The instant that Antiochus heard of the reconciliation of the two brothers, he resolved to employ his whole force against them. Accordingly he sent his fleet early into Cyprus, to preserve the possession of that island: at the same time he marched at the head of a very powerful land army with the design to conquer Egypt openly, and not pretend, as he had before done, to fight the cause of one of his nephews. Upon his arrival at Rhinocorura, he found ambassadors from Philometor, who told him, that their sovereign was very sensible that he owed his restoration to Antiochus ; that he conjured him not to destroy his own work by employing force and arms; but on the contrary, to acquaint him amicably with his pretensions. Antiochus, throwing off the mask, no longer used the tender and affectionate expressions of which he had till then been so ostentatiously lavish, but declared himself at once an enemy to both. He told the ambassadors, that he insisted upon having the island of Cyprus, with the city of Pelusium, and all the land along the arm of the Nile on which it was situated, resigned to him for ever; assuring them that he was determined to conclude a peace upon no other conditions. He also fixed a day for a final answer to his demand.

The time being elapsed, and the satisfaction he claimed not being made, he began hostilities; penetrated as far as Memphis, subjecting the whole country through which he passed; and there received the submission of almost all the rest of the kingdom. He afterwards marched towards Alexandria, with design to besiege that city, the possession of which would have made him absolute master of all Egypt. He would certainly have succeeded in his enterprise, had he not been checked in his career by the Roman embassy, which broke all the measures he had been so long taking, in order to possess himself of Egypt.

We before observed, that the ambassadors who were nominated to go to Egypt, had left Rome with the utmost diligence. They landed at Alexandria, just at the time Antiochus was marching to besiege it. The ambassadors came up with him at Eleusine, which was not a mile from Alexandria. The king seeing Popilius, with whom he had been intimately acquainted at Rome, when he was an hostage in that city, opened his arms to embrace him as his old friend. The Roman who did not consider himself on that occasion as a private man, but a servant of the public, desired to know, before he answered his compliment, whether he spoke to a friend, or an enemy of Rome. He then gave him the decree

a A. M. 3836. Ant. J. C. 168. Liv. l. xlv. n. 11-13. Polyb. Legat. xcii. Turnebus and H. Valesius think that we should read, in Livy, Eleusinem instead of Leusinem.

of the senate, bid him read it over, and return him an immediate answer. Antiochus, after perusing it, said, he would examine the contents of it with his friends, and give. his answer in a short time. Popilius, enraged at the king for talking of delays, drew, with the wand he had in his hand, a circle round Antiochus, and then raising his voice, " Answer," says he, "the senate, before you stir out of that circle." The king, quite confounded at so haughty an order, after a moment's reflection, replied that he would act according to the desire of the senate. Popilius then received his civilities; and behaved afterwards in all respects as an old friend. How important was the effect of this blunt loftiness of sentiments and expression! The Roman, with a few words, strikes terror into the king of Syria, and saves the king of Egypt.

The circumstance which made the one so bold, and the other so submissive, was the news that arrived just before of the great victory gained by the Romans over Perseus king of Macedonia. From that instant, every thing gave way before them; and the Roman name grew formidable to all princes and nations.

Antiochus having left Egypt at the time stipulated, Popilius returned with his colleagues to Alexandria, where he signed the treaty of union between the two brothers, which had not been executed before. He then crossed into Cyprus; sent home Antiochus's fleet, which had gained a victory over that of the Egyptians; restored the whole island to the kings of Egypt, who laid a just claim to it; and returned to Rome, in order to acquaint the senate with the success of his embassy.

Ambassadors from Antiochus, the two Ptolemies, and Cleopatra their sister, arrived there almost at the same time. The former said, "That the peace which the senate had "been pleased to grant their sovereign, appeared to him more glorious than the most splendid conquests; and that "he had obeyed the commands of the Roman ambassadors, "as strictly as if they had been sent from the gods." How groveling, and, at the same time, how impious was all this! They afterwards congratulated the Romans on the victory they had gained over Perseus. The rest of the ambassadors declared, in the like extravagant strain, "That the two Ptolemies and Cleopatra thought themselves bound in as great obligations to the senate and people of Rome as to "their parents, and even to the gods; having been delivered, by the protection which Rome had granted them, from a very grievous siege, and re-established on the throne of "their ancestors, of which they had been almost entirely

a Quam efficax est animi sermonisque abscissa gravitas! Eodem momento Syriæ regnum terruit, Ægypti texit. Val. Max. I. vi. & 4.

"dispossessed." The senate answered; "That Antiochus "acted wisely in paying obedience to the ambassadors; and "that the people and senate of Rome were pleased with him "for it." Methinks this is carrying the spirit of haughtiness as high as possible. With regard to Ptolemy and Cleopatra, it was answered; "That the senate were very much pleased " with the opportunity of doing them some service; and that they would endeavour to make them sensible, that they ought to look upon the friendship and protection of the Romans as the most solid support of their kingdom." The prætor was then ordered to make the ambassadors the usual presents.

SECT. III.

Antiochus's proceedings against the Jews. His armies lose several victories. Is struck by the hand of God.

« Antiochus, at his return from Egypt, exasperated to see forcibly torn from him by the Romans, a crown which he looked upon already as his own, made the Jews, though they had not offended him in any manner, feel the whole weight of his wrath. In his march through Palestine, he detached twenty-two thousand men, the command of whom he gave to Apollonius, with orders to destroy the city of Jerusalem.

