"a false prophet." prophet." As he was saying this, and that in a melancholy mood, the news came that Antigonus was slain in a place under ground, which itself was also called Strato's Tower, or of the same name with that Cesarea which is seated at the sea. This event put the prophet into a great dis

order.

3. But Aristobulus repented immediately of this slaughter of his brother; on which account his disease increased upon him, and he was disturbed in his mind, upon the guilt of such wickedness, insomuch that his entrails were corrupted by his intolerable pain, and he vomited blood: at which time one of the servants that attended upon him, and was carrying his blood away, did, by divine providence, as I cannot but suppose, slip down, and shed part of his blood at the very place where there were spots of Antigonus's blood there slain, still remaining; and when there was a cry made by the spectators, as if the servant had on purpose shed the blood on that place, Aristobulus heard it, and enquired what the matter was? And as they did not answer him, he was the more earnest to know what it was, it being natural to men to suspect that what is thus concealed, is very bad: So upon his threatening, and forcing them by terrors to speak, they at length told him the truth; whereupon he shed many tears, in that disorder of mind which arose from his consciousness of what he had done, and gave a deep groan, and said, "I am not "therefore, I perceive, to be concealed from God, in the "impious and horrid crimes I have been guilty of, but a sud"den punishment is coming upon me for the shedding the "blood of my relations. And now, O thou most impudent "body of mine, how long wilt thou retain a soul that ought "to die, in order to appease the ghosts of my brother and "my mother? Why dost thou not give it all up at once? "And why do I deliver up my blood drop by drop to those "whom I have so wickedly murdered?" In saying which last words, he died, having reigned a year. He was called a lover of the Grecians; and had conferred many benefits on his own country, and made war against Iturea, and added a great part of it to Judea, and compelled the inhabitants, if they would continue in that country, to be circumcised, and to live according to the Jewish laws. He was naturally a man of candour, and of great modesty, as Strabo bears witness, in the name of Timagenes; who says thus: "This man was a 66 person of candour, and very serviceable to the Jews, for he "added a country to them, and obtained a part of the nation "of the Itureans for them, and bound them to them by the "bond of the circumcision of their genitals."

CHAP. XII.

How Alexander, when he had taken the governmeut, made an expedition against Ptolemais, and then raised the siege out of fear of Ptolemy Lathyrus; and how Ptolemy made war against him, because he had sent to Cleopatra to persuade her to make war against Ptolemy, and yet pretended to be in friendship with him, when he beat the Jews in the battle. § 1. WHEN Aristobulus was dead, his wife Salome, who

by the Greeks was called Alexandra, let his brethren out of prison, (for Aristobulus had kept them in bonds, as we have said already) and made Alexander Janneus king, who was the superior in age, and in moderation. This child happened to be hated by his father as soon as he was born, and could never be permitted to come into his father's sight till he died. The occasion of which hatred is thus reported: When Hyrcanus chiefly loved the two eldest of his sons, Antigonus and Aristobulus, God appeared to him in his sleep, of whom he enquired, which of his sons should be his successor? Upon God's representing to him the countenance of Alexander, he was grieved that he was to be the heir of all his goods, and suffered him to be brought up in* Galilee. However, God did not deceive Hyrcanus, for after the death of Aristobulus, he certainly took the kingdom; and one of his brethren, who affected the kingdom, he slew, and the other, who chose to live a private and quiet life, he had in esteem.

2. When Alexander Janneus had settled the government in the manner that he judged best, he made an expedition against Ptolemais; and having overcome the men in battle, he shut them up in the city, and sat round about it, and beseiged it; for of the maritime cities there remained only Ptolemais and Gaza to be conquered, besides Strato's Tower, and Dora, which were held by the tyrant Zoilus. Now while Antiochus Philometor, and Antiochus, who was called Cyzicenus, were making war one against another, and destroying one another's armies, the people of Ptolemais could have no assistance from them; but when they were distressed with this siege, Zoilus, who possessed Strato's Tower and Dora, and maintained a legion of soldiers, and on occasion of the contest between the kings, affected tyranny himself, came

*The reason why Hyrcanus suffered not this son of his whom he did not love to come into Judea, but ordered him to be brought up in Galilee, is suggested by Dr. Hudson, that Galilee was not esteemed so happy and well cultivated a Country as Judea, Matt. xxvi. 73. John vii. 52. Acts ii. 7. although another obvious reason occurs also, that he was farther out of his sight in Galilee than he would have been in Judea.

and brought some small assistance to the people of Ptolemais; nor indeed had the kings such a friendship for them, as that they should hope for any advantage from them. Both those kings were in the case of wrestlers, who finding themselves deficient in strength, and yet being ashamed to yield, put off the fight by laziness, and by lying still as long as they can. The only hope they had remaining was from the kings of Egypt, and from Ptolemy Lathyrus, who now held Cyprus, and who came to Cyprus when he was driven from the government of Egypt by Cleopatra his mother: So the people of Ptolemais sent to this Ptolemy Lathyrus, and desired him to come as a confederate, to deliver them, now they were in such danger, out of the hands of Alexander. And as the ambassadors gave him hopes, that if he would pass over into Syria, he would have the people of Gaza on the side of those of Ptolemais as also they said, that Zoilus, and besides these the Sidonians, and many others, would assist them, so he was elevated at this, and got his fleet ready as soon as possible.

