THE JEWISH WAR. BOOK I. Containing an Interval of One Hundred and Sixty-seven Years. FROM THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM BY ANTIOCHUS THE GREAT. CHAP. I. OF THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM, AND THE PILLAGING OF THE TEMPLE, BY ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES: ALSO CONCERNING THE ACTIONS OF THE MACCABEES, MATTHIAS, AND JUDAS ; AND CONCERNING THE DEATH OF JUDAS. AT the same time that Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, had a quarrel with the sixth Ptolemy, about his right to the the whole country of Syria, a great sedition broke out among men of power in Judea, and they had a contention about obtaining the government; while each of those that were of dignity could not endure to be subject to their equals. However, Onias, one of the high-priests, got the better, and cast the sons of Tobias out of the city. Hereupon they fled to Antiochus, and besought him to make use of them for his leaders, and to make an expedition into Judea and the king being thereto disposed beforehand, complied with them, and came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force, and slew a great multitude of those that favoured Ptolemy, and sent out his soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also spoiled the temple; and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice of expiation for three years and six months. But built a little Onias, the high-priest, fled to Ptolemy, and received a place from him in the nomus of Heliopolis: where he city resembling Jerusalem, and a temple that was like its temple, concerning which we shall speak more in its proper place hereafter. Now Antiochus was not satisfied, either with his unexpected taking the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had made there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering what he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar. Against which they all opposed themselves : and the most approved among them were put to death. Bacchides also, who was sent to keep the fortresses, having these wicked commands joined to his own natural barbarity, indulged all sorts of wickedness: and tormented the worthiest of the inhabitants, man by man, and threatened the city every day with open destruction; till at length he provoked the sufferers, by the extremity of his wicked doings, to avenge themselves. Accordingly Matthias, the son of Asmoneus, one of the priests who lived at a village called Modin, armed himself together with his own family, which had five of his sons in it, and slew Bacchides with daggers; and thereupon out of the fear of the garrisons of the enemy, he fled to the mountains. And so many of the people followed him, that he was encouraged to come down from the mountains; and to give battle to Antiochus's generals; whom he defeated, and drove out of Judea. So he came to the government by this success, and became the prince of his own people by their own free consent, and then died, leaving the government to Judas, his eldest son. Now Judas supposing that Antiochus would not lie still, gathered an army out of his own countrymen, and was the first that made a league of friendship with the Romans; and drove * I see little difference in the several accounts in Josephus about this Egyptian temple Onion; of which large complaints are made by his commentators. Onias, it seems, hoped to have it made very like that at Jerusalem, and of the same dimensions: and so he appears to have really done, as far as he was able, and thought proper. Of this temple, see Antiq. XIII. 3, and Of the War, VII. 10. Epiphanes out of the country, when he had made a second expedition into it; and this by giving him a great defeat. And when he was warmed by this success, he made an assault upon the garrison that was in the city: for it had not been cut off hitherto. So he ejected them out of the upper city, and drove the soldiers into the lower which part of the city was called the Citadel. He then got the temple under his power, and cleansed the whole place, and walled it round about, and made new vessels for sacred ministrations, and brought them into the temple; because the former vessels had been profaned. He also built another altar, and began to offer the sacrifices. And when the city had received its sacred constitution again, Antiochus died; and his son Antiochus succeeded him in the kingdom, and in his hatred to the Jews. So this Antiochus assembled fifty thousand footmen, and five thousand horsemen, and eighty elephants, and marched through Judea into the mountainous parts. He then took Bethsura, which was a small city. But at a place called Bethzacharias, where the passage was narrow, Judas met him with his army. However, before the forces joined battle, Judas's brother, Eleazar, seeing the highest of the elephants* adorned with a large tower, and with military trappings of gold, and supposing that Antiochus himself was upon him, he ran a great way before his own army; and cutting his way through the enemy's troops he got up to the elephant. Yet could he not reach him who seemed to be the king, by reason of his being so high; but he ran his weapon into the belly of the beast, and brought him down upon himself, and was crushed to death: having done no more than attempted great things, and showed that he preferred glory before life. Now he that governed the elephant was but a private man and had he proved to be Antiochus, Eleazar had performed nothing more by this bold stroke, than that it might appear he chose to die, when he had the bare hope of thereby doing a glorious action. Nay, this disappointment proved an * In the eastern countries these animals usually accompany an army. The majesty of the prince is frequently measured by their number or the splendour of their habiliments. B. omen to his brother Judas how the entire battle would end. It is true, the Jews fought bravely for a long time; but the king's forces being superior in number, and having fortune on their side, obtained the victory. And when a great many of his men were slain, Judas took the rest with him, aud fled to the toparchy of Gophna. So Antiochus went to Jerusalem, and staid there but a few days; for he wanted provisions; and so he went his way. He left, indeed, a garrison behind him, such as he thought sufficient to keep the place; but drew the rest of his army off, to take their winter quarters in Syria. Now after the king was departed, Judas was not idle for as many of his own nation came to him, so did he gather those that had escaped out of the battle together, and again attacked Antiochus's generals, at a village called Adaza: and being too hard for his enemies in the battle, and killing a great number of them, he was at last himself slain also. Nor was it many days afterward that his brother John had a plot laid against him by Antiochus's party, and was slain by them. CHAP. II. CONCERNING JONATHAN, SIMON, AND JOHN HYRCANUS, THE SUCCESSORS OF JUDAS. WHEN Jonathan, who was Judas's brother, succeeded him, he behaved himself with great circumspection in other respects, with relation to his own people: and corroborated his authority by preserving his friendship with the Romans. He also made a league with Antiochus the son. Yet was not all this sufficient for his security: for the tyrant Trypho, who was guardian to Antiochus's son, laid a plot against him; and besides that endeavoured to take off his friends; and caught Jonathan by a stratagem, as he was going to Ptolemais to Antiochus, with a few persons in company, and put him in bonds, and then made an expedition against the Jews. But when he was afterward driven away by Simon, who was Jonathan's brother, and was enraged at his defeat, he put Jonathan to death. However, Simon managed the public affairs after a courageous manner; and took Gazara, Joppa, and Jamnia, which |