Apollonius arrived there just two years after this city had been taken by Antiochus. At his first coming, he did not behave in any manner as if he had received such cruel orders, and waited till the first sabbath day before he executed them. But then, seeing all the people assembled peaceably in the synagogues, and engaged in paying their religious. worship to the Creator, he put in execution the barbarous commission he had received; and, setting all his troops upon them, commanded them to cut to pieces all the men, and to seize all the women and children, in order that they might be exposed to sale. These commands were obeyed with the utmost cruelty and rigour. Not a single man was spared; all they could find being cruelly butchered, insomuch that the streets streamed with blood. The city was afterwards plundered, and fire set to several parts of it, after all the riches that could be found had been carried off. They demolished such parts of the houses as were still standing; and, with the ruins, built a strong fort on the top of one of the hills of the city of David, opposite to the temple, which it commanded. They threw a strong garrison into it, to awe the whole Jewish nation; they made it a place for arms, furnished with good magazines, where they deposited all the spoils taken in the plunder of the city.

a A. M. 3836. Ant. J. C. 168- 1 Maccab, i. 30-40, and 2. v. 24-27. Je. seph, Antiq. 1. xii. c. 7,

From hence the garrison fell on all who came to worship the true God in the temple; and shed their blood on every part of the sanctuary, which they polluted by all possible methods. A stop was put to both the morning and evening sacrifices; not one of the servants of the true God daring to come and adore him there.

a As soon as Antiochus was returned to Antioch, he pub lished a decree, by which the several nations in his dominions were commanded to lay aside their ancient religious ceremonies, and their particular usages, and to conform to the religion of the king, and to worship the same gods, and after the same manner, as he did. This decree, though expressed in general terms, was nevertheless aimed chiefly at the Jews, whose religion, as well as their nation, he was absolutely determined to extirpate.

In order that this edict might be punctually executed, he sent commissioners into all the provinces of his empire, who were commanded to see it put in execution, and to instruct the people in all the ceremonies and customs to which they were to conform.

The Gentiles obeyed with no great reluctance. Though they seem not to have been affected with the change of their worship, or g ds, they however were not very well pleased with this innovation in religious matters. No people seemed more eager to comply with the orders of the court than the Samaritans. They presented a petition to the king, in which they declared themselves not to be Jews; and desired that their temple, built on Mount Gerizim, which, till then, had not been dedicated to any deity in particular, might henceforwards be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter, and be called after his name. Antiochus received their petition very graciously; and ordered Nicanor, deputy-governor of the province of Samaria, to dedicate their temple to the Grecian Jupiter, as they had desired, and not to molest them in any

manner.

But the Samaritans were not the only apostates who forsook their GOD and their law in this trial. Several Jews also, either to escape the persecution, to ingratiate themselves with the king or his officers, or else from inclination and libertinism, changed their religion. From these different motives many fell from Israel; and several of those who had once taken this wicked step, joining themselves with the king's forces, became (as is but too common) greater persecutors of their unhappy brethren than the hea

a 1 Maccab, i 41-64. and 2 Maccab. vi. 1-7. Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c. 7. 6 They expressed themselves in that manner, because the mighty name of the *od o Israel (Jehovah) was never uttered by the Jews.

"Laccab. vi. 21-24.

thens themselves, employed to execute this barbarous commission.

The commissioner, who was sent into Judæa and Samaria, to see the king's decree punctually obeyed, was called Athenæus, a man advanced in years, and extremely well versed in all the ceremonies of the Grecian idolatry, who, for that reason, was judged a fit person to invite those nations to join in it. As soon as he arrived in Jerusalem, he began by putting a stop to the sacrifices which were offered up to the Gop of Israel, and suppressing all the observances of the Jewish law. They polluted the temple in such a manner, that it was no longer fit for the service of GOD; profaned the sabbaths and other festivals; forbid the circumcision of children; carried off and burnt all the copies of the law wherever they could find them; abolished all the ordinances of GOD in every part of the country, and put to death whoever was found to have acted contrary to the decree of the king. The Syrian soldiers, and the commissioner who commanded over them, were the chief instruments by which the Jews were converted to the religion professed by the sovereign.

To establish it the sooner in every part of the nation, altars and chapels, filled with idols, were erected in every city, and sacred groves were planted. Officers were appointed over these, who caused all the people in general to offer sacrifices in them every month, the day of the month on which the king was born, who made them eat swine's flesh, and other unclean animals sacrificed there.

"One of these officers, Apelles by name, came to Modin, the residence of Mattathias, of the sacerdotal race, a venerable man, and extremely zealous for the law of GOD. He was son to John, and grandson to Simon, from whose father Asmoneus the family was called Asmoneans. With him were his five sons, all brave men, and fired with as ardent a zeal for the law of GoD as himself. These were Joannan, surnamed Gaddis ; Simon, surnamed Thasi; Judas, surnamed Maccabeus; Eleazer, called Abaron; and Jonathan, called Apphus. Being arrived in Modin, Apelles assembled the inhabitants, and explained to them the purport of his commission. Directing himself afterwards to Mattathias, he endeavoured to persuade him to conform to the king's orders; in hopes that the conversion of so venerable a man would induce all the rest of the inhabitants to follow his example. He promised that in case of his compliance, the king would rank him in the number of his friends, and appoint him a member of his council; and that himself and his sons should be raised, by the court, to the greatest honours and à 1 Maccab. ii. 1–30. Joseph. Antiq. I. xii, c. 8,