decree, nor doth it contain or import any thing more than the renewing and confirming of a former league of friendship and alliance made with them, which plainly refers to that league which was made with them in the time of Hyrcanus I. in the year last here before preceding. And, secondly, as to the date which it bears, it is in the ninth year, which cannot be understood of Hyrcanus II. For Josephus tells us, that the decree which was made for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was granted by Julius Cæsar to Hyrcanus II. after the end of the Alexandrian war, in reward of the assistance which Hyrcanus II. sent him in it. But that war was not ended till the forty-seventh year before Christ, long after the ninth year of that Hyrcanus. For the forty-seventh year before Christ was the seventeenth year of Hyrcanus II. reckoning from the time of his restoration by Pompey, but the twenty-third reckoning from the beginning of his reign, on the death of his mother. And, furthermore, the preface, to that decree, which Josephus tells us, was for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, bears date in the ides of December; (that is, the thirteenth of that month ;) whereas the date of the decree itself, which he puts under that preface, is in Panemus, the SyroMacedonian month, which answers to our July, and therefore it could not possibly be the decree that belonged to that preface. All this put together plainly shews, this decree of the ninth year of Hyrcanus could not be the decree granted to Hyrcanus II. by Julius Cæsar for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem ; but most certainly it must be that which was granted to Hyrcanus I. by the Roman senate in this year where I have placed it, and that it was by the mistake of Josephus that it was put by him elsewhere. And this is beyond all contradiction confirmed, by that Numenius, the son of Antiochus, is said, in the body of the decree, to have been one of the ambassadors by whom it was

n Joseph. Antiq. lib. 14, c. 15, 16. It is most likely this was not granted by Julius Cæsar till the year of his fifth consulship, and that it is the same which is now extant under that date in the seventeenth chapter of the fourteenth book of Josephus' Antiquities.

o De hac re vide Usserii Annales sub anno J. P. 458.

obtained, who was the same P that had been one of the ambassadors that were sent to Rome by Jonathan on a like embassy. For he might have well been alive to go on such an embassy in the ninth year of Hyrcanus I. but cannot be supposed to have been so after the ending of the Alexandrian war, which was near one hundred years after the former embassy, in which he was employed by Jonathan. Joseph Scaliger9 takes notice of this blunder of Josephus', but, while he mends it, he makes as great ones of his own, which Salianus the Jesuit justly corrects him for."

S

S

Demetrius, king of Syria, having, by his tyrannical government, vicious manners, and a most perverse and disagreeable behaviour, made himself as odious to the Syrians as Physcon was to the Egyptians, they took the advantage of his absence at the siege of Pelusium to rise in rebellion against him. The Antiochians began this revolt, and soon after the Apameans, and many other of the Syrian cities followed their example, and joined with them herein. This forced Demetrius to hasten out of Egypt to look to his interest at home. Whereon Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, being defeated of the assistance which she expected from him, put all her treasure on shipboard, and fled with it by sea to Ptolemais, to Cleopatra, queen of Syria, her daughter by Philometor, who there resided. This Cleopatra, the daughter, had first married Alexander Balas, and afterwards this Demetrius, in her father's lifetime; but, after that, Demetrius being taken prisoner in Parthia, and there detained in captivity, she became the wife of Antiochus Sidetes his brother, and, after his death, returned again to the bed of Demetrius, on his coming out of Parthia and recovering his kingdom; and then held Ptolemais when her mother came to her. Physcon, on her flight out of Egypt, returned again to Alexandria, and re-assumed the government, there being no power in that place, after the death of Marsyas and the flight of Cleopatra, that could any further oppose him. After he had again settled himself in the

p 1 Maccab. xii, 16.

q In Animadversionibus in Chronologica Eusebii sub No. 1971. Sub anno mundi 4007, sec. 36, 37.

s Justin. lib, 39, c. 1. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13, c. 17.

An. 126.

kingdom, to be revenged on Demetrius for his late invasion," he set up an impostor against him, who was called Alexander Zebina. He was the son of a broker of Alexandria; but, feigning himself to be the son of Alexander Balas, under that pretended title claimed the crown of Syria, and Physcon furnished him with an army to take possession of it. On his arrival thither in Syria, multitudes joined with him, out of the great aversion they had to Demetrius, without examining at all the title of the pretender, as not caring whom they had for their king, so they could get rid of Demetrius. At length the controversy was brought to the decision of a battle, which was fought near Damascus in Cole-Syria; wherein Demetrius being John Hyr overthrown, fled to Ptolemais to Cleopatra canus 10. his wife. But she, retaining her resentments against him for his marrying Rhodaguna while in Parthia, took this opportunity of being revenged for it, and shut the gates against him; whereon being forced to flee to Tyre, he was there slain. After his death, Cleopatra retained some part of the kingdom, and Zebina reigned over all the rest; and, for the better securing of himself in it, he made a strict league and alliance with John Hyrcanus, prince of the Jews; and John made all the advantages of these divisions which might justly be expected from so wise a man, for the establishing of his own and his country's interest, and he much improved the state of the Jews thereby.

coming

An. 125.

canus 11.