3. But in this interval Demenetus, one that was of abilities to persuade men to do as he would have them, and a leader of the populace, made those of Ptolemais change their opinions; and said to them, That "it was better to run the ha"zard of being subject to the Jews, than to admit of evi"dent slavery by delivering themselves up to a master; and "besides that, to have not only a war at present, but to ex"pect a much greater war from Egypt, for that Cleopatra "would not overlook an army raised by Ptolemy for himself "out of the neighbourhood, but would come against them "with a great army of her own, and this because she was la "bouring to eject her son out of Cyprus also; that as for "Ptolemy, if he fail of his hopes, he can still retire to Cy

prus, but that they will be left in the greatest danger pos"sible." Now Ptolemy, although he had heard of the change that was made in the people of Ptolemais, yet did he still go on with his voyage, and came to the country called Sycamine, and there set his army on shore. This army of his in the whole, horse and foot together, were about thirty thousand, with which he marched near to Ptolemais, and there pitched his camp: But when the people of Ptolemais neither received his ambassadors, nor would hear what they had to say, he was under a very great concern.

4. But when Zoilus and the people of Gaza came to him, and desired his assistance, because their country was laid waste by the Jews, and by Alexander, Alexander raised the siege, for fear of Ptolemy: And when he had drawn off his army into his own country, he used a stratagem afterwards,

by privately inviting Cleopatra to come against Ptolemy, but publicly pretending to desire a league of friendship and mu-. tual assistance with him; and promising to give him four hundred talents of silver, he desired that, by way of requital, he would take off Zoilus the tyrant, and give his country to the Jews. And then indeed Ptolemy with pleasure, made such a league of friendship with Alexander, and subdued Zoilus:: but when he afterward heard that he had privily sent to Cleopatra his mother, he broke the league with him, which yet he had confirmed with an oath, and fell upon him, and besiegedPtolemais, because it would not receive him. However, leaving his generals with some part of his forces, to go on with the siege, he went himself immediately with the rest to lay Judea waste; and when Alexander understood this to be Ptolemy's intention, he also got together about fifty thousand soldiers out of his own country; nay, * as some writers have said, eighty thousand. He then took his army, and went to meet Ptolemy; but Ptolemy fell upon Asochis, a city of Galilee, and took it by force on the Sabbath-day, and there he took about ten thousand slaves, and a great deal of other prey.

5. He then tried to take Sepphoris, which was a city not far from that which was destroyed, but lost many of his men; yet did he then go to fight with Alexander, which Alexander. met him at the river Jordan, near a certain place called Saphoth, [not far from the river Jordan], and pitched his camp near to the enemy. He had however eight thousand in the first rank, which he stiled Hecatontomachi, having shields of brass. Those in the first rank of Ptolemy's soldiers, also had shields covered with brass But Ptolemy's soldiers in other respects, were inferior to those of Alexander, and therefore were more fearful of running hazards; but Philostephanus, the camp-master, put great courage into them, and ordered them to pass the river, which was between their camps: Nor did Alexander think fit to hinder their passage over it, for he thought, that if the enemy had once gotten the river on their back, that he should the easier take them prisoners, when they could not flee out of the battle: In the beginning of which, the acts on both sides with their hands, and with their alacrity, were alike, and a great slaughter was made by both the armies, but Alexander was su perior, till Philostephanus opportunely brought up the auxili

*From these, and other occasional expressions dropped by Josephus, we may learn, that where the sacred books of the Jews were deficient, he had several other histories then extant, but now most of them lost, which he faithfully followed in his own history: Nor indeed have we any other records of those times, relating to Judea, that can be compared to these accounts of Josephus, though when we do meet with authentic fragments of such original records, they almost always confirm his history.

aries to help those that were giving way; but as there were no auxiliaries to afford help to that part of the Jews that gave way, it fell out that they fled, and those near them did not assist them, but fled along with them. However, Ptolemy's soldiers acted quite otherwise; for they followed the Jews, and killed them, till at length, those that slew them pursued after them, when they had made them all run away, and slew them so long, that their weapons of iron were blunted, and their hands quite tired with the slaughter; for the report was that thirty thousand men were then slain. Timagenes says they were fifty thousand. As for the rest, they were part of them taken captives, and the other part ran away to their own country.

6. After this victory, Ptolemy over-ran all the country; and when night came on, he abode in certain villages of Judea, which when he found full of women and children, he commanded his soldiers to strangle them, and to cut them in pieces, and then to cast them into boiling caldrons, and then to devour their limbs as sacrifices. This commandment was given, that such as fled from the battle, and came to them, might suppose their enemies were cannibals, and eat mens flesh, and might on that account be still more terrified at them upon such a sight. And both Strabo and Nicholaus [of Damascus] affirm, that they used these people after this manner, as I have already related. Ptolemy also took Ptolemais by force, as we have declared elsewhere.

CHAP. XIII.

How Alexander, upon the league of mutual defence which Cleopatra had agreed with him, made an expedition against Celesyria, and utterly overthrew the city of Gaza; and how he slew many ten thousands of Jews that rebelled against him: Also concerning Antiochus Grypus, Seleucus, Antiochus Cyzicenus, and Antiochus Pius, and others.

$1. WHEN Cleopatra saw that her son was grown great, and laid Judea waste, without disturbance, and had gotten the city of Gaza under his power, she resolved no longer to overlook what he did, when he was almost at her gates; and she concluded, that now he was so much stronger than before, he would be very desirous of the dominion over the Egyptians, but she immediately marched against him with a fleet at sea, and an army of foot on land, and made Chelcias and Ananias the Jews, generals of her whole army, while she sent the greatest part of her riches, her grand-children, and