and punished with death all that could be found. When he believed, after all these executions, that he had no longer any enemies to fear, he broke the greatest part of his troops, and kept only his Cretans, and some other foreigners, in his service. By that means he not only deprived himself of the old troops, who had served under his father, and being well affected to him, would have maintained him upon the throne, but he rendered them his greatest enemies, by depriving them of the sole means they had to subsist. He found this fully verified in the insurrections and revolutions which afterwards happened. Jonathan, however, seeing every thing quiet in Judea, formed the design of delivering the nation at length from the evils it suffered from the citadel which the Grecian idolaters still held in Jerusalem. He invested it, and caused machines of war to be brought, in order to attack it in form. Demetrius, on the complaints made to him upon that occasion, went to Ptolemais, and commanded Jonathan to attend him there, to give an account of that affair. Jonathan gave orders for pushing the siege vigorously in his absence, and set out to meet him with some of the priests and principal persons of the nation. He carried with him a great number of magnificent presents, and appeased the king and his ministers so successfully, that he not only caused the accusations which had been formed against him to be rejected, but even obtained great honours and new marks of favour. The whole country under his government was discharged from all duties, customs, and tributes, for the sum of three hundred talents, which he agreed to pay the king by way of equivalent. The king being returned to Antioch, and continuing to give himself up immoderately to all kinds of excess, violence, and cruelty, the patience of the people was entirely exhausted, and the whole nation disposed for a general revolt.* Diodotus, afterwards surnamed Tryphon, who had formerly served Alexander, and had shared the government of Antioch with Hierax, perceiving this disposition of the people, found the occasion favourable for attempting a hardy enterprise, which was to set the crown upon his own head, by means of these disorders. He went into Arabia to Zabdiel, to whom the person and education of Antiochus, the son of Alexander Bala, had been intrusted. He laid a state of the affairs of Syria before him, informed him of the discontent of the people, and in particular of the soldiery, and strongly represented that there could not be a more favourable opportunity for setting Antiochus upon the throne of his father. He demanded that the young prince should be put into his hands, that he might be restored to his rights. His view was, to make use of the pretensions of Antiochus, till he had dethroned Demetrius, and afterwards to rid himself of the young prince, and assume the crown to himself, as he did. Zabdiel, whether he penetrated his real design, or did not entirely approve his scheme, did not assent to it at first. Tryphon was obliged to continue a considerable time with him, to solicit and press him. At length, by force of importunity and presents, he gained Zabdiel's consent, and obtained what he demanded. Jonathan carried on the siege of the citadel of Jerusalem with vigour, but seeing that he made no progress, he sent deputies to Demetrius, to desire that he would withdraw the garrison, which he could not drive out by force. Demetrius, who found himself involved in great difficulties, from the frequent tumults which happened at Antioch, where the people conceived an invincible aversion for his person and government, granted Jonathan all he demanded, upon condition that he would send troops to chastise the mutineers. Jonathan sent him three thousand men immediately. As soon as the king had them, believing himself sufficiently strong to undertake every thing, he resolved to disarm the inhabitants of Antioch, and gave orders accordingly that they should * Justin. 1. xxxviii. c. 9. 1 Maccab. xi. 39-74. xii. 21-34. Joseph. Antiq. I. xiii. c. 9. Appian in Syr. p. 132. Epit. Liv. 1. iii. Strab. 1. xvi. p. 752. Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 346. all deliver up their arms. Upon this they rose, to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand men, and invested the palace, with a design to kill the king. The Jews immediately flew to disengage him, dispersed the multitude with fire and sword, burned a great part of the city, and killed or destroyed nearly one hundred thousand of the inhabitants. The rest, intimidated by so great a misfortune, demanded a peace; which was granted them, and the tumult ceased. The Jews, after having taken this terrible revenge of the wrongs the people of Antioch had done to Judea and Jerusalem, principally during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, returned into their country, laden with honour and booty.