to deprive Aristonicus, the son of Eumenes, of his father's kingdom, which appertained to him of right: but it is a declared enemy who charges them with this. It is more surprising that Horace, in one of his odes, seems to make the Roman people the same reproach, and to insinuate that they had attained the succession by fraud: There remains, however, no trace in history of any secret intrigue or solicitation to that effect on the side of the Romans. I thought it proper to relate all the consequences of this will without interruption. I shall now resume the thread of my history. SECTION V.-SIDETES TAKES JERUSALEM, AND THEN MAKES WAR AGAINST THE PARTHIANS. PHYSCON'S CRUELTY AND DEATH. SIMON, with two of his sons, having been slain by treason, John, another of them, surnamed Hyrcanus, was proclaimed high-priest and prince of the Jews, in his father's stead.* Here ends the histroy of the Maccabees. Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, made all possible haste to take advantage of the death of Simon, and advanced at the head of a powerful army to reduce Judea, and unite it to the empire of Syria. Hyrcanus was obliged to shut himself up in Jerusalem, where he sustained a long siege with incredible valour. Reduced at length to the last extremity for want of provisions, he caused proposals of peace to be made to the king. His condition was not known in the camp. Those who were about the king's person, pressed him to take advantage of the present opportunity for exterminating the Jewish nation. They represented to him, recurring to past ages, that they had been driven out of Egypt as impious wretches, hated by the gods, and abhorred by men; that they were enemies to all the rest of mankind, as they had no communication with any but those of their own sect, and would neither eat, drink, nor have any familiarity with other people; that they did not adore the same gods; that they had laws, customs, and a religion, entirely different from that of all other nations; that therefore they well deserved to be treated by other nations with equal contempt, and that all people should unite in extirpating them. Diodorus Siculus, as well as Josephus, says, that it was owing solely to the generosity and clemency of Antiochus that the Jewish nation was not entirely destroyed on this occasion. He was well pleased to enter into a treaty with Hyrcanus. It was agreed, that the besieged should surrender their arms; that the fortifications of Jeru salem should be demolished; and that a tribute should be paid to the king for Joppa, and for the other cities which the Jews had out of Judea: the peace was concluded on these conditions. Antiochus also demanded, that the citadel of Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and would have put a garrison in it; but Hyrcanus would not consent to that, on account of the miseries the nation had suffered from the garrison of the former citadel, and chose rather to pay the king the sum of five hundred talents, which he demanded as an equivalent. The capitulation was executed, and because it could not be immediately ratified, hostages were given, among whom was a brother of Hyrcanus. Scipio Africanus the younger, going to command in Spain during the war with Numantia, Antiochus Sidetes sent him rich and magnificent presents. Some generals would have appropriated them to their own use. Scipio re ceived them in public, sitting upon his tribunal, in the view of the whole army, and gave orders that they should be delivered to the quæstor, to be applied in rewarding the officers and soldiers who should distinguish themselves in the service. By such conduct a generous and noble soul is known. A. M. 3369. Ant. J. J. C. 135. 1 Maccab. xvi. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 16. Diod. in Eclog. i. p. 901 Demetrius Nicator had been kept many years in captivity by the Parthians in Hyrcania, where he wanted nothing except liberty, without which all else is misery. He had made several attempts to obtain it, and to return into his own kingdom, but always without success. He was twice retaken in his flight, and punished only with being carried back to the place of his confinement, where he was guarded with more care, but always treated with the same magnificence. This was not the effect of mere goodness and clemency in the Parthians; interest had some share in it. They had views of making themselves masters of the kingdom of Syria, however remote they were, and waited a favourable opportunity, when, under colour of going to re-establish Demetrius upon the throne, they might take possession of it for themselves.