.

cause a Jew is forbidden by their law to come near to a foreigner, to conceal his offence, and to be kind and subservient to him, and to give him an opportunity of fulfilling his desires. Upon which his brother willingly entertained the proposal of serving him, and adorned his own daughter, and brought her to him by night, and put her into his bed. And Joseph being disordered with drink, knew not who she was, and so lay with his brother's daughter; and this did he many times and loved her exceedingly; and said to his brother, that he loved this actress so well, that he should run the hazard of his life (if he must part with her], and yet probably the king would not give him leave [to take her with him]. But his brother bid him be in no concern about that matter, and told him, he might enjoy her whom he loved without any danger, and might have her for his wife; and opened the truth of the matter to him, and assured him that he chose rather to have his own daughter abused, than to overlook him, and see him come to [public] disgrace. So Joseph commended him for this his brotherly love; and married his daughter; and by her begat a son, whose name Hyrcanus, as we said before. And when this his youngest son shewed, at thirteen years old, a mind that was both courageous and wise, and was greatly envied by his brethren, as being of a genius much above them, and such an one as they might well envy, Joseph had once a mind to know which of his sons had the best disposition to virtue, and when he sent them severally to those that had then the best reputation for instructing youth, the rest of his children, by reason of their sloth, and unwillingness to take pains, returned to him foolish and unlearned. After them he sent out the youngest, Hyrcanus, and gave him three hundred yoke of oxen, and bid him go two days journey into the wilderness, and sow the land there, and yet kept back privately the yokes of the oxen that coupled them together. When Hyrcanus came to the place, and found he had no yokes with him, he contemned the drivers of the oxen, who advised him to send some to his father, to bring them some yokes; but he thinking that he ought not to lose his time, while they should be sent to bring him the yokes, he invented a kind of stratagem, and what suited an age elder than his own; for he slew ten yoke of the oxen, and distributed their flesh among the labourers, and cut their hides into several pieces, and made him yokes, and yoked the oxen together with them; by which means he sowed as much land as his father had appointed him to sow, and returned to him. And when he was come back, his father was mightily pleased with his sagacity and commended the sharpness of his understanding, and his boldness in what he did.

And he still loved him the more, as if he were his only genuine son, while his brethren were much troubled at it.

7. But when one told him that Ptolemy had a son just born, and that all the principal men of Syria, and the other countries subject to him, were to keep a festival, on account of the child's birth-day, and went away in haste with great retinues to Alexandria, he was himself indeed hindered from going by old age, but he made trial of his sons, whether any of them would be willing to go to the king. And when the elder sons excused themselves from going, and said, they were not courtiers good enough for such conversation, and advised him to send their brother Hyrcanus, he gladly hearkened to that advice; and called Hyrcanus and asked him, whether he would go to the king; and whether it was agreeable to him to go or not? And upon his promise that he would go, and his saying that he should not want much money for his journey, because he would live moderately; and that ten thousand drachmæ would be sufficient, he was pleased with his son's prudence. After a little while the son advised his father not to send his presents to the king from thence, but to give him a letter to his steward at Alexandria, that he might furnish him with money, for purchasing what should be most excellent and most precious. So he, thinking that the expence of ten talents would be enough for presents to be made the king; and commending his son, as giving him good advice, wrote to Arion his steward, that managed all his money matters at Alexandria; which money was not less than three thousand talents on his account, for Joseph sent the money he received in Syria, to Alexandria. And when the day appointed for the payment of the taxes to the king came, he wrote to Arion to pay them. So when the son had asked his father for a letter to this steward, and had received it, he made haste to Alexandria. And when he was gone, his brethren wrote to all the king's friends, that they should destroy him.

8. But when he was come to Alexandria, he delivered his letter to Arion, who asked him how many talents he would have? (hoping he would ask for no more than ten, or a little more,) he said, he wanted a thousand talents. At which the steward was angry, and rebuked him, as one that intended to live extravagantly; and he let him know how his father had gathered together his estate by pains-taking, and resisting his inclinations, and wished him to imitate the example of his father: he assured him withal, that he would give him but ten talents, and that for a present to the king also. The son was irritated at this, and threw Arion into prison. But when Ari

on's wife had informed Cleopatra of this, with her entreaty, that she would rebuke the child for what he had done, (for Arion was in great esteem with her) Cleopatra informed the king of it. And Ptolemy sent for Hyrcanus, and told him, that he wondered when he was sent to him by his father, "that he had not yet come into his presence, but had laid "the steward in prison." And he gave order, therefore, that he should come to him, and give an account of the reason of what he had done. And they report, that the answer he made to the king's messenger was this: that "there was a "law of his that forbade a child that was born, to taste of the "sacrifice, before he had been at the temple, and sacrificed "to God. According to which way of reasoning he did not "himself come to him, in expectation of the present he was "to make to him, as to one who had been his father's bene"factor; and that he had punished the slave for disobeying "his commands, for that it mattered not whether a master σε was little or great: so that unless we punish such as these, "thou thyself mayest also expect to be despised by thy subjects." Upon hearing this his answer, he fell a-laughing, and wondered at the great soul of the child.