Vast numbers of locusts about this time into Africa, there destroyed the fruits of the earth, and at last being by the wind driven John Hyrinto the sea, and there drowned, and, by the flowing of the tide, cast up upon the land, caused such a stench as poisoned the air, and produced a most terrible plague; which, in Libya, Cyrene, and other parts of Africa, destroyed above eight hundred thousand

persons.

u Justin. lib. 39, c. 1. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13, c. 17. x Justin. & Joseph. ibid.

phyrius in Græcis Euseb.

y Joseph. ibid.

Appianus in Syriacis. Livii Epit. lib. 60. Por6caligeri.

z Livii Epitome, lib. 60. Orosius, lib. 5, c. 11. Julius Obsequen's de

Prodigiis.

VOL. III.

53

An. 124.

Seleucus, the eldest son of Demetrius Nicator by Cleopatra, being now about twenty years old, John Hyr- took upon him to reign in Syria in his father's canus 12. stead, contrary to the good liking of his mother. For she having, on the death of Demetrius, seized part of the Syrian empire, thought to have reigned there by her own authority; and therefore was very angry at the setting up of her son against her; and besides, she feared he would revenge his father's death upon her, which it was well known she had been the cause of; and therefore having gotten him within her power, she slew him with her own hands, by thrusting a dart through him, after he had reigned only one year.

Antipater, Clonius, and Æropus, three of Zebina's chief commanders, having revolted from him to Cleopatra, seized Laodicea, and there endeavoured to maintain themselves against him; but he, having soon reduced them, on their submission, out of his great clemency and magnanimity, pardoned them all, without doing any hurt to either of them. For he was a person of a very benign temper, and carried himself with a great deal of good nature, affability, and courtesy, towards all that came in his way, which made him very much beloved even by those who liked not the imposture whereby he usurped the crown.

In this year died Mithridates Euergetes, king of Pontus, being slain by the treachery of some of those that were about him. He was succeeded by his son the famous Mithridates Eupator, who struggled so long with the Romans for the empire of Asia, having maintained a war against them for about thirty years. He was but twelve years old when he began to reign; for he is said to have lived seventy-two years, and to have reigned sixty of them. He was descended from a long series of kings who had reigned in Pontus be

a Livii Epit. ibid. Appian. in Syriacis. Justin. lib. 39, c. 1. Porphyrius in Græcis Euseb. Scaligeri.

b Diodorus Siculus in Excerptis Valesii, p. 377.

c Justin. lib. 37, c. 1. Strabo, lib. 10, p. 477.

d Memnon, c. 32. Strabo & Justin. ibid.

e Justin saith forty-six years, ibid. Appian. in Mithridaticis forty-two years; Florus and Eutropius forty years; but Pliny, (lib. 7, c. 26,) saith it lasted only thirty years; and he comes nearest the truth of the matter. f Eutrop. lib. 6.

!!

i

fore him. The first of them was one of those seven princes that slew the Magians, and settled the kingdom of Persia on Darius Hystaspes, and, having obtained the sovereignty of the country, transmitted it to his posterity through sixteen generations, Mithridates Eupator being reckoned the sixteenth from him. The first of these of whom we find a name in history, is that Mithridates, who, dying in the year before Christ 363, was succeeded by Ariobarzanes his son, then governour of Phrygia for Artaxerxes Mnemon king of Persia, who, having k reigned twenty-six years, was succeeded by his son Mithridates II. in the year 337; he first took part with Eumenes against Antigonus, but, when Eumenes was slain, he submitted to the conqueror, and served him in his wars, and being a man of great valour and military skill, he was very useful to him; but at length, being suspected of being an underhand favourer of the interest of Cassander, Antigonusm caused him to be put to death in the year 302, after he had reigned thirty-five years. On his death m he was succeeded by his son Mithridates III. While his father lived," he had for some time resided in the court of Antigonus, and there contracted great intimacy and friendship with Demetrius his son. But Antigonus" having dreamed, that when he had sowed a field with golden seed, and it had brought forth a plentiful crop of the same metal, Mithridates had reaped it all, and carried it away with him into Pontus, he concluded that this dream foretold that Mithridates should reap the fruit of all his victories; and therefore, for the preventing of it, resolved to put him to death. But Mithridates, being warned hereof by Demetrius, made his escape into Cappadocia, and there having gotten together an army, seized several places and territories in those parts, which there belonged to Antigonus; and having, after his father's death, succeeded him, he added these acquisitions to

g Polyb. lib. 5, p. 388. L. Florus, lib. 3, c. 5. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 19. Aurelius Victor.

h Appian. in Mithridaticis.

i Diodor. Sic. lib. 15.

k Ibid. lib. 16.

1 Ibid. lib. 19. m Ibid. lib. 20.

n Plutarch. in Demetrio. Appian. in Mithridaticis.