* Demetrius, always continuing his cruelties, tyranny, and oppression, put many more persons to death for the late sedition, confiscated the estates of others, and banished a great number. All his subjects conceived such a hatred and animosity against him, that there wanted nothing but an occasion for rising, and making him experience the most dreadful effect of their vengeance. Notwithstanding the promises he made to Jonathan, and the great obligations he was under to him for the aid which had preserved him, he behaved no better in regard to him than he did to others. Believing he could do without him for the future, he did not observe the treaty he had made with him. Though the sum of three hundred talents had been paid, he did not desist from demanding all the usual imposts, customs, and tributes, with the same rigour as before, and with menaces to Jonathan, of making war upon him if he failed. While things were in this unsteady condition, Tryphon carried Antiochus, the son of Alexander, into Syria, and caused his pretensions to the crown to be declared by a manifesto. The soldiers who had been broken by Demetrius, and a great number of other malcontents, came in crowds to join the pretender, and proclaimed him king. They marched under his ensigns against Demetrius, beat him, and obliged him to retire to Seleucia. They took all his elephants, made themselves masters of Antioch, placed Antiochus upon the throne of the king of Syria, and gave him the surname of Theos, which signifies the God. Jonathan, discontented at the ingratitude of Demetrius, accepted the invitation made him by the new king, and engaged in his party. Great favours were heaped upon him, and Simon his brother. A commission was sent them, whereby they were empowered to raise troops for Antiochus throughout all Colosyria and Palestine. Of these troops they formed two bodies, with which they acted separately, and obtained several victories over the enemy. Tryphon, seeing all things brought to the desired point for executing the project he had formed of destroying Antiochus, and possessing himself of the crown of Syria, found no other obstacle to his design, than on the part of Jonathan, whose probity he knew too well, even to sound him upon entering into his views. He resolved therefore to rid himself, at whatever price it cost him, of so formidable an enemy, and entered Judea with an army, in order to take him and put him to death. Jonathan came also to Bethsan at the head of forty thousand men. Tryphon perceived that he should get nothing by force against so powerful an army. He endeavoured therefore to amuse him with fine words, and the warmest assurances of a sincere friendship. He gave him to understand, that he had come thither only to consult him upon their common interests, and to put Ptolemais into his hands, which he was resolved to make him a present of as a free gift. He deceived him so well by these protestations of friendship, and obliging offers, that he dismissed all his troops, except three thousand men, of which he kept only one thousand about his person. He sent the rest toward Galilee, and followed Tryphon to Ptolemais, relying upon that traitor's oath, that he should be put in possession of it. He *A. M. 3860. Ant. J. C. 144. 239 had no sooner entered the place, than the gates were shut upon him._Jonathan was immediately seized, and all his followers put to the sword. Troops were also detached directly to follow and surprise the two thousand men, who were upon their march to Galilee. They had already received advice of what had happened to Jonathan and his troops, at the city of Ptolemais; and having exhorted one another to defend themselves well, and to sell their lives as dear as possible, the enemy were afraid to attack them. They were suffered to proceed, and arrived safe at Jerusalem.* The affliction there for what had befallen Jonathan was extreme. The Jews, however, did not lose courage. They chose Simon by universal consent for their general, and immediately, by his orders, set themselves to work with all possible speed to complete the fortifications begun by Jonathan at Jerusalem. And when advice came that Tryphon approached, Simon marched against him at the head of a fine army. Tryphon did not dare to give him battle, but had again recourse to the same artifices which had succeeded so well with Jonathan. He sent to tell Simon, that he had only laid Jonathan under an arrest, because he owed the king one hundred talents; that if he would send him that sum, and Jonathan's two sons as hostages for their father's fidelity, he would cause him to be set at liberty. Though Simon saw clearly that this proposal was no more than a feint, yet, that he might not have reason to reproach himself with being the occasion of his brother's death, by refusing to comply with it, he sent him the money, and Jonathan's two children. The traitor, notwithstanding, did not release his prisoner, but returned a second time into Judea, at the head of a greater army than before, with design to put all things to fire and sword. Simon kept so close to him in all his marches and countermarches, that he frustrated his designs, and obliged him to retire. Tryphon, on his return into winter-quarters in the country of Galaad, caused Jonathan to be put to death; and believing that he had no one to fear after him, gave orders to kill Antiochus secretly. He then caused it to be published, that he died of the stone, and at the same time declared himself king of Syria in his stead, and took possession of the crown. When Simon was informed of his brother's death, he sent to fetch his bones, interred them in the sepulchre of his forefathers at Modin, and erected a magnificent monument to his memory.