9. When Arion was apprised that this was the king's disposition, and that he had no way to help himself, he gave the child a thousand talents, and was let out of prison. So after three days were over, Hyrcanus came and saluted the king and queen. They saw him with pleasure, and feasted him in an obliging manner, out of the respect they bare to his father. So he came to the merchants privately, and bought an hundred boys, that had learning, and were in the flower of their ages, each at a talent a-piece; as also he bought an hundred maidens, each at the same price as the other. And when he was invited to feast with the king among the principal men of the country, he sat down the lowest of them all, because he was little regarded, as a child in age still; and this by those who placed every one according to their dignity. Now when all those that sat with him had laid the bones of the several parts on an heap before Hyrcanus, (for they had themselves taken away the flesh belonging to them,) till the table where he sat was filled full with them; Trypho, who was the king's jester, and was appointed for jokes and laughter at festivals, was now asked by the guests that sat at the table [to expose him to laughter.] So he stood by the king, and said, "Dost thou not see, my Lord, the bones that lie "by Hyrcanus? by this similitude thou mayest conjecture

that his father made all Syria as bare as he hath made these "bones." And the king laughing at what Trypho said, and

asking of Hyrcanus, "How he came to have so many bones "before him?" he replied, "Very rightfully, my lord: for "they are dogs that eat the flesh and the bones together, as "these thy guests have done, (looking in the mean time at "those guests,) for there is nothing before them; but they are men that eat the flesh, and cast away the bones, as I, "who also am a man, have now done." Upon which the king admired at his answer, which was so wisely made; and bid them all make an acclamation, as a mark of their approbation of his jest, which was truly a facetious one. On the next day, Hyrcanus went to every one of the king's friends, and of the men powerful at court, and saluted them; but still enquired of the servants, what present they would make the king on his son's birth-day? and when some said, that they would give twelve talents, and that others of greater dignity would every one give according to the quantity of their riches, he pretended to every one of them to be grieved that he was not able to bring so large a present, for that he had no more than five talents. And when the servants heard what he said, they told their masters; and they rejoiced in the prospect that Joseph would be disapproved, and would make the king angry, by the smallness of his present. When the day came, the others, even those that brought the most, offered the king not above twenty talents; but Hyrcanus gave to every one of the hundred boys and hundred maidens that he had bought, a talent a-piece, for them to carry, and introduced them, the boys to the king, and the maidens to Cleopatra: every body wondering at the unexpected richness of the presents, even the king and queen themselves. He also presented those that attended about the king with gifts to the value of a great number of talents, that he might escape the danger he was in from them; for to these it was that Hyrcanus's brethren had written to destroy him. Now Ptolemy admired at the young man's magnanimity; and commanded him to ask what gift he pleased. But he desired nothing else to be done for him by the king, than to write to his father and brethren about him. So when the king had paid him very great respects, and had given him very large gifts, and had written to his father and his brethren, and all his commanders, and officers about him, he sent him away. But when his brethren heard that Hyrcanus had received such favours from the king, and was returning home with great honour, they went out to meet him, and to destroy him, and that with the privi ty of their father: for he was angry at him for the [large] sum of money that he bestowed for presents, and so had no concern for his preservation. However Joseph concealed the

anger he had at his son, out of fear of the king. And when Hyrcanus's brethren came to fight him, he slew many others of those that were with them: as also two of his brethren themselves, but the rest of them escaped to Jerusalem to their father. But when Hyrcanus came to the city where nobody would receive him, he was afraid for himself, and retired beyond the river Jordan, and there abode, but obliging the Barbarians to pay their taxes.

10. At this time Seleucus, who was called Soter, reigned over Asia, being the son of Antiochus the Great. And [now] Hyrcanus's father Joseph died. He was a good man and of great magnanimity; and brought the Jews out of a state of poverty and meanness, to one that was more splendid. He retained the farm of the taxes of Syria, and Phenicia, and Samaria, twenty-two years. His uncle also, Onias, died [about this time,] and left the high priesthood to his son Simon. And when he was dead, Onias his son succeeded him in that dignity. To him it was that Areus, king of the Lacedemonians, sent an embassage, with an epistle; the copy whereof here follows:

"AREUS, king of the Lacedemonians, to ONIAS, sendeth

greeting:

"We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have "discovered, that both the Jews and the Lacedemonians are "of one stock, and are derived from the* kindred of Abra"ham: It is but just therefore, that you, who are our bre"thren, should send to us about any of your concerns as you please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own; and will look upon our concerns as "in common with yours. Demoteles, who brings you this

66

*Whence it comes that these Lacedemonians declare themselves here to be of kin to the Jews, as derived from the same ancestor Abraham, I cannot tell, unless, as Grotius supposes, they were derived from the Dores, that came of the Pelasgi. These are by Herodotus called Barbarians; and perhaps were derived from the Syrians and Arabians, the posterity of Abraham by Keturah. See Antiq, B. XVI. ch. x. § 22. Vol. II, and Of the War, B. I. ch. xxvi. § 1. Vol. III. and Grot. on 1 Maccab. xii. 7. We may farther observe from the recognitions of Clement, that Eliezer of Damascus, the servant of Abraham, Gen. xv. 2. and xxiv. was of old by some taken for his son. So that if the Lacedemonians were sprung from him, they might think themselves to be of the posterity of Abraham, as well as the Jews, who were sprung from Isaac. And perhaps this Eliezer of Damascus is that very Damascus, whom Trogus Pompeius, as abridged by Justin, makes the founder of the Jewish nation itself, though he afterwards blunders, and makes Azelus, Adores, Abraham, and Israel, kings of Judea, and successors to this Damascus. It may not be improper to observe farther, that Moses Chorenensis, in his history of the Armenians, informs us, that the nation of the Parthians was also derived from Abraham, by Keturah, and her children.