole force — pressed forward boldly and in desperation against the enemy, and by their daring struck them with terror and turned them to flight with their own hands. When the men of Jonathan's army who had withdrawn saw the enemy routed, they rallied from their flight and set out in pursuit, chasing them as far as Kedesh, where the enemy's camp had been.
Jonathan, having won this brilliant victory and killed two thousand of the enemy, returned to Jerusalem. Seeing that everything was going according to his wishes by God's providence, he sent envoys to the Romans to renew the friendship that had earlier existed between the nation and them, and instructed the same envoys, on their way back from Rome, to visit the Spartans and remind them of the friendship and kinship between them.
When the envoys reached Rome, they came before the senate, delivered Jonathan the high priest's message — that he had sent them to confirm the alliance — and the senate ratified what it had earlier decreed concerning friendship with the Jews and gave them letters to carry to all the kings of Asia and Europe and to the rulers of the cities, so that they might have safe passage home through their territories. On their way back they came to Sparta and delivered to the Spartans the letters they had received from Jonathan. This was a copy of it: "Jonathan the high priest of the nation of the Jews, and the senate and the body of priests, to the ephors and senate and people of the Lacedaemonians, our brothers, greeting. If you and your public and private affairs are prospering, it is as we would wish; we too are well. In earlier times, when a letter was brought to Onias, who was then high priest among us, from Areus, who was king of your people, through Demoteles, concerning the kinship existing between us — a copy of which is appended below — we received the letter gladly and were well disposed toward Demoteles and Areus, though we had no need of such proof, since it was already a matter of trust from our sacred writings. Still, we did not think it right to be the first to claim the connection, for fear of seeming to snatch for ourselves the honor you offer; and now, though much time has passed since that kinship was first renewed for us, in our sacred and appointed days we offer sacrifice to God and remember you, praying for your safety and victory. Though many wars have surrounded us because of the greed of our neighbors, we judged it right to trouble neither you nor any other of our connections. But having overcome our enemies, we sent Numenius son of Antiochus and Antipater son of Jason, men held in honor among our senate, to the Romans, and through them we also sent letters to you, so that our kinship with you might be renewed. You will therefore do well to write to us as well, and to let us know whatever you may need, since we stand ready to further your purposes in every way." The Lacedaemonians received the envoys warmly and, having passed a decree concerning alliance and friendship, sent it to them.
About this time there were three schools of thought among the Jews, which held differing views concerning human affairs: one was called that of the Pharisees, another that of the Sadducees, and the third that of the Essenes. The Pharisees say that some things, but not all, are the work of fate, and that some things lie within our own power, whether they happen or not. The school of the Essenes declares that fate is sovereign over everything and that nothing at all befalls men except by its decree. The Sadducees, on the other hand, do away with fate altogether, holding that it does not exist and that human affairs do not reach their end according to it, but that everything lies within our own power, so that we ourselves are the cause both of the good things that come to us and of the misfortunes we bring on ourselves through our own poor judgment. But I have given a more precise account of these matters in the second book of my work on Jewish affairs.
Demetrius's generals, wishing to avenge their defeat, gathered a larger force than before and marched against Jonathan. Learning of their advance, he moved swiftly to meet them in the region of Hamath, unwilling to give them the leisure to invade Judea. Encamping fifty stadia from the enemy, he sent men to observe their camp and how they had positioned themselves. When his scouts reported everything to him, and had also captured, by night, some men who disclosed that the enemy intended to attack, he took precautions in advance, setting outposts outside the camp and keeping his whole force under arms through the entire night, having instructed them to be resolute in spirit and prepared in mind to fight even by night if need be, so that their intention should not go unnoticed by the enemy. When Demetrius's generals learned that Jonathan knew of their plan, they were no longer of sound mind, but were thrown into confusion at having been discovered by the enemy and at having no hope of prevailing now that their plot had failed in every other respect — for they did not think themselves a match for Jonathan's men in open combat. They therefore resolved on flight, and, lighting many fires so that the enemy, seeing them, would suppose they had stayed, withdrew. But Jonathan, advancing on their camp at dawn and finding it empty, understood that they had fled and pursued them. He did not, however, manage to overtake them, for they had already crossed the Eleutherus river and were in safety.
Turning back from there toward Arabia, he made war on the Nabateans, drove off a great quantity of their plunder, and, taking captives, went to Damascus and sold everything there. At about the same time his brother Simon, having passed through the whole of Judea and secured Palestine as far as Ashkelon with garrisons, and having made these places, along with their buildings, very strong and well guarded, came to Joppa and, seizing it, brought in a large garrison — for he had heard that the people of Joppa intended to hand over the city to Demetrius's generals. Having settled these matters, Simon and Jonathan came to Jerusalem. Jonathan, gathering the whole people into the temple, took counsel with them to repair the walls of Jerusalem, to rebuild what had been torn down of the wall around the temple, and to strengthen its surroundings with high towers; and in addition, to build another wall through the middle of the city, so as to cut off the garrison in the citadel from access to the city and, in this way, shut them off from a ready supply of provisions; and further, to make the fortresses throughout the countryside far stronger than their present state of security allowed. When the people had approved this plan as sound, Jonathan himself carried out the building work in the city, while he sent Simon out to secure the countryside.
Demetrius, meanwhile, crossed into Mesopotamia, intending to seize both it and Babylon, and, once master of the upper satrapies, to use them as a base for laying claim to the whole kingdom; for the Greeks and Macedonians settled there kept sending envoys to him, promising that if he came to them they would hand themselves over to him and join him in warring down Arsaces, king of the Parthians. Lifted up by these hopes, he set out to join them, resolved, once he had subdued the Parthians and gained an army, to make war on Tryphon and drive him out of Syria. The people of the country received him eagerly, and, gathering a force, he made war on Arsaces; but he lost his whole army and was himself taken alive, as has also been related elsewhere.
When Tryphon learned that things had ended in this way for Demetrius, he was no longer loyal to Antiochus, but plotted to kill him and seize the kingdom for himself. What stood in the way of this design was his fear of Jonathan, who was a friend of Antiochus; and for this reason he resolved to get Jonathan out of the way first, and only then to move against Antiochus's party. Having decided to destroy him by trickery and deceit, he went from Antioch to Beth-shean — called by the Greeks Scythopolis — and Jonathan came to meet him there with forty thousand picked troops, supposing that Tryphon had come to fight him. When Tryphon saw that Jonathan was ready for battle, he tried to win him over with gifts and displays of friendliness, and ordered his own commanders to obey Jonathan, wishing by these means to establish his good will and to remove every suspicion, so as to catch him off his guard, careless and foreseeing nothing, once he had been lulled into contempt. He advised him to dismiss his army, since there was no need to keep it under arms now, with no war on and the situation at peace; he urged him, however, to keep a few men about him and come with them to Ptolemais, for he would hand over the city to him, along with all the other strongholds throughout the country, and would do so on Jonathan's account — indeed, he said, this was the very purpose of his visit. Jonathan, suspecting none of this, but trusting, out of good will and honest judgment, that Tryphon's advice was sincerely meant, dismissed his army, keeping back only three thousand men, of whom
Trypho left two thousand men in Galilee and went on with the remaining thousand to Ptolemais, taking Jonathan with him. But the people of Ptolemais shut the gates, for this had been ordered them by Trypho beforehand, and seized Jonathan alive, while killing all who were with him. Trypho then sent men against the two thousand left behind in Galilee, to destroy them as well.
These men, however, warned by rumor of what had happened to Jonathan, managed to arm themselves and leave the country before Trypho's agents could reach them. The men sent against them, seeing them ready to fight for their lives, did them no harm and returned to Trypho. When the people of Jerusalem heard of Jonathan's arrest and the destruction of the soldiers with him, they mourned bitterly for the man and searched anxiously for news of him everywhere; and a great fear, reasonably enough, fell upon and troubled them, that now that Jonathan's courage and foresight had been taken from them, the surrounding nations, who had been hostile to them but kept quiet on his account, would rise against them and force them into the utmost danger by making war.