† Tryphon passionately desired to be acknowledged by the Romans. His usurpation was so unsteady without this, that he perceived plainly it was absolutely necessary to his support. He sent them a magnificent embassy, with a gold statue of Victory, of ten thousand pieces of gold in weight. He was cheated by the Romans. They accepted the statue, and caused the name of Antiochus, whom he had assassinated, to be inserted upon the inscription, as if it had come from him. The ambassadors sent by Simon to Rome were received there much more honourably, and all the treaties made with his predecessors renewed with him.‡ Demetrius in the mean time, amused himself with diversions at Laodicea, and abandoned himself to the most infamous debauches, without becoming more wise from adversity, and without so much as seeming to have the least sense of his misfortunes. As Tryphon had given the Jews just reason to oppose him and his party, Simon sent a crown of gold to Demetrius, and ambassadors to treat with him. They obtained from that prince a confirmation of the high-priesthood and sovereignty to Simon, exemption from all kinds of tributes and imposts, with a general amnesty for all past acts of hostility; upon condition that the Jews should join him against Tryphon.§ 1 Maccab. xii. 39-54. xiii. 1-30. ↑ A. M. 3861. Ant. J. C. 143. A. M. 3863. Ant. J. C. 141. 41. Joseph. Antiq. I. xiii. c. 11. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 10, 11. Justin. 1. xxxvi. e. 1. Epist. Liv. I. Iv. Demetrius at length recovered a little from his lethargy, upon the arrival of deputies from the east, who came to invite him thither. The Parthians, having almost over-run the whole east, and subjected all the countries of Asia between the Indus and Euphrates, the inhabitants of those countries, who were descended from the Macedonians, not being able to suffer that usurpation, and the haughty insolence of their new masters, strongly solicited Demetrius, by repeated embassies, to come and put himself at their head; assured him of a general insurrection against the Parthians; and promised to supply him with a sufficient number of troops to expel those usurpers, and recover all the provinces of the east. Full of these hopes, he at length undertook that expedition, and passed the Euphrates, leaving Tryphon in possession of the greatest part of Syria. He conceived, that having once made himself master of the east, with that increase of power, he should be in a better condition to reduce that rebel at his return.* As soon as he appeared in the east, the Elymæans, Persians, and Bactrians, declared in his favour, and with their aid he defeated the Parthians in several engagements; but at length, under pretence of treating with him, they got him into an ambuscade, where he was made prisoner, and his whole army cut to pieces. By this blow, the empire of the Parthians took such firm footing, that it supported itself for many ages afterwards, and became the terror of all its neighbours, and even equal to the Romans themselves, as to power in the field, and reputation for military exploits. The king who then reigned over the Parthians, was Mithridates, son of Priapatius, a valiant and wise prince. We have seen in what manner Arsaces founded, and his son Arsaces II. established and fixed, this empire by a treaty of peace with Antiochus the Great. Priapatius was the son of the second Arsaces, and succeeded him; he was called also Arsaces, which became the common name of all the princes of this race. After having reigned fifteen years, he left the crown at his death to his eldest son Phraates, and he to Mithridates his brother, in preference to his own children, because he had discovered more merit and capacity in him for the government of the people; convinced that a king, when it is in his own power, ought to be more attentive to the good of the state, than the advancement of his own family; and to forget in some measure that he is a father, to remember solely that he is a king. This Mithridates was that king of the Parthians, into whose hands Demetrius had fallen. That prince, after having subdued the Medes, Elymæans, Persians, and Bactrians, extended his conquests even into India, beyond the bounds of Alexander's; and when he had defeated Demetrius, subjected also Babylonia and Mesopotamia, so that his empire was bounded at that time by the Euphrates on the west, and the Ganges on the east. He carried Demetrius his prisoner into all the provinces which still adhered to the king of Syria, with the view of inducing them to submit to him, by showing them the person they had looked upon as their deliverer, reduced to so low and shameful a condition. After that, he treated him as a king, sent him into Hyrcania, which was assigned him for his place of residence, and gave him his daughter Rhodoguna in marriage. He was, however, always regarded as a prisoner of war, though in other respects he had all the liberty that could be granted him in that condition. His son Phraates, who succeeded him, treated him in the same manner. It is observed particularly of this Mithridates, that having subjected several different nations, he took from each of them whatever was best in their laws Justin. 