were against whom they were going to fight, but to consider who they themselves were, and for what great rewards they hazarded themselves, and to attack the enemy courageously, he led them out to fight, and, joining battle with Nicanor, which proved to be a severe one, he overcame the enemy, and slew many of them; and at last Nicanor himself, as he was fighting gloriously, fell. Upon whose fall the armıy did not stay, but when they had lost their general they were put to flight, and threw down their arms: Judas also pursued them and slew them, and gave notice, by the sound of his trumpets, to the neighbouring villages, that he had conquered the enemy; which when the inhabitants heard, they put on their armour hastily, and met their enemies in the face as they were running away, and slew them, insomuch that no one of them escaped out of this battle, and were in number nine thousand. This victory happened to fall on the thirteenth day of that month which by the Jews is called Adar, and by the Macedonians Dystrus; and the Jews thereon celebrate this victory every year, and esteem it as a festival day. After which the Jewish nation were, for a while, free from wars, and enjoyed peace; but afterward they returned. into their former state of wars and hazards. 6. But now as the high-priest Alcimus was resolving to pull down the wall of the sanctuary, which had been there of old time, and had been built by the holy prophets, he was smitten suddenly by God, and fell down. This stroke made him fall down speechless upon the ground; and undergoing torments for many days, he at length died*, when he had been high priest four years. And when he was dead, the people bestowed the high-priesthood on Judas; who hearing of the power of the Romans, and that they had conquered in war Galatia, and Iberia, and Carthage, and Libya; and that, besides these, they had subdued Greece, and their kings, Perseus, and Philip, and Antiochus the Great also†, he resolved to enter into a league of friendship with them. He therefore sent to Rome some of his friends, Eupolemus the son of John, and Jason the son of Eleazar, and by them desired * This account of the miserable death of Alcimus or Jacimus, the wicked high-priest (the first that was not of the family of the high-priests, and made by a vile heathen, Lysias), before the death of Judas, and of Judas's succession to him as high-priest, both here and at the conclusion of this book, directly contradicts 1 Maccab. ix. 54-57, which places his death after the death of Judas, and says not a syllable of the high-priesthood of Judas. + How well the Roman histories agree to this account of the conquests and powerful condition of the Romans at this time, see the notes in Havercamp's edition; only, that the number of the senators of Rome was then just 320 is, I think, only known from 1 Maccab. viii. 15. he Romans that they would assist them, and be their friends, and would write to Demetrius that he would not fight against the Jews. So the senate received the ambassadors that came to Rome from Judas, and discoursed with them about the errand on which they came, and then granted them a league of assistance. They also made a decree concerning it, and sent a copy of it into Judea. It was also laid up in the capitol, and engraven in brass. The decree itself was this: 'The decree of the senate concerning a league of assistance and friendship with the nation of the Jews. It shall not be lawful for any that are subject to the Romans to make war with the nation of the Jews, nor to assist those that do so, either by sending them corn, or ships, or money and if any attack be made upon the Jews, the Romans shall assist them, as far as they are able; and again, if any attack be made upon the Romans, the Jews shall assist them. And if the Jews have a mind to add to, or to take away any thing from this league of assistance, that shall be done with the common consent of the Romans. And whatsoever addition shall thus be made, it shall be of force." This decree was written by Eupolemus the son of John, and by Jason the son of Eleazar*, when Judas was high-priest of the nation, and Simon his brother was general of the army. And this was the first league that the Romans made with the Jews, and was managed after this manner. CHAP. XI. That Bacchides was again sent out against Judas; and how Judas fell as he was courageously fighting. § 1. BUT when Demetrius was informed of the death of Nicanor, and of the destruction of the army that was with him, he sent Bacchides again with an army into Judea, who marched out of Antioch, and came into Judea, and pitched his camp at Arbela, a city of Galilee; and having besieged and taken those that were there in caves (for many of the ' people had fled into such places), he removed, and made all the haste he could to Jerusalem. And when he learned that Judas had pitched his camp at a certain village whose name was Bethzetho, he led his army against them: they were twenty thousand footmen, and two thousand horsemen. Now This subscription is wanting, 1 Maccab. viii. 17, 29, and must be the words of Josephus, who, by mistake, thought, as we have just now seen, that Judas was at this time high-priest, and accordingly then reckoned his brother Jonathan to be then general of the army, which yet he seems not to have been till after the death of Judas. When Judas had no more soldiers than one thousand*. these saw the multitude of Bacchides's men, they were afraid, and left their camp, and fled all away, excepting eight hundred. Now when Judas was deserted by his own soldiers, and the enemy pressed upon him, and gave him no time to gather his army together, he was disposed to fight with Bacchides's army, though he had but eight hundred men with him; so he exhorted these men to undergo the danger courageously, and encouraged them to attack the enemy. And when they said they were not a body sufficient to fight so great an army, and advised that they should retire now, and save themselves, and that when he had gathered his own men together, then he should fall upon the enemy afterwards, his answer was this: "Let not the sun ever see such a thing that I should show my back to the enemy; and although this be the time that will bring me to my end, and I must die in this battle, I will rather stand to it courageously, and bear whatsoever comes upon me, than, by now running away, bring reproach upon my former great actions, or tarnish their glory." This was the speech he made to those that remained with him, whereby he encouraged them to attack the enemy. 2. But Bacchides drew his army out of their camp, and put them in array for the battle. He set the horsemen on both the wings, and the light soldiers and the archers he placed before the whole army, but he was himself on the right wing. And when he had thus put his army in order of battle, and was going to join battle with the enemy, he commanded the trumpeter to give a signal of battle, and the army to make a shout, and to fall on the enemy. And when Judas had done the same, he joined battle with them; and as both sides fought valiantly, and the battle continued till sunset, Judas saw that Bacchides and the strongest part of the army were in the right wing, and thereupon took the most courageous men with him, and ran upon that part of the army, and fell upon those that were there, and broke their ranks, and drove them into the middle, and forced them to run away, and pursued them as far as to a mountain called Aza: but when those of the left wing saw that the right wing was put to flight, they encompassed Judas, and pursued him, and came behind him, and took him into the middle of *That this copy of Josephus, as he wrote it, had here not 1000 but 3000, with 1 Maccab. ix. 5, is very plain, because, though the main part ran away at first, even in Josephus, as well as in 1 Maccab. ix. 6, yet, as there, so here, 800 are said to have remained with Judas; which would be absurd, if the whole number had been no more than 1000. their army; so being not able to fly, but encompassed round about with enemies, he stood still, and he and those that were with him fought; and when he had slain a great many of those that came against him, he at last was himself wounded, and fell, and gave up the ghost, and died in a way like to his former famous actions. When Judas was dead, those that were with him had no one whom they could regard [as their commander], but when they saw themselves deprived of such a general, they fled. But Simon and Jonathan, Judas's brethren, received his dead body by a treaty from the enemy, and carried it to the village Modin, where their father had been buried, and there buried him; while the multitude lamented him many days, and performed the usual solemn rites of a funeral to him. And this was the end that Judas came to. He had been a man of valour and a great warrior, and mindful of the commands of their father Mattathias; and had undergone all difficulties, both in doing and suffering, for the liberty of his countrymen. And while his character was so excellent [while he was alive], he left behind him a glorious reputation and memorial, by gaining freedom for his nation, and delivering them from slavery under the Macedonians. And when he had retained the highpriesthood three years, he died. BOOK XIII. CONTAINING AN INTERVAL OF EIGHTY-TWO YEARS. From the Death of Judas Maccabeus, to the Death of CHAP. I. How Jonathan took the Government after his Brother Judas; and how he, together with his Brother Simon, waged War against Bacchides. § 1. By what means the nation of the Jews recovered their freedom when they had been brought into slavery by the Macedonians, and what struggles, and how great battles Judas the general of their army ran through, till he was slain as he was fighting for them, hath been related in the foregoing book; but after he was dead, all the wicked, and those that transgressed the laws of their forefathers, sprang up again in Judea, and grew upon them, and distressed them on every side. A famine also assisted their wickedness, and afflicted their country, till not a few, who by reason of their want of necessaries, and because they were not able to bear up against the miseries that both the famine and their enemies brought upon them, deserted their country, and went to the Macedonians. And now Bacchides gathered those Jews together who had apostatised from the accustomed way of living of their forefathers, and chose to live like their neighbours, and committed the care of the country to them; who also caught the friends of Judas, and those of his party, and delivered them up to Bacchides, who, when he had, in the first place, tortured and tormented them at his pleasure, he by that means at length killed them. And when this calamity of the Jews was become so great as they had never had experience of the like since their return out of Babylon, those that remained of the companions of Judas, seeing that the nation was ready to be destroyed after a miserable manner, came to his brother Jonathan, and desired him that he would imitate his brother, and that care which he took of his countrymen, for whose liberty in general he died also; and that he would not permit the nation to be without a governor, especially in those destructive circumstances wherein it now was. And when Jonathan said that he was ready to die for |