* Antiochus Sidetes thought proper to prevent this design, and marched against Phraates at the head of a formidable army. The Parthians' late usurpation of the richest and finest provinces of the east, which his ancestors had always possessed, from the time of Alexander, was a strong inducement with him for uniting all his forces for their expulsion. His army consisted of more than eighty thousand men, well armed and disciplined. But the train of luxury had added to it so great a multitude of sutlers, cooks, confectioners, actors, musicians, and infamous women, that they were almost four times as numerous as the soldiers, and might amount to about three hundred thousand. There may be some exaggeration in this account, but if two thirds were deducted, there would still remain a numerous train of useless mouths. The luxury of the camp was in proportion to the number of those who administered to it. Gold and silver glittered on all sides, even upon the legs of the private soldiers. The instruments and utensils of the kitchen were of silver, as if they had been marching to a feast, and not to a war.† Antiochus had great success at first. He vanquished Phraates in three battles, and retook Babylonia and Media. All the provinces in the east, which had formerly appertained to the Syrian empire, threw off the Parthian yoke, and submitted to him, except Parthia itself, where Phraates found himself reduced within the narrow bounds of his ancient kingdom. Hyrcanus, prince of the Jews, accompanied Antiochus in this expedition, and having had his share in all these victories, returned home, laden with glory, at the end of the campaign. The rest of the army passed the winter in the east. The prodigious number of the troops, including the train before mentioned, obliged them to separate, and remove so far from each other, that they could not easily rejoin and form a body, in case of being attacked. The inhabitants,whom they insulted extremely in their quarters, to be revenged upon them, and to get rid of troublesome guests, whom nothing could satisfy, conspired with the Parthians to massacre them all in one day, in their quarters, without giving them time to assemble; which was accordingly executed. Antiochus, who had kept a body of troops always about his person, marched to assist the quarters nearest to him, but was overpowered by numbers, and fell by the hand of the enemy. All the rest of the army were either massacred in their quarters the same day, or made prisoners; so that out of so great a multitude, scarcely one escaped to carry the sad news of this slaughter into Syria. It occasioned great grief and consternation there. The death of Antiochus, a prince esteemed for so many excellent qualities, was particularly lamented. Plutarch relates a saying of his, very much to his honour. One day, having lost himself while hunting, and being alone, he retired into the cottage of some poor people, who received him in the best manner they could, without knowing him. At supper, having turned the conversation upon the person and con *A. M. 3873. Ant. J. C. 131. Justin. 1. xxxviii. c. 9 et 10. 1. xxxix. c. 1. Oros. 1. v. c. 1. Valer Max. 1. ix. c. 1. Athen. 1. v. p. 210. et l. x. p. 439. et 1. xii. p. 540. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 16. Appian. in Syr. p. 132. † Argenti aurique tantum, ut etiam gregarii milites caligas auro sigerent procul carentque materiam, cujus amore populi ferro dimicant. Culinarum quoque argentea instrumenta fuere, quasi ad epulas, non ad bella Dergerent.-Justin duct of the king, they said he was in every thing else a good prince, but that his too great passion for hunting made him neglect the affairs of the kingdom, and repose too much confidence in his courtiers, whose actions did not always correspond with the goodness of his intentions. Antiochus made no answer at that time. The next day, upon the arrival of his train at the cottage, he was known. He repeated to his officers what had passed the evening before, and told them by way of reproach, "Since I have taken you into my service, I have not heard a truth concerning myself till yesterday."* Phraates having been thrice beaten by Antiochus, at last released Demetrius, and sent him back into Syria with a body of troops, in hopes that his return would occasion such troubles as would induce Antiochus to follow him. But after the massacre, he detached a party of horse to retake him. Demetrius, who apprehended a countermand of that nature, had marched with so much diligence, that he had passed the Euphrates, before that party arrived upon the frontier. In this manner he recovered his dominions, and made great rejoicings upon that occasion, while all the rest of Syria were in tears, deploring the loss of the army, in which few families had not some relation. Phraates caused the body of Antiochus to be sought for among the dead, and put into a coffin of silver. He