THE

Old and New Testaments

An. 157. Ptol. Phi

CONNECTED, &c.

BOOK III.

ON the death of Seleucus Philopater, Heliodorus, who had been the treacherous author of his death, endeavoured to seize the crown of lometor 6. Syria. Antiochus the brother of Seleucus was then on his return from Rome. While at Athens in his journey, he there heard of the death of his brother, and the attempt of Heliodorus to usurp the throne; and finding that the usurper had a great party with him to support him in his pretensions, and that there was another party also forming for Ptolemy (who made some claim to the succession in right of his mother, she being sister to the deceased king,) and that both of them were agreed not to give unto him the honour of the kingdom, as the holy prophetd Daniel foretold, he applied himself to Eumenes king of Pergamus, and Attalus his brother, and by flattering speeches, and great promises of friendship, prevailed with them to help him against Heliodorus. And by their means that usurpers being suppressed, he was quietly placed on the throne, and all submitted to him, and permitted him, without any further opposition, peaceably to obtain the kingdom, as had been predicted of him in the same prophecy. Eumenes and Attalus, at this time having some suspicions of the Romans, were desirous of having the king of Syria on their side, in case a war should break out between them, and Antiochus' prom

a Appian. in Syriacis.

d Daniel xi, 21.

c Hieronymus in Dan. xi, 21. g Appian. ibid.

ises to stick by them, whenever such a war should happen, were the inducements that prevailed with them to do him this kindness.

n

i

On his being thus settled on the throne, he took h the name of Epiphanes, that is, The Illustrious; but nothing could be more alien to his true character than this title. The prophet Daniel foretold of him, that he should be a vile person, so our English version bath it; but the word nibzeh in the original rather signifieth despicable than vile. He was truly both in all that both these words can express, which will fully appear from the character given of him by Polybius, 'Philarchus, m Livy, and " Diodorus Siculus, who were all heathen writers, and the two first of them his contemporaries. For they tell us, that he would get often out of the palace and ramble about the streets of Antioch, with two or three servants only accompanying him; that he would be often conversing with those that graved in silver, and cast vessels of gold, and be frequently found with them in their shops talking and nicely arguing with them about the mysteries of their trades; that he would very commonly debase himself to the meanest company, and on his going abroad would join in with such, as he happened to find them met together, although of the lowest of the people, and enter into discourse with any one of them whom he should first light on; that he would in his rambles frequently drink with strangers and foreigners, and even with the meanest and vilest of them; that, when he heard of any young company met together to feast, drink, or any otherwise to make merry together, he would, without giving any notice of his coming, intrude himself among them, and revel away the time with them in their cups and songs, and other frolics, without any regard had to common decency, or his own royal character; so that several being surprised with the strangeness of the thing, would, on his coming, get up and run away out of the company.

h Appian. in Syriacis. Eusebius in Chronicon. Athenæus, lib. 5, p. 193. i Dan. xi, 21.

k Apud Athenæum, lib. 5, p. 193. 1 Ibid lib. 10, p. 438.

m Lib. 41.

n In Excerptis Valesii, p. 304.

And he would sometimes, as the freak took him, lay aside his royal habit, and, putting on a Roman gown, go round the city, as he had seen done in the election of magistrates at Rome, and ask the votes of the citizens, in the same manner as used to be there practised, now taking one man by the hand, and then embracing another, and would thus set himself up, sometimes for the office of ædile, and sometimes for that of tribune; and, having been thus voted into the office he sued for, he would take the curule chair, and, sitting down in it, hear petty causes of contracts, bargains, and sales, made in the market, and give judgment in them with that serious attention and earnestness, as if they had been matters of the highest concern and importance. It is said also of him, that he was much given to drunkenness; and that he spent a great part of his revenues in revellings and drunken carousals; and would often go out into the streets while in these frolics, and there scatter his money by handfuls among the rabble, crying out, Let him take to whom fortune gives it. Sometimes he would go abroad with a crown of roses upon his head, and, wearing a Roman gown, would walk the streets alone, and, carrying stones under his arms, would throw them to those that should follow after him. And he would often wash himself in the public baths among the common people, and there expose himself by many absurd and ridiculous actions. Which odd and extravagant sort of conduct made many doubt how the matter stood with him ;P some thinking him a fool, and some a madman; the latter of these most thought to be his truest character; and therefore, instead of Epiphanes, or the illustrious, they called him Epimanes, that is, the madman. Jeromer tells us also of him, that he was exceedingly given to lasciviousness, and often by the vilest acts of it debased the honour of his royal dignity; that he was frequently found in the company of mimics, pathics, and common prosti

o Athenæus, lib. 10, p. 438.

p Diodor. Sic. in Excerptis Valesii, p. 306. Athenæus, lib. 5, p. 193. q Athenæus, ibid.

r In Comment. ad Dan. xi, 37.

S

t

tutes, and that, with the latter he would commit acts of lasciviousness, and gratify his lust on them publicly in the sight of the people. And it is further related of him, that having for his catamites two vile persons, called Timarchus and Heraclides, who were brothers, he made the first of them governour of Babylonia, and the other his treasurer in that province, and gave himself up to be governed and conducted by them in most that he did. And, having on a very whimsical occasion, exhibited games and shows at Daphne, near Antioch, with vast expense, and called thither a great multitude of people from foreign parts as well as from his own dominions, to be present at the solemnity; he there behaved himself to that degree of folly and absurdity, as to become the ridicule and scorn of all that were present: which actions of his are sufficient abundantly to demonstrate him both despicable and vile, though he had not added to them that most unreasonable and wicked persecution of God's people in Judea and Jerusalem; which will be hereafter related.

As soon as Antiochus was settled in the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, being ambitious of the high priesthood, by underhand means" applied to him for it; and by an offer of three hundred and sixty talents, besides eighty more which he promised on another account, obtained of him, that Onias was displaced from the office, and he advanced to it in his stead. And at the same time procured, that Onias was called to Antioch, and confined to dwell there. For Onias, by reason of his signal piety and righteousness, being of great esteem among the people throughout all Judea and Jerusalem, the intruder justly feared, that he should have but little authority in his new acquired office, as long as this good man, from whom he usurped it, should continue at Jerusalem; and therefore he procured from the king an or

s They are taken to be the same, who in Athenæus, p. 438, are called Aristus and Themison; though that author there seems to speak of Antiochus Magnus, and not of Antiochus Epiphanes.

t Polyb. apud Athenæum. lib. 5, p. 194, & lib. 10, p. 439. Diodor. Sic. in Excerptis Valesii, p. 320.

u 2 Maecab. iv, 7. Joseph. de Maccab. c. 4.

x 2 Maccab. iii, 1; iv, 37.

der for his removal from thence to Antioch, and his confinement to that place; where he accordingly continued till he was there put to death, as will be hereafter shewn in its proper place. Antiochus coming poor to the crown, and finding the public treasury empty, by reason of the heavy tribute paid the Romans for the twelve years last foregoing, was greedy of the money which Jason offered, and therefore, for the obtaining of it, readily granted what he desired of him, and would have been glad to have granted more on the same terms; which Jason perceiving, proposed to advance one hundred and fifty talents over and above what he had already offered, if he might have license to erect at Jerusalem a gymnasium, or a place of exercise, and an ephebeum, or a place for the training up of youth, according to the usage and fashion of the Greeks; and, moreover, have authority of making as many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem freemen of Antioch as he should think fit; which proposal being as readily accepted of as the former, all this was also granted him: and, by these means, he doubted not he should be able to make a party among the Jews, to overbear all that might stand for Onias; and, accordingly, on his return to Jerusalem with these grants and commissions, he had all the success herein which he proposed. For, at this time, there were many among the Jews fondly inclined to the ways of the Greeks, whom he gratified, by erecting his gymnasium for them to exercise in; and the freedom of the city of Antioch being a privilege of great value, while the Syro-Macedonian king flourished there, by his power of granting that freedom he drew over many more to his bent; so that, putting down the governments that were according to law, he brought up new customs against the law, drawing the chief young men of the Jewish nation into his ephebeum, and there training them up after the manner of the Greeks; and, in all things else, he made as many of them as he could apostatize from the religion and usages of their

y 2 Maccab. iv, 33, 34.

z 2 Maccab. vi, 8, 9.

a 2 Maceab. iv, 10, 11, 12, &e.