And indeed what they suspected came to pass: hearing of Jonathan's death, the neighboring nations began making war on the Jews as men without a leader. Trypho himself gathered an army with the intention of marching up into Judea and warring on its people. Simon, seeing the people of Jerusalem terrified at this, wished to make them bolder, and called the people together at the temple to address them.
"You are not unaware, countrymen, that my father and my brothers and I willingly dared to die for your freedom. Since I have such examples before me, and men of our own house who died for the laws and our worship, no fear will ever be great enough to drive that resolve from my soul and replace it with love of life or contempt for honor. So then, as men who do not lack a leader able to suffer and to do the greatest things on your behalf, follow me eagerly wherever I lead. For I am no better than my brothers, that I should spare my own life, nor am I inferior to them, that I should shrink from and abandon what they judged most noble—to die for the laws and the worship of God. Where I must show myself their true brother, I will prove myself a brother to them in deed. I am confident that I will exact justice from our enemies and rescue all of you, with your wives and children, from their outrage, and that with God's help I will keep the temple from being plundered. For I see that the nations, thinking you have no leader, have grown contemptuous of you and are eager for war."
When Simon had spoken these words the people took heart; their spirits, which had sunk in cowardice, were roused to a better and confident hope, so that the whole people cried out together that Simon should lead them, taking the place of his brothers Judas and Jonathan, and that they would obey whatever he commanded. He at once gathered every man fit for war among his own forces and hurried to rebuild the city walls, securing them with very high and strong towers. He sent a friend of his, Jonathan the son of Absalom, with an army to Joppa, ordering him to expel its inhabitants, for he feared they might hand the city over to Trypho. He himself remained behind to guard Jerusalem.
Trypho set out from Ptolemais with a large army and came into Judea, bringing Jonathan with him in chains. Simon met him with his own forces at the town of Addida, which lies on a hill overlooking the plains of Judea. Learning that Simon had been made leader by the Jews, Trypho sent to him, wishing to deceive and outmaneuver him: he told Simon that if he wished his brother Jonathan released, he should send a hundred talents of silver and two of Jonathan's sons as hostages, so that once freed he would not lead Judea to revolt from the king—for Jonathan, he said, was being held bound because of money he owed the king from a loan.
Simon was not ignorant of Trypho's trick. He understood that if he gave the money he would lose it and still not free his brother, and would besides hand over the boys to the enemy along with him. Yet, fearing he would be blamed by the people as the one responsible for his brother's death, since he had given neither the money nor the sons on his behalf, he gathered the army and told them what Trypho demanded, saying that it concealed a trap and a plot; nevertheless it was preferable to send the money and the sons than to refuse Trypho's demands and be blamed for having been unwilling to save his brother.
So Simon sent off both Jonathan's sons and the money. But Trypho, once he had received them, did not keep his word: he neither freed Jonathan nor released the sons, but took his army and marched around the country, having decided to go up to Jerusalem next by way of Idumea. He advanced as far as Adora, a town of Idumea, with Simon always moving parallel to him and encamping opposite. When those in the citadel sent to Trypho urging him to hurry to them and send provisions, he prepared his cavalry to be in Jerusalem that very night. But heavy snow fell during the night, covering the roads and making the march impassable for horses because of its depth, and this prevented him from reaching Jerusalem.
For this reason Trypho set out from there and came into Coele-Syria; hastening into Gilead, he killed Jonathan there and ordered him buried, then returned to Antioch. Simon sent to the town of Basca and had his brother's bones brought back, and buried them at Modein, their native place, and the whole people made great mourning for him. Simon built a very great monument for his father and brothers out of white, polished stone, raising it to a great and conspicuous height, and set up porticoes around it, and erected monolithic columns, a wonder to behold, and besides these built seven pyramids, one for each of his parents and brothers, made to inspire awe by their size and beauty—monuments that survive to this day. Such, we know, was the devotion shown by Simon's family to Jonathan's burial and the building of these monuments. Jonathan died after serving four years as high priest and leader of the nation. So much for the circumstances of his death.
Simon, established as high priest by the people, in the first year of his high priesthood freed the nation from servitude to the Macedonians, so that they no longer paid them tribute; this freedom and exemption from tribute came to the Jews after a hundred and seventy years from the time Seleucus, called Nicator, had taken possession of Syria. So great was the people's devotion to Simon that in their contracts with one another and in public documents they wrote, in the first year, "of Simon, benefactor and ethnarch of the Jews"; for under him they prospered greatly and overcame the enemies around them. Simon subdued the cities of Gazara, Joppa, and Jamnia, and after besieging and taking the citadel in Jerusalem, razed it to the ground, so that it might not serve as a base for enemies to occupy and use to harm the city, as it had before.
Having done this, he judged it best and most advantageous also to level the hill on which the citadel had stood, so that the temple might be higher than everything around it. He persuaded the people of this by calling an assembly and reminding them of what they had suffered from the garrison and from the Jewish exiles, and what they would suffer again if a foreign garrison were ever established there once more, should the kingdom fall back into enemy hands. By saying this he persuaded the people, urging on them what was to their advantage. All of them together set to work leveling the hill, and, never resting from the labor by night or day, over three full years brought it down level with the plain. From then on the temple stood out above everything, once the citadel and the hill on which it stood had been demolished. Such was the course of events under Simon.
Not long afterward, Trypho, acting as his guardian, murdered Antiochus the son of Alexander—who was also called "the God"—after he had reigned four years, and announced that he had died under medical treatment. Trypho then sent his closest friends to the soldiers, promising them great sums of money if they would proclaim him king, telling them that Demetrius had been taken captive by the Parthians and that his brother Antiochus, if he came to power, would do them great harm in revenge for their revolt. The soldiers, hoping to profit from the kingdom given to Trypho, declared him ruler.
But once Trypho had gained control of affairs, he revealed his true, wicked nature. As a private citizen he had courted the people and feigned moderation, using it to draw them toward whatever he wanted; but once he had taken the kingship he cast off the pretense, and the real Trypho stood revealed. Through this he made his enemies stronger, for the army, hating him, deserted to Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius, who was then shut up with her children in Seleucia. And when Antiochus, Demetrius's brother, called Soter, was wandering about with no city willing to receive him because of Trypho, Cleopatra sent for him, inviting him to marriage and to the kingship—partly because his friends had persuaded her to it, and partly because she feared that some in Seleucia would hand the city over to Trypho.
Once Antiochus had come to Seleucia, and his strength grew daily, he set out to make war on Trypho, and, defeating him in battle, drove him out of upper Syria into Phoenicia, pursuing him as far as Dora, a fortress hard to capture, where he besieged him after Trypho had taken refuge there. He also sent envoys to Simon, the high priest of the Jews, concerning friendship and alliance. Simon eagerly welcomed his request, and sent much money and provisions to the soldiers besieging Dora, supplying Antiochus generously, so that for a short time he was counted among his most essential friends. Trypho, fleeing from Dora to Apamea, was captured there under siege and died, after reigning three years.
Antiochus, out of greed and baseness, forgot the services Simon had rendered him in his time of need, and, putting an army under the command of his friend Cendebaeus, sent him to ravage Judea and capture Simon. Simon, hearing of Antiochus's lawlessness, though already an old man, was roused by the injustice of Antiochus's actions and, taking on a spirit greater than his years, commanded the war with youthful vigor. He sent his sons ahead with the more warlike of the soldiers, while he himself advanced with the rest of the force by another route, setting many ambushes for the enemy in the ravines of the mountains; he failed in none of his undertakings, and having prevailed over the enemy on every front, spent the rest of his life in peace, having also made an alliance with the Romans.