sent it into Syria to be honourably interred with his ancestors; and having found one of his daughters among the captives, he was struck with her beauty, and married her. Antiochus being dead, Hyrcanus took advantage of the troubles and divisions which happened throughout the whole empire of Syria, to extend his dominions, by making himself master of many places of Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia, which lay commodiously for him. He laboured also at the same time to render himself absolute and independent. He succeeded so well in that endeavour, that from thenceforth neither himself nor any of his descendants depended in the least upon the kings of Syria. They threw off entirely the yoke of subjection, and even that of homage.t Phraates, elate with his great successes, and the victory he had gained, was for carrying the war into Syria, to revenge the invasion of his dominions by Antiochus. But, while he was making preparations for that expedition, an unexpected war broke out with the Scythians, who found him employment enough at home, to remove all thoughts of disquieting others abroad. Finding himself vigorously pursued by Antiochus, as we have seen, he demanded aid of that people. When they arrived, the affair was terminated, and having no farther occasion for them, he would not give them the sums he had engaged to pay them. The Scythians immediately turned their arms against himself, to avenge themselves for the injustice he had done them.‡ It was a great error in this prince to have disgusted so powerful a nation by a mean and sordid avarice; and he committed a second, no less considerable, in the war itself. To strengthen himself against that nation, he sought aid from a people to whom he had made himself more hateful than to the Scythians themselves; these were the Greek foreign troops, who had been in the pay of Antiochus in the last war against him, and had been made prisoners. Phraates thought proper to incorporate them into his own troops; believing that he should considerably reinforce them by that means. But when they saw themselves with arms in their hands, they were resolved to be revenged for the injuries and ill treatment they had suffered during their captivity; and as soon as the armies engaged, they went over to the enemy, and gave such a turn to the battle, while the victory was in suspense, that Phraates was defeated with a great slaughter of his troops. He perished in the pursuit, together with almost the whole of his army. The Scythians and the Greeks contented themselves with plundering the country, and then retired to their several homes. * A. M. 3874. Ant, J. C. 130. Plut. in Apophthegm. p. 184. Joseph Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 17. Strab. I. xvi. p. 761. Justin. 1. xxxvi. c. 1. A. M. 3875. Ant. J. C. 129. Justin. 1. xxxix. c. 1. et 1. xlii. c. 1. et 2 250 When they were gone, Artaban, the uncle of Phraates, caused himself to be crowned king of the Parthians. He was killed some days after in a battle with the Thogarians, another Scythian nation. Mithridates was his successor, who for his glorious actions was surnamed the Great. During all these revolutions in the Scythian and Parthian empires, Ptolemy Physcon did not alter his conduct in Egypt. I have already observed, that on his marriage with his sister Cleopatra, who was his brother's widow, he had killed the son she had by his brother, in her arms, on the very day of their nuptials. Afterwards, having taken a disgust for the mother, he fell passionately in love with one of her daughters by Philometer, called also Cleopatra. He began by violating her, and then married her, after turning away her mother.* He soon made himself hated also by the new inhabitants of Alexandria, whom he had drawn thither to repeople it, and supply the place of those whom his first cruelties had obliged to abandon their country. To put them out of a condition to do him injury, he resolved to have the throats cut of all the young people in the city, in whom its whole force consisted. For that purpose, he caused them to be invested one day by his foreign troops in the place of exercise, when the assembly there was most numerous, and put them all to the sword. The whole people ran in a fury to set fire to the palace, and to burn him in it; but he had quitted it before they arrived there, and made his escape into Cyprus, with his wife Cleopatra, and his son Memphitis. Upon his arrival there, he was informed that the people of Alexandria had put the government into the hands of Cleopatra, whom he had repudiated. He immediately raised troops to make war upon the new queen and her adherents. But, apprehending that the Alexandrians would make his son king, to whom he had given the government of Cyