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 Antio. chus 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 Maccab. 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 Maccab. iv, 10, 11, 12, &c.

forefathers, and conform themselves to the manners, customs, and rites of the heathens; whereon the service of the altar became neglected, and the priests, despising the temple, omitted there the public worship of God, and hastened to partake of the games and divertisements of the gymnasium, and all other the unlawful allowances of that place; whereby it came to pass, that all those privileges which, at the solicitation of John the father of Eupolemus, were by special favour obtained of king Seleucus Philopater, for the securing of the observance of the Jewish law in Judah and Jerusalem, were all overborne and taken away. And from hence was propagated that iniquity among the Jews, which drew after it, for its punishment, one of the greatest calamities, next the two terrible destructions executed upon their temple and country by Nebuchadnezzar and Titus, that ever befell that nation. Of all which mischief, the ambition of this wicked man was the original cause; for, sacrificing to it his religion and his country, he betrayed both to procure his own advancement. And, to render himself the more acceptable to those from whom he obtained it, he changed not only his religion, but also his name. Forb his name was at first Jesus; but, when he went over to the ways of the Greeks, he took also a Greek name, and called himself Jason; and, having thus given himself up to the heathen superstition, he laid hold of all opportunities to distinguish himself in expressing his zeal for it.

An. 174.

And therefore, the next year being the time of the quinquennial games that were celebrated at Tyre, in honour of Hercules, the patron god Ptol. Phiof that country, and Antiochus being pres

lometor 7.

ent at them, he sent several Jews of his party, whom he had enfranchised, and made freemen of Antioch, to be spectators of those games, and to offer from him

e

b Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12, c. 6.

c 2 Maccab. iv, 18, 19.

d These quinquennial games at Tyre were in imitation of the quinquennial games in Greece, called the Olympics. They are called quinquennia!, because they were celebrated in the beginning of the fifth year, though from one Olympic to another no more than four years intervened.

e The original calls them Osas; which word among the Greeks signifieth such as were sent from one city to another in the name of the com. munity, to be present at their sacred solemnities, and bear a part in them. 28

VOL. III.

a donative of thirty-three hundred drachms, f to be expended in sacrifices to that heathen deity. But the bearers, being afraid of involving themselves in the guilt of this idolatry, gave the money to the Tyrians to be employed in the repairing of their fleet; and so the apostate was defeated of what he intended by this impious gift.

An. 173.

In Egypt, from the death of Ptolemy Epiphanes, Cleopatra his queen, sister of Antiochus Ptol Phi- Epiphanes, had taken on her the government lometor 8. of the kingdom and the tuition of her infant son, who had succeeded him in it, and managed it with great care and prudence; but, she dying this year, the management of affairs there fell into the hands of Lennæus, a nobleman of that court, and Eulæus, an eunuch, who had the breeding up of the young king. As soon as they had entered on the administration, they made demand of Cole-Syria and Palestine from Antiochus Epiphanes, which gave origin to the war that afterwards ensued between Antiochus and Philometor. As long as Cleopatra lived, she, being mother to the one,

f In the English version it is three hundred drachms; and so it is also in the common printed books of the Greek original; but in the Arundel manuscript it is toxins Taxosas, that is, three thousand three hundred, which is the truer reading. For three hundred drachms, at the highest valuation, making no more than seventy-five Jewish shekels, that is, of our money, eleven pounds five shillings, it was too little to be sent on such an occasion (vide Annales Usserii sub anno mundi 3830.) But it is to be here observed, that the Tyrian god to whom this oblation was sent, is, in the place of the second book of Maccabees here cited, called Hercules, according to the style of the Greeks. Among the Tyrians themselves this name was not known. There his name was Malcarthus; which, being compounded of the two Phoenician words Melec and Kartha, did, in that language, signify the King or Lord of the city. The Greeks, from some similitude which they found in the worship of this god at Tyre, with that wherewith they worshipped Hercules in Greece, thought them to be both the same; and therefore called this Tyrian god Hercules; and hence came the name of Hercules Tyrius among them. This god seems to be the same with the Baal of the holy Scriptures, whose worship Jezebel brought from Tyre into the land of Israel: for Baal, with the addition of Kartha, signifieth the same as Melec with the same addition. For as the latter, in the Phoenician language, is King of the city, the other, in the same language, is Lord of the city. And as Baal is put alone to signify this Tyrian god in Scripture, so do we find Melec also put alone to signify the same god: for Hesychius tells us, Μαλικα τον Ηρακλέα Αμαθεσιοι, that is, Mulic is the name of Hercules among the Amathusians. And these Amathusians were a colony of the Tyrians in Cyprus. Vide Sanchoniathonem apud Eusebium de Præp. Evang. lib. 1. Bocharti Phaleg. part 2, lib. 1, c. 34, and lib. 2, c. 2. Seldenum de Diis Syris, syntag. 1, c. 6, and Fulleri Miscellan. lib 2, c. 17. g Hieronymus in Dan. xi, 21. h Polybius Legat. 82, p. 908.

P

and sister to the other, kept this matter from making a breach between them. But, after her death, those into whose hands the government next fell made no longer scruple to demand of Antiochus, in behalf of their master, what they thought his due. And it must be owned, that those provinces were always in the possession of the kings of Egypt, from the time of the first Ptolemy, till Antiochus the Great wrested them out of the hands of Ptolemy Epiphanes; and by this title only Seleucus his son came to be in full possession of them, and, on his death, was succeeded in the same by Antiochus Epiphanes his brother. The Egyptians, in defence of their claim argued, that in the last partition of the empire of Alexander, made after the battle of Ipsus, among those four of his successors who then survived, these provinces were assigned to Ptolemy Soter; that he and the succeeding kings of his race had held them ever after, till Antiochus the Great wrested them out of the hands of Ptolemy Epiphanes after the battle of Paneas: and that the same Antiochus had agreed on the marrying of his daughter to the same king Ptolemy, and made it the main article of that marriage, again to restore to him these provinces, by way of dowry with her. But Antiochus denied both these allegations, pleading, in answer to them, that, by virtue of the last partition of the empire of Alexander abovementioned, all Syria, including Cole-Syria and Palestine, was assigned to Seleucus Nicator, and therefore it belonged to him as his rightful heir in the Syrian empire. And as to the article of marriage, whereby a restoration of those provinces to king Ptolemy was claimed, he utterly denied that there was any such thing. And having thus declared on both sides their pretensions, they joined issue hereon, and referred it to the sword to decide the matter.

Ptolemy Philometor being now fourteen years old, he was declared to be out of his minority; and thereon! great preparations were made at Alexandria for his m

i Polybius Legat. 72, p. 893.

k Polybius Legat. 72, p. 893, & Legat. 82, p. 908.

1 Polybius Legat. 78, p. 902. 2 Macca. iv, 21.

m This the Alexandrian Greeks called 'Araapia or the solemnity of