He ruled the Jews eight years in all, and died through a plot laid against him at a banquet by Ptolemy, his son-in-law, who seized Simon's wife and two of his sons, held them bound, and sent men also against the third son, John—who was also named Hyrcanus—to kill him. But the young man, learning of their approach, escaped the danger and hurried into the city, trusting in the people because of his father's benefactions and because of the people's hatred of Ptolemy. Ptolemy also tried eagerly to enter by another gate, but the people, having already welcomed Hyrcanus, drove him back.
So Ptolemy withdrew to one of the strongholds above Jericho, called Dagon. Hyrcanus, having recovered the ancestral high priesthood and offered the first sacrifices to God, marched out against Ptolemy, and attacking the stronghold got the better of him everywhere except in the one respect of his pity for his mother and brothers. For Ptolemy brought them up onto the wall in full view and tortured them, threatening to hurl them down if Hyrcanus did not abandon the siege. Hyrcanus's eagerness for taking the place would slacken by exactly as much as he thought he was sparing his loved ones further suffering by relenting; but his mother, stretching out her hands, begged him not to soften on her account, but rather to press on all the harder in his anger to take the place and punish the enemy once he had him in his power, avenging their loved ones—for death by torture would be sweet to her, she said, if the man who had done such lawless things to them paid the penalty for it. Hearing his mother say this, Hyrcanus felt some impulse to press the siege, but whenever he saw her being struck and torn, he weakened and gave way to pity for what was being done to her.
As the siege thus dragged on, the year arrived in which the Jews observe rest, for they keep this practice every seven years, as on the days of the week. And Ptolemy, relieved from the war by this, killed the brothers of Hyrcanus and their mother.
his mother, and having done this he fled to Zeno, called Cotylas, the tyrant of the city of Philadelphia. Antiochus, angry at what he had suffered at Simon's hands, invaded Judea in the fourth year of his own reign, the first year of Hyrcanus's rule, in the hundred and sixty-second Olympiad. He ravaged the countryside and shut Hyrcanus up in the city itself,
which he surrounded with seven camps, but at first he accomplished nothing at all, both because of the strength of the walls and the valor of the besieged—and also, for a time, because of a shortage of water, from which a heavy rainstorm at the setting of the Pleiades released them. On the north side of the wall, where the ground happened to be level, he raised a hundred three-story towers and set
military detachments on them. Making daily assaults, and cutting a deep and very wide double trench, he walled the inhabitants off completely. They devised many sallies in response: whenever they fell upon the enemy unguarded, they did them great damage, but when the enemy took notice they withdrew with ease. When Hyrcanus realized that the great number of people inside was a liability—since provisions were being consumed too quickly by it and no work worth mentioning
was being done by so many idle hands—he separated out the useless part of the population and cast it out, keeping only those who were in their prime and fit for fighting. Antiochus, for his part, would not let those who had been expelled leave the siege lines, and they, caught between the walls and abused with such hardships, died miserably. But when the Feast of Tabernacles came round, those inside took pity on them and let them back in again.
When Hyrcanus sent to Antiochus and asked that a truce of seven days be granted for the festival, Antiochus yielded, out of reverence for the divine, and granted the truce; more than that, he sent in a magnificent sacrifice—bulls with gilded horns and cups full of every kind of spice, of gold and of silver. Those stationed at the gates received the sacrifice from the men bringing it and carried it into the temple, while Antiochus feasted his army,
in this differing enormously from Antiochus Epiphanes, who, when he took the city, sacrificed pigs on the altar and sprinkled the temple with their broth, throwing Jewish law and their ancestral piety into confusion—for which the nation was provoked to war against him and remained irreconcilable. This Antiochus, however, everyone called Eusebes, the Pious, on account of the excess of his reverence. Hyrcanus, welcoming his fair dealing
and recognizing his zeal for the divine, sent envoys to him asking that he restore to them their ancestral constitution. He rejected the plot against them: though some urged him to wipe out the nation because of its refusal to mix its way of life with that of others, he paid them no heed, and being persuaded to act in all things out of reverence, he answered the envoys that the besieged should surrender their weapons and pay tribute
for Jaffa and the other cities outside Judea, and that upon accepting a garrison on these terms they would be released from the war. They agreed to everything else, but would not consent to the garrison, since because of their refusal to mix with others they had no dealings with outsiders. In place of the garrison, however, they gave hostages and five hundred talents of silver, of which the king immediately received three hundred along with the hostages,
among whom was Hyrcanus's own brother; and he also tore down the city's crown-work. On these terms Antiochus lifted the siege and withdrew. Hyrcanus then opened the tomb of David, who had surpassed all kings before him in wealth, and took out three thousand talents of silver; and with this money he became the first of the Jews to begin maintaining foreign mercenaries. He also came to be on terms of friendship
and alliance with Antiochus, and receiving him into the city he provided everything for his army generously and with great munificence. When Antiochus made his campaign against the Parthians, Hyrcanus joined the expedition with him. Nicolaus of Damascus bears witness to this for us, recording it as follows: after setting up a trophy at the Lycus river upon defeating Indates, the Parthian general, Antiochus remained there two days at the request of Hyrcanus
the Jew, because of a certain ancestral festival, during which it was not lawful for Jews to travel. And in saying this Nicolaus does not lie, for the feast of Pentecost had fallen right after the Sabbath, and it is not permitted for us to travel either on the Sabbath or on a festival. Antiochus, however, engaged Arsaces the Parthian, lost a great part of his army, and himself perished; and
his brother Demetrius succeeded to the kingdom of the Syrians, Arsaces having released him from captivity at the very time when Antiochus was invading Parthia, as we have already shown elsewhere. When Hyrcanus heard of Antiochus's death he at once marched out against the cities of Syria, expecting to find them—as indeed he did—stripped of fighting men able to defend them. Medaba,
after his army had suffered greatly there, he took in the sixth month; then he immediately took Samoga and the places nearby, and besides these Shechem and Gerizim, and the nation of the Cuthaeans, who dwell around the temple built in imitation of the one at Jerusalem, which Alexander had permitted Sanballat the governor to build for the sake of his son-in-law Manasseh, brother of Jaddus the high priest, as we have shown before.
It happened that this temple was left desolate two hundred years after its founding. Hyrcanus also took the cities of Adora and Marisa in Idumea, and having brought all the Idumeans under his power he allowed them to remain in the land on condition that they circumcise themselves and adopt the laws of the Jews. And out of longing for their ancestral land they submitted to circumcision and to the rest
of the Jewish way of life, and from that time on they came to count as Jews. Hyrcanus the high priest, wishing to renew friendship with the Romans, sent an embassy to them. The senate, receiving the letter from him, made a treaty of friendship with him in this manner: Fannius son of Marcus, praetor, convened the senate eight days before
the Ides of February, in the Comitium, in the presence of Lucius Manlius son of Lucius, of the Mentine tribe, and Gaius Sempronius, son of Pennus, of the Falernian tribe, concerning the matters on which Simon son of Dositheus and Apollonius son of Alexander and Diodorus son of Jason, honorable men sent by the people of the Jews, had spoken, having discussed the friendship and alliance existing between them and the Romans, and matters of state, asking that Jaffa and
its harbors and Gazara and its springs and whatever other cities and territories of theirs Antiochus had taken by war contrary to the decree of the senate be restored to them, and that it not be permitted for the king's soldiers to pass through their territory and that of their subjects, and that whatever had been decreed against them in that war by Antiochus contrary to the decree of the senate
be rendered void, and that ambassadors be sent to see that what had been taken from them by Antiochus be restored, and that the land ravaged in the war be assessed for compensation, and that letters be given to them for kings and free peoples for the safety of their return home. It was resolved concerning these matters as follows: to renew friendship and alliance with good men
sent by a good and friendly people; but concerning the letters, they answered that they would deliberate on this once the senate had leisure from its own affairs, and that they would take care that no such injustice be done to them in future, and that Fannius the praetor should give them money from the public treasury for their return home. Fannius accordingly dismissed the Jewish envoys in this way, having given them money
from the public treasury and a decree of the senate for those who would escort them and see to their safe arrival home. Such, then, was the state of affairs concerning Hyrcanus the high priest. As for King Demetrius, though eager to march against Hyrcanus, he had neither the occasion nor the means to do so, since the Syrians and his own soldiers hated him, for he was a wicked man; and when they sent envoys to Ptolemy
called Physcon, asking that he hand over to them one of the descendants of Seleucus to take the kingdom, Ptolemy sent Alexander, called Zabinas, with an army, and when battle was joined with Demetrius, Demetrius, defeated in the battle, fled to his wife Cleopatra at Ptolemais; and when his wife would not receive him, he went from there to Tyre, was seized,
and after suffering much at the hands of those who hated him, died. Alexander, having taken the kingdom, made friendship with Hyrcanus the high priest. Then, when Demetrius's son, called Antiochus Grypus, made war on him, he was defeated in battle and destroyed. When Antiochus took over the kingdom of Syria he was wary of campaigning against Judea, hearing that his half-brother—also called Antiochus—
was gathering a force against him from Cyzicus. Remaining where he was, he set about preparing himself against his brother's attack—the brother who was called Cyzicenus because he had been raised in that city, and whose father was Antiochus called Soter, who had died among the Parthians; this man was the brother of Grypus's father. As it happened, one and the same Cleopatra had married
both brothers, as we have related elsewhere. Cyzicenus Antiochus, arriving in Syria, spent many years continuing to make war on his brother. All that time Hyrcanus lived in peace, for after Antiochus's death he had broken away from the Macedonians and no longer offered them anything, whether as subject or as friend, but his
affairs prospered greatly and reached their height in the time of Alexander Zabinas, and especially amid the strife of these two brothers; for their war against one another gave Hyrcanus the leisure to enjoy Judea in safety, so that he amassed a boundless quantity of wealth. When Cyzicenus openly ravaged his land, Hyrcanus in turn showed his own resolve, and
seeing Antiochus deprived of his allies from Egypt, and both him and his brother faring badly in their struggles against one another, he despised them both. And he marched against Samaria, a very well-fortified city—concerning which, since it is now called Sebaste, having been founded by Herod, we shall speak in its proper place. Attacking it vigorously he laid siege to it, out of hatred of wrongdoing toward the Samaritans, on behalf of the people of Marisa, colonists of the Jews
and their allies, whom the Samaritans had wronged while obeying the kings of Syria. Surrounding the city on every side with a trench and a double wall about eighty stadia in circumference, he set his sons Antigonus and Aristobulus over the siege. Under this pressure, the Samaritans were driven by necessity of famine to such extremes that they touched even forbidden foods, and called on Antiochus Cyzicenus for help. He readily came to their aid
but was defeated by Aristobulus's forces, and, pursued by the brothers as far as Scythopolis, made his escape. Those besieging the Samaritans, turning back, shut them up again within their wall, so that they sent a second time to call on the same Antiochus as their ally. He, having summoned from Ptolemy Lathyrus about six thousand men, whom Ptolemy's mother sent out unbeknownst to him—she was on the verge of driving him from his throne—
at first advanced and plundered Hyrcanus's territory like a bandit together with the Egyptians, not daring to meet him face to face, since his forces were not equal to it, but thinking that by ravaging the land he would force Hyrcanus to abandon the siege of Samaria. But when he lost many of his soldiers by falling into ambushes, he withdrew to Tripolis, entrusting
the war against the Jews to Callimander and Epicrates. Callimander, engaging the enemy too rashly, was routed and killed on the spot. Epicrates, out of love of money, openly betrayed Scythopolis and the other places near it to the Jews, but was unable to break up the siege of Samaria. Hyrcanus, then, took the city after besieging it for a year, and was not content with this alone, but
utterly destroyed it, making it subject to flooding by the winter torrents; for he dug it out so thoroughly, turning it into ravines, that he removed every trace of its ever having been a city. A strange thing is also told concerning the high priest Hyrcanus, how the divine came to speak with him: they say that on that very day on which his sons fought against Cyzicenus,
he himself, while alone in the temple burning incense as high priest, heard a voice saying that his sons had just now defeated Antiochus. And coming out of the temple he made this known to the whole assembled people, and so indeed it turned out to be. Such, then, was the state of affairs concerning Hyrcanus. At this same time it happened that not only the Jews in Jerusalem and the countryside
were prospering, but also those living in Alexandria and in Egypt and Cyprus; for Queen Cleopatra, at odds with her son Ptolemy called Lathyrus, appointed as commanders Chelkias and Ananias, sons of Onias who had built the temple in the district of Heliopolis in imitation of the one in Jerusalem, as we have shown before. Cleopatra entrusted to these men
her army and did nothing apart from their counsel, as Strabo of Cappadocia also testifies for us, saying as follows: 'For most of the men, both those who had joined originally and those later sent by Cleopatra to Cyprus, went over at once to Ptolemy; only the Jews descended from Onias remained loyal, because their fellow citizens Chelkias and Ananias were held in especially high esteem by the
queen.' So much, then, Strabo says. But prosperity stirred up envy of Hyrcanus among the Jews, and above all the Pharisees, one sect of the Jews, as we have shown above, were ill-disposed toward him. So great is their influence with the populace that even when they say anything against a king or
a high priest, they are believed at once. Hyrcanus too had been a disciple of theirs and was greatly loved by them. And once, when he had invited them to a banquet and entertained them warmly, seeing that they were thoroughly enjoying themselves, he began to say to them that they knew he wished to be righteous and to do everything by which he might please God and them—for the Pharisees are philosophers—he asked further
He said, however, that if they saw him doing wrong and straying from the path of justice, they should bring him back to it and set him right. When they had all testified to his complete virtue, he was delighted with their praise; but one of the guests reclining there, a man named Eleazar, malicious by nature and fond of strife, said, "Since you have asked to know the truth, and wish to be a just man, lay down the high priesthood, and be content to rule the people alone."
When Hyrcanus asked his reason for demanding that he give up the high priesthood, Eleazar answered, "Because we hear from our elders that your mother was a captive in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes." The story was false, and Hyrcanus was furious at him, and all the Pharisees were bitterly indignant as well.
Among the Sadducees, whose party holds the opposite views to the Pharisees, a certain Jonathan, one of Hyrcanus's closest friends, said that Eleazar had spoken his slander with the backing of the whole body of the Pharisees, and that this would become clear if Hyrcanus asked them what penalty they thought the man deserved for what he had said. So Hyrcanus asked the Pharisees what punishment they thought he deserved — for he would judge, he said, that the slander had not been spoken with their sanction if they set a penalty proportioned to the offense — and they replied that he deserved stripes and chains; for they did not think it right to punish a man with death for mere abuse, and besides, the Pharisees are by nature lenient in matters of punishment.
At this Hyrcanus grew very angry, and became convinced that the man had indeed spoken his slander with their approval. Jonathan in particular kept inflaming him further, and worked on him to such effect that he induced him to go over to the Sadducean party, abandoning the Pharisees, to repeal the ordinances they had established for the people, and to punish those who observed them.
From this arose the hatred that the people bore toward him and his sons. But of these matters we shall speak again later. For now I wish to explain that the Pharisees had handed down to the people certain regulations from the tradition of their fathers which are not recorded in the laws of Moses, and for this reason the Sadducean party rejects them, holding that only what is written should be considered binding, while what comes from the tradition of the fathers need not be observed. Concerning these matters great disputes and disagreements arose between them, the Sadducees persuading only the wealthy, without the common people following them, while the Pharisees had the mass of the people as their allies. But I have set out the details concerning these two parties, and the Essenes as well, with precision in the second book of my Jewish War.
Hyrcanus, having put an end to the sedition and afterward lived happily, and having administered his rule in the best possible manner for thirty-one years, died, leaving five sons. He had been judged by God worthy of the three greatest things: rule of the nation, the honor of the high priesthood, and the gift of prophecy. For the divine presence was with him, and gave him foreknowledge of the future, so that he knew and foretold things to come — indeed he even predicted, concerning his two elder sons, that they would not remain masters of affairs. It is worth relating the disaster that befell them, to show how far short they fell of their father's good fortune.
When their father died, the eldest, Aristobulus, decided to change the government into a monarchy — for this was his judgment — and was the first to place a diadem on his head, four hundred and eighty-one years and three months after the people, freed from servitude to the Babylonians, had returned to their own land. Of his brothers he loved the one next to him in age, Antigonus, and treated him as an equal, but kept the others in chains.
He also imprisoned his mother, who had quarreled with him over the rule — for Hyrcanus had left her mistress of the whole realm — and he carried his cruelty so far that he starved her to death in her bonds. He added to his mother's fate his brother Antigonus as well, whom he seemed to love most of all and had made his partner in the kingship, having been estranged from him by slanders which at first he did not believe, partly because his affection for him kept him from paying attention to what was said, and partly because he supposed the slander arose from envy of him.
But once, when Antigonus had returned splendidly from a campaign at the very time of the festival on which they build booths for God, it happened that Aristobulus fell ill, while Antigonus went up to the temple to celebrate the festival, magnificently arrayed, with armed men about him, and prayed at length for his brother's recovery. But wicked men, eager to destroy the harmony between the brothers, seized on the opportunity presented by the ostentation of Antigonus's procession and by his own successes, went to the king, and maliciously exaggerated the display made at the procession during the festival, saying that none of what had happened befitted a private citizen, but that his actions showed the ambition of a king, and that he intended to kill Aristobulus, having come with a strong body of guards — reasoning, foolishly, that though it was in his power to be king himself, he was content to seem to receive great honor by accepting a lesser rank.
Aristobulus, reluctantly persuaded by this, and at the same time wishing to appear free of suspicion toward his brother while also taking care for his own safety, stationed his bodyguards in a certain unlit underground passage — he himself lay ill in the fortress later renamed Antonia — and ordered them to lay hands on no one who was unarmed, but to kill Antigonus if he came in to him armed. He sent word to Antigonus, however, asking him to come to him unarmed. But the queen and those conspiring with her against Antigonus persuaded the messenger to say the opposite: that his brother, having heard he had procured weapons and equipment of war, urged him to come to him armed, so that he might see the equipment.
Antigonus, suspecting no treachery but trusting in his brother's goodwill toward him, came to Aristobulus just as he was, dressed in full armor, to show him the weapons. When he reached the place called the Tower of Strato, where the passage happened to be very dark, the bodyguards killed him.
His death showed clearly that nothing is stronger than envy and slander, and nothing more capable of destroying goodwill and natural kinship than these passions. One may especially marvel at a certain Judas, an Essene by birth, who never once spoke falsely in his predictions. For this man, seeing Antigonus passing by the temple, cried out to his companions and disciples, who stayed with him to learn how to foretell the future, that it would be good for him to die now, since he had been proved false, Antigonus being still alive — the man whom he had predicted would die that day at the place called the Tower of Strato, though he now saw him alive, and though that place was about six hundred stadia distant, and most of the day had already passed, so that his prophecy was in danger of proving false.
While he was saying this, downcast, word came that Antigonus had died in the underground chamber that was also called the Tower of Strato, sharing its name with the coastal city of Caesarea. This news threw the prophet into confusion. As for Aristobulus, remorse for the killing of his brother seized him at once, along with an illness brought on by it, his mind so afflicted by the pollution that the unmixed force of his anguish caused blood to rise within him and be brought up.
One of the servant boys attending him, by what I take to be divine providence, slipped while carrying this blood away to the very spot where the stains of Antigonus's blood still remained from his murder, and spilled it there. A cry arose from those who saw it, supposing that the boy had deliberately poured the blood there. Aristobulus, hearing this, asked the reason for the outcry, and when they would not tell him, he pressed all the more to learn it — for it is human nature to suspect that things kept silent in such circumstances are worse than they are.
When, by threats and by forcing them with fear, they told him the truth, many tears burst from him, his mind stricken by the awareness of his own guilt, and with a deep groan he said, "So it was not, after all, going to escape the notice of God, that I should attempt such impious and abominable crimes — but a swift penalty for a kinsman's murder has overtaken me. And how long, most shameless body, will you hold a soul owed to a brother and a mother, delivering it to the powers below? Why do you not give it back all at once, rather than pouring out my blood drop by drop as a libation to those I have murdered?" With these words he died, having reigned for one year.
He was called a Philhellene, and he did much good for his country, waging war against the Ituraeans and adding a large part of their territory to Judea, and compelling the inhabitants, if they wished to remain in the country, to be circumcised and to live according to the laws of the Jews. He was naturally of a mild disposition and remarkably modest, as Strabo also attests, quoting Timagenes, in these words: "This man was of a mild character and of great service to the Jews; for he added territory to their land, and he brought a portion of the Ituraean nation into kinship with them by the bond of circumcision of their private parts."
When Aristobulus died, his wife Salina — called Alexandra by the Greeks — released his brothers, whom Aristobulus had kept in chains, as we have said, and made Jannaeus, also called Alexander, king, since he was the eldest and the most moderate in temperament.
It happened that as soon as he was born he was hated by his father, and never once came into his sight until his father's death. The reason for this hatred is said to have been as follows: Hyrcanus, loving most among his sons the elder ones, Antigonus and Aristobulus, once asked God in a dream which of his sons was to succeed him. When God showed him this one's features, Hyrcanus was grieved that he was to be heir to all his goods, and allowed him, once born, to be raised in Galilee.
God, however, did not deceive Hyrcanus. This son, taking over the kingdom after Aristobulus's death, put to death the one brother who attempted to seize the throne, and kept the other, who chose to live quietly, in honor.
Having established the government in the manner he thought advantageous to himself, he marched against Ptolemais, and having prevailed in battle he shut the people up within the city, surrounded them, and besieged them. For along the coast only Ptolemais and Gaza remained to be subdued by him, along with Zoilus, the tyrant who held the Tower of Strato, and Dora. Since Antiochus Philometor and his brother Antiochus, surnamed Cyzicenus, were at war with one another and destroying their own forces, no help could come to the people of Ptolemais from them.
But while they were being worn down by the siege, Zoilus, who held the Tower of Strato, and who maintained a body of soldiers at Dora and was attempting to set up a tyranny, gave them some small assistance because of the rivalry between the two kings — for the kings were not on such friendly terms with the Ptolemaeans that they could hope for any help from them. Both kings were in the same case as athletes who, having given up hope of victory through their own strength but ashamed to withdraw, continue the contest through inactivity and delay. Their remaining hope lay with the kings of Egypt and with Ptolemy Lathyrus, who held Cyprus, having been driven from his throne by his mother Cleopatra and taken refuge there.
The people of Ptolemais therefore sent to him and urged him to come as an ally and rescue them from the hands of Alexander, since they were in danger. The envoys raised his hopes, telling him that once he crossed into Syria he would find the people of Gaza allied with the Ptolemaeans and with Zoilus, and the Sidonians too, and many others ready to join him; and, elated at this, he hastened to set sail.
Meanwhile, however, a certain Demaenetus, a persuasive man who held sway with the people of Ptolemais at the time and swayed the assembly, made them change their minds, saying it was better to run the risk of an uncertain outcome fighting the Jews than to accept open slavery by handing themselves over to a master, and that besides, they would face not only their present war but a far greater one from Egypt as well. For Cleopatra would not stand by and allow Ptolemy to build up a force so close to her borders, but would come against them with a great army, since she was eager even to drive her son out of Cyprus; and if Ptolemy's hopes failed, Cyprus remained open to him as a refuge, while for them it meant the utmost danger.
Ptolemy, learning during his crossing of the change of mind among the people of Ptolemais, sailed on nonetheless, and putting in at the place called Sycaminon, disembarked his forces there. His whole army numbered about thirty thousand, infantry and cavalry together, and leading them up near Ptolemais he encamped, but since the city would not receive his envoys nor listen to his proposals, he was greatly troubled.
When Zoilus and the people of Gaza came to him and begged him to join them as an ally, since their territory was being ravaged by the Jews and by Alexander, Alexander, fearing Ptolemy, lifted the siege and withdrew his army to his own territory, where he continued to maneuver, secretly summoning Cleopatra against Ptolemy while openly pretending friendship and alliance with him. He even promised to pay four hundred talents of silver in return for a favor: that Ptolemy remove the tyrant Zoilus and hand over his territory to the Jews.
At that time Ptolemy, gladly making friendship with Alexander, seized Zoilus. But afterward, hearing that Alexander had secretly sent word to his mother Cleopatra, he broke the oaths he had made with him, attacked, and besieged Ptolemais, since it had refused to receive him. Leaving generals in charge of the siege along with part of his forces, he himself set out with the rest to subdue Judea.
Alexander, learning Ptolemy's intention, gathered about fifty thousand of his own countrymen — some writers say eighty thousand — and taking this force went to meet Ptolemy. Ptolemy fell suddenly upon Asochis, a city of Galilee, on the Sabbath, took it by storm, and captured about ten thousand people along with much other plunder.
Having also made an attempt on Sepphoris, a little distance from the city he had ravaged, and lost many men there, he set out to fight Alexander. Alexander met him near the Jordan river, at a place called Asophon, not far from the Jordan, and pitched his camp near the enemy. He had eight thousand men in his front line, whom he called the Hundred-Fighters, equipped with bronze armor,
Ptolemy's front-line troops also carried bronze-plated shields, but the rest of his men were more lightly armed, and so they went into the fight more cautiously. Their courage was greatly bolstered, though, by the tactician Philostephanus, who ordered them to cross the river between the two camps. Alexander did not think it worth preventing the crossing, since he calculated that if he pinned the enemy against the river at their backs, he would more easily defeat them, as they would have no way to flee the battle.
At first the fighting on both sides was matched in effort and determination, and heavy slaughter fell on both armies alike. But when Alexander's men began to gain the advantage, Philostephanus split his force and sent reinforcements to the wing that was giving way. Since none of the Jews on the collapsing side received support from their neighbors—who instead of helping them joined in the flight—they broke and ran. Ptolemy's men did the opposite: they pressed the pursuit and cut the Jews down, chasing and killing the routed troops until their swords grew blunt with the killing and their arms gave out from exhaustion. It was said that thirty thousand of them died—Timagenes puts the number at fifty thousand—while of the rest some were taken captive and others escaped to their own towns.
After the victory Ptolemy overran the countryside, and when evening came on he encamped in some villages of Judea. Finding them full of women and infants, he ordered his soldiers to butcher them, cut them into pieces, and then throw the limbs into boiling cauldrons and taste them. He gave this order so that those who escaped the battle and came upon the scene would believe their enemies were cannibals, and be all the more terrified at the sight. Strabo and Nicolaus both report that this is indeed how he treated them, exactly as I have already stated. Ptolemy's forces also took Ptolemais by storm, as I have made clear elsewhere.
Cleopatra, seeing her son growing in power, freely ravaging Judea, and holding the city of Gaza in submission, would not stand by while he stood at her gates, hungry to make himself greater than the Egyptians. She set out against him at once with both a naval and a land force, appointing the Jews Chelkias and Ananias as commanders of the whole army, while she sent most of her wealth, her grandsons, and her will ahead to be deposited on Cos.
She ordered her son Alexander to sail with a great fleet along the coast to Phoenicia, while she herself came to Ptolemais with the rest of her army. When the people of Ptolemais refused to receive her, she laid siege to the city. Ptolemy meanwhile left Syria and hurried to Egypt, supposing he could seize it by surprise while it lay empty of troops—but he was mistaken in that hope.
At this same time it happened that Chelkias, the other of Cleopatra's commanders, died while pursuing Ptolemy near Coele-Syria. When Cleopatra learned of her son's venture and that things in Egypt had not gone for him as he expected, she sent part of her army and drove him out of the country. He turned back from Egypt and spent the winter in Gaza.
Meanwhile Cleopatra took the garrison at Ptolemais by siege, along with the city itself. Alexander approached her with gifts and whatever courtesies were fitting for a man who had suffered badly at Ptolemy's hands and had no refuge but hers. Some of her friends advised her to take the country as well, now that she had come into it, and not to let so great a wealth of goods belonging to the Jews rest in the hands of one man.
Ananias, however, advised against this, saying that she would be doing wrong if she stripped of his own authority a man who was her ally and, what is more, a kinsman of ours. "I do not want you to be unaware," he said, "that if you commit this injustice against him, you will turn all of us Jews into your enemies."
Persuaded by this advice from Ananias, Cleopatra decided to do Alexander no wrong, and instead made an alliance with him at Scythopolis in Coele-Syria. Freed now from his fear of Ptolemy, Alexander at once campaigned into Coele-Syria. He took Gadara after besieging it for ten months, and he also took Amathus, the greatest of the strongholds beyond the Jordan, where Theodorus son of Zeno kept his finest and most valuable possessions.
Theodorus fell upon the Jews when they were not expecting it, killed ten thousand of them, and plundered Alexander's baggage train. This did not daunt Alexander; instead he marched against the coastal towns of Raphia and Anthedon—which King Herod later renamed Agrippias—and took this one too by storm. Seeing that Ptolemy had withdrawn from Gaza to Cyprus and his mother Cleopatra to Egypt, and being angry at the people of Gaza for having called in Ptolemy as their ally, he besieged their city and plundered their territory beforehand.
Apollodotus, the general of the Gazans, attacked the Jewish camp by night with two thousand mercenaries and ten thousand of his own household troops, and for as long as the darkness lasted the Gazans had the better of it, giving the enemy the impression that Ptolemy himself had come against them. But when day broke and the deception was exposed, the Jews, learning the truth, rallied and attacked the Gazans, killing about a thousand of them. The Gazans held their ground, giving way neither from want nor from the number of their dead—for they were prepared to suffer anything rather than fall under the enemy—and their resolve was further strengthened by the hope that Aretas, king of the Arabs, would soon arrive as their ally.
But it happened that Apollodotus was killed first: his own brother Lysimachus, jealous of his standing among the citizens, murdered him, gathered a body of soldiers, and handed the city over to Alexander. Alexander, once inside, kept quiet at first, but afterward he unleashed his troops on the Gazans and let them take their revenge.
The others scattered through the city, killing Gazans wherever they turned; but the Gazans too were not lacking in courage, and in defending themselves against those who fell upon them they destroyed no fewer of the Jews than they lost themselves. Some, isolated, set fire to their own houses so that the enemy would find no plunder in them; others became the killers of their own children and wives, driven to spare them in this way from slavery under the enemy.
The members of the city council, five hundred in all, had fled together to the temple of Apollo, for it happened that the attack came while they were in session there. Alexander killed them, razed the city to the ground on top of them, and returned to Jerusalem after a siege of a full year. At about this same time Antiochus, called Grypus, died, the victim of a plot by Heracleon, having lived forty-five years and reigned twenty-nine.