1. xxxvi. c. 1. 1. xxxviii. c. 9. 1. xli. c. 5 et 6. 1 Maccab. xiv. 1-49. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 9-12. Orosius, 1. v. c. 4. Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 359. Appian. in Syr. p. 132. Non multo post decessit, multis filiis relictis; quibus præterritis, fratri potissimum Mithridati, insignis virtutis viro, reliquit imperium; plus regio quam patrio deberi nomini ratus, potiusque patriæ quam liberis consulendum.-Justin. 241 and customs, and out of them composed an excellent body of laws and maxims of state, for the government of his empire. This was making a glorious use of his victories; by so much the more laudable as it is uncommon and almost unheard of, for a victor to be more intent upon improving by the wise customs of the nations, than upon enriching himself out of their spoils. It was by this means that Mithridates established the empire of the Parthians upon solid foundations, gave it a firm consistency, effectually attached the conquered provinces to it, and united them into one monarchy, which continued many ages, without change or revolution, notwithstanding the diversity of nations of which it was composed. He may be looked upon as the Numa of the Parthians, who taught that warlike nation to temper a savage valour with discipline, and to blend the wise authority of laws with the blind force of arms. At this time there happened a considerable change in the affairs of the Jewish nation. They had contended long with incredible efforts against the kings of Syria, not only for the defence of their liberty, but the preservation of their religion. They thought it incumbent on them to take the favourable advantage of the king of Syria's captivity, and of the civil wars with which that empire was continually torn, to secure the one and the other. In a general assembly of the priests, the elders, and all the people at Jerusalem, Simon was chosen general, to whose family they owed most essential obligations, and gave him the government, with the title of sovereign, as well as that of high-priest: they declared this double power, civil and sacerdotal, hereditary in his family. These two titles had been conferred on him by Demetrius, but limited to his person. After his death, both dignities descended jointly to his posterity, and continued united for many generations. When queen Cleopatra saw her husband taken and kept prisoner by the Parthians, she shut herself up with her children in Seleucia, where many of Tryphon's soldiers came over to her party. That man, who was naturally brutal and cruel, had industriously concealed those defects under appearances of lenity and goodness, as long as he believed it necessary to please the people for the success of his ambitious designs. When he saw himself in possession of the crown, he quitted an assumed character, that laid him under so much constraint, and gave himself up entirely to his bad inclinations. Many therefore abandoned him, and came over in no inconsiderable numbers to Cleopatra. These desertions did not however sufficiently augment her party, to put her in a condition to support herself. She was also afraid, lest the people of Seleucia should choose rather to give her up to Tryphon, than to support a siege out of affection for her person. She therefore sent proposals to Antiochus Sidetes, the brother of Demetrius, for uniting their forces, and proposed on that condition to marry him, and procure him the crown. For when she was informed that Demetrius had married Rhodoguna, she was so much enraged, that she observed no measures any farther, and resolved to seek her support in a new marriage. Her children were yet too young to support the weight of a precarious crown, and she was not of a character to pay much regard to their right. As Antiochus, therefore, was the next heir to the crown after them, she fixed upon him, and took him for her husband.* This Antiochus was the second son of Demetrius Soter, and had been sent to Cnidos with his brother Demetrius, during the war between their father and Alexander Bala, to secure them against the revolutions he apprehended, and which actually happened, as has been said before. Having accepted Cleopatra's offers, he assumed the title of king of Syria. He wrote a letter to Simon, wherein he complained of Tryphon's unjust usurpation, on whom he promised a speedy vengeance. To engage him in his interests, he made him great concessions, and gave him hopes of much greater, when he should ascend the throne.† VOL. IV. † 1 Maccab. xv. 1-41. xvi. 1-10. Joseph. Antiq. I. xiii. c. 12. et 19. |