His son Seleucus succeeded to the kingdom and went to war with his father's brother Antiochus, who was called Cyzicenus; he defeated him, took him captive, and had him killed. Not long afterward, Cyzicenus's son Antiochus, called Eusebes, arrived at Aradus, put on the diadem, and made war on Seleucus. He prevailed and drove him out of the whole of Syria; Seleucus fled to Cilicia, and once settled at the shrine of Mopsus he began again to extort money from the people there. The people of Mopsuestia, enraged, set fire to his palace and killed him along with his friends.
While Antiochus, son of Cyzicenus, was reigning over Syria, Antiochus the brother of Seleucus made war against him and, being defeated, perished along with his army. After him his brother Philip put on the diadem and ruled over part of Syria. Ptolemy Lathyrus summoned their third brother, Demetrius, called Akairos, from Cnidus and set him up as king in Damascus. Antiochus, resisting these two brothers with vigor, soon died: he had gone as an ally to Laodice, queen of the Samenians, in her war against the Parthians, and fell fighting bravely.
Syria was now held by the two brothers, Demetrius and Philip, as I have related elsewhere. As for Alexander, his own people rose in rebellion against him. It happened at a festival, while he was standing at the altar about to offer sacrifice, that the people pelted him with citrons—for it is the law among the Jews that at the Feast of Tabernacles each man should carry branches of palm and citron, as I have also explained elsewhere.
They further heaped abuse on him, saying he was descended from captives and unworthy of his honor and of the priesthood. Enraged at this, he killed about six thousand of them, and he built a wooden barrier around the altar and the temple, up to the balustrade beyond which only priests were permitted to go, and by means of this barrier he shut off the crowd's access to him.
He also kept foreign mercenaries, Pisidians and Cilicians, since he was at war with the Syrians and so made no use of them. After subduing the Moabites and Gileadites among the Arabs and reducing them to tribute, he tore down Amathus as well, since Theodorus did not dare to face him in battle. But when he joined battle against Obedas, king of the Arabs, he fell into an ambush in rough and difficult country and was driven by a mass of camels into a deep ravine near the village of Gadara in Gaulanitis, barely escaping with his life; from there he fled and made his way to Jerusalem.
Since the nation attacked him precisely because of his misfortune, he fought against them for six years and killed no fewer than fifty thousand Jews. When he called on them to end their hostility toward him, they hated him only the more because of what had already happened. Asked what they wanted, they all cried out that he should die, and they sent to Demetrius Akairos asking for his alliance.
Demetrius came with an army, took under his command those who had summoned him, and encamped near the city of Shechem. Alexander, taking with him six thousand two hundred mercenaries and about twenty thousand Jews who supported him, marched out against Demetrius.
Demetrius had three thousand cavalry and forty thousand infantry. Both sides worked hard, Alexander trying to win over the mercenaries to desert since they were Greeks, Demetrius trying to win over the Jews who were with Alexander. Neither succeeded in persuading the other's men, and when they joined battle Demetrius won. All of Alexander's mercenaries died, giving proof at once of their loyalty and their courage, and many of Demetrius's soldiers fell as well.
As Alexander fled into the mountains, six thousand Jews gathered to his side out of pity at his reversal of fortune. Demetrius, alarmed at this, withdrew. Afterward the Jews continued to make war on Alexander, and being defeated, many of them died in the fighting. He shut up the strongest of them in the city of Bethome and besieged it; when he took the city and gained control of them,
he brought them up to Jerusalem and there committed the most brutal act of all: while feasting in full view of everyone with his concubines, he ordered about eight hundred of them crucified, and while they still hung there alive he had their children and wives slaughtered before their eyes. He did this in revenge for the wrongs he had suffered, but the punishment he exacted went beyond what any human being should inflict—even granting, as was likely enough,
that he had been worn down by his wars against them and had come to the very brink of losing both his life and his kingdom, since they were not content to fight him themselves but brought in foreigners as well, and in the end forced things to such a point that he had to hand over to the Arab king the land he had conquered in Gilead and Moab, along with the Arab territories, so that the king would not join them in the war against him—along with countless other insults and injuries they inflicted on him.
Even so, he does not seem to have acted properly in this, so that because of the excess of his cruelty the Jews nicknamed him Thrakidas. His opponents, about eight thousand in number, fled by night, and for as long as Alexander lived they remained in exile. And so he, rid of this turmoil, ruled from then on in complete peace.
Demetrius, after leaving Judea, went to Beroea and besieged his brother Philip there, having with him ten thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry. Straton, the tyrant of Beroea, an ally of Philip's, called in Azizus, phylarch of the Arabs, and Mithridates Sinaces, the Parthian governor. These arrived with a large force and besieged Demetrius within his own entrenchment, pressing him inside with arrows and thirst until they forced him and his men to surrender.
After plundering the countryside and taking Demetrius captive, they sent him to Mithridates, then king of the Parthians, and returned free of charge to the Antiochenes those of the prisoners who turned out to be citizens of Antioch. Mithridates, king of the Parthians, held Demetrius in every honor until Demetrius ended his life through illness.
Philip, immediately after the battle, went to Antioch, took possession of it, and became king of Syria. Then Antiochus, called Dionysus, Philip's brother, laid claim to the rule and came to Damascus; gaining control of affairs there, he made himself king. When he set out on campaign against the Arabs, his brother Philip, hearing of it, came to Damascus.
Antiochus met them and fought hard, and though winning he died coming to the aid of the hard-pressed wing. When Antiochus fell, his army fled to the village of Cana, where most of them perished from hunger.
After him Aretas was made king of Coele-Syria, called to the throne by the people who held Damascus because of their hatred of Ptolemy son of Mennaeus. Marching from there against Judea, he defeated Alexander in battle near the village of Adida and withdrew from Judea under a treaty. Alexander then marched again against the city of Dium and took it, and campaigning against Essa, where Zeno kept most of his valuables, he surrounded the place with three walls and took the city without a fight, then set out against Gaulane and Seleucia.
Taking these as well, he seized also the ravine called Antiochus's and the fortress of Gamala. Bringing many charges against Demetrius, the ruler of the region, he stripped him of his post, and having now completed the third year of the campaign he returned home, welcomed eagerly by the Jews because of his success.
At this time the Jews already held cities of the Syrians, Idumeans, and Phoenicians: on the coast, Strato's Tower, Apollonia, Joppa, Jamnia, Azotus, Gaza, Anthedon, Raphia, and Rhinocorura; inland in Idumea, Adora and Marisa and all of Idumea; Samaria, Mount Carmel, Mount Tabor, Scythopolis, and Gadara; in Gaulanitis, Seleucia and Gabala; in Moab, Heshbon, Medaba, Lemba, Oronaim, Gelithon, and Zoar; the valley of the Cilicians, and Pella - this last city he razed to the ground because its inhabitants would not promise to adopt the ancestral customs of the Jews. Other leading cities of Syria had likewise been overthrown.
After this, King Alexander fell from heavy drinking into sickness, and for three years, gripped by a quartan fever, he did not give up his campaigns, until, worn out by his hardships, he died in the territory of Gerasa while besieging the fortress of Ragaba across the Jordan.
Seeing him at the point of death, with no hope of recovery left to hold to, the queen wept and beat her breast, lamenting the desolation to come for herself and her children, and said to him, "To whom do you leave me and my children like this, in need of help from others - and this though you know how hostile the nation is toward you?"
He advised her to be guided by whatever counsel would let her hold the kingdom securely with her children, and to conceal his death from the soldiers until she had taken the fortress; then, arriving at Jerusalem as if in splendor from a victory, to grant the Pharisees some measure of power. For since they would praise her in return for the honor, they would make the nation well disposed toward her; the Pharisees, he said, had great influence among the Jews, both to harm those they hated and to help those they favored, since the people trusted them above all when they said anything harsh out of envy against someone. He said that he himself had come into collision with the nation because of them, since they had felt insulted by him.
"You, then," he said, "once you are at Jerusalem, send for their leaders, and showing them my body, allow them, with full assurance of your good faith, to do with it whatever they wish - whether they choose to disgrace my corpse by leaving it unburied, as one who has made them suffer much, or to inflict some other outrage on my body out of anger. Promise them, too, that you will do nothing in the kingdom apart from their judgment. If you say this to them, I will be honored with a more splendid funeral at their hands than I would have received from you, and they will do nothing to abuse my body though it lies in their power, while you will rule securely."
Having given his wife this advice, he died, having reigned twenty-seven years and lived fifty-one in all. Alexandra took the fortress in accordance with her husband's instructions, and conferred with the Pharisees, placing in their hands everything concerning both the corpse and the kingdom; by this she put an end to their anger against Alexander and made them well disposed and friendly.
Coming before the people, they made speeches recounting Alexander's deeds, and declared that a just king had died on their behalf, and by their praises stirred the people to mourning and grief for him, so that they gave him a more splendid funeral than any king before him.
Alexander, however, left two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, and settled the kingdom on Alexandra. Of his sons, Hyrcanus was too weak to manage affairs and preferred a quiet life, while the younger, Aristobulus, was vigorous and bold. The people were fond of the woman, because she seemed displeased at the wrongs her husband had committed.
She appointed Hyrcanus high priest because of his age, but far more because of his lack of energy, and entrusted everything to the Pharisees, whom she also ordered the people to obey. And whatever of the traditional ordinances her father-in-law Hyrcanus had abolished - ordinances which the Pharisees had introduced according to the tradition of the fathers - this she restored again.
So the title of the kingdom was hers, but the power belonged to the Pharisees: for they recalled exiles, released prisoners, and in short differed in nothing from rulers. The queen, for her part, also took thought for the kingdom: she raised a large force of mercenaries and doubled her own army, so as to overawe the neighboring rulers and take hostages from them.
The whole country was at peace, except for the Pharisees; for they kept stirring up the queen, urging her to put to death those who had advised Alexander to kill the eight hundred men. They themselves then slaughtered one of these men, Diogenes, and after him others one after another, until the men of influence, together with Aristobulus - who plainly could not bear what was happening and made this evident, being determined, should he ever get the chance, not to let his mother continue - came before the palace and reminded her of the great deeds they had accomplished amid so many dangers, by which they had shown the firmness of their loyalty to their master, deeds for which they had been most highly honored by him.
They begged her not to turn their hopes entirely to the opposite course; for having escaped the danger of enemies, they were being cut down at home by their foes like cattle, with no one to avenge them. They said that if their accusers were satisfied with those already killed, they would bear what had happened with moderation, out of loyalty to their rulers; but if the accusers meant to pursue the same course further, they asked above all to be granted release - for they could not bring themselves to secure their safety apart from it, but would gladly die before the palace rather than be thought guilty of disloyalty toward her.
"It would be a disgrace," they said, "both to us and to the reigning queen, if, neglected by her, we were handed over to our master's enemies; for Aretas the Arab and the other rulers would pay any price to hire away so many men, men whose very name had perhaps once struck terror before it was even heard. But if not, then at the very least, if she has resolved to give the Pharisees preference, let her station each of us in the fortresses; for if some divine anger has indeed fallen in this way upon the house of Alexander, we ourselves can at least show that we are living in a humble condition."
While they said many such things, invoking the spirits of Alexander to pity the dead and those in danger, all who stood around broke into tears, and above all Aristobulus made his feelings plain, reproaching his mother at length.
But in truth those men had themselves become the cause of their own misfortunes, having allowed, out of a woman's love of power, one who by rights should not have reigned to rule while the royal line was in its prime. She, for her part, not knowing what else to do while keeping up appearances, entrusted the guarding of the fortresses to them, except for Hyrcania, Alexandreion, and Machaerus, where her most valuable possessions were kept.
Not long after, she sent her son Aristobulus with an army against Damascus, against the man called Ptolemy son of Mennaeus, who was a troublesome neighbor to the city; but they accomplished nothing worth the effort and returned. At this time word came that Tigranes had invaded Syria with three hundred thousand troops and was about to arrive in Judea. This, as was natural, alarmed the queen and the nation.
They sent him many gifts, worth mentioning, along with envoys, while he was besieging Ptolemais; for Queen Selene, also called Cleopatra, who then held sway over parts of Syria - the one who had induced the inhabitants to shut Tigranes out - was the object of his siege, and the envoys begged him to look kindly on the queen and the nation. He received them and, though keeping his distance in his dealings, held out good hopes to them.
Ptolemais had only just been captured when word came to Tigranes that Lucullus, pursuing Mithridates, had failed to catch him, since he had fled to the Iberians, but that Lucullus had ravaged Armenia and was besieging it. Learning this as well, Tigranes withdrew homeward.
After this, when the queen fell into a serious illness, Aristobulus resolved to seize control of affairs. Slipping away by night with one of his servants, he went to the fortresses where his father's friends had been stationed; for he had long chafed at what his mother was doing, and feared far more that, once she died, the whole family would fall into the hands of the Pharisees - he saw the impossibility of his brother, who was to succeed to the rule, actually holding it. Only his wife knew of the plan, and he left her behind there with their children.
Arriving first at Agaba, where Galaestes, one of the powerful men, was in command, he was received by him. The next day the queen learned of Aristobulus's flight, and for a time supposed that his withdrawal was not aimed at revolution; but when messenger after messenger came reporting that he had seized the first fortress, and the second, and all of them in turn - for once one had begun, everything rushed swiftly toward fulfilling his purpose - then indeed the queen and the nation fell into the greatest turmoil.
For they knew that Aristobulus was not far from being able to secure the throne for himself, and they feared he would exact punishment for the wrongs they had urged upon his household. It was resolved, then, to place his wife and children in the fortress above the Temple.
As for Aristobulus, since he was joined by great numbers from many quarters, from whom he now had a royal retinue about him, he mastered, in about fifteen days, twenty-two strongholds; and having gained this advantage, he gathered an army from Lebanon, Trachonitis, and the local rulers - for these men, being easily swayed by superior numbers, readily obeyed him, and besides, they reckoned that if they joined forces with him they would reap no less a share of the kingdom than he himself, since they had become the occasion of his rising to power.
The elders of the Jews, together with Hyrcanus, went to the queen and begged her to give her judgment on the present situation; for Aristobulus, they said, was now virtually master of everything, since he had gained control of so many strongholds; and it was absurd, even if she were gravely ill, that they should have to deliberate on their own while she still lived, when the danger stood close upon them, not far off.
She told them to do whatever seemed useful to them; many resources, she said, were still left to them - the nation strong, the army intact, and the money in the treasuries - for she herself now cared little for affairs, since her body was already failing.
Having said this, she died not long after, having reigned nine years and lived seventy-three years in all - a woman who in nothing made use of the weakness proper to her sex. For being especially formidable in her love of power, she proved by her deeds both the practical strength of her own judgment and the folly of men who forever stumble in their pursuit of dominion, valuing the present above the future and putting everything second to ruling with a firm hand, with no regard for what was honorable or just on its own account.
At all events, she reduced her house to such a pitch of misfortune that the rule which she had acquired amid the greatest dangers and hardships, through a desire for what did not befit a woman, was taken away not long after - adding to those already hostile toward her family a like resentment, and leaving the throne bereft of those who might have watched over it. She filled both her own reign and, after her death, the kingdom with troubles and turmoil arising from the policies of her lifetime. Nevertheless, for all that, she kept the nation in peace and quiet while she ruled.
Such, then, was the end of the story of Queen Alexandra. I now go on to relate what happened to her sons, Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, after her death, in the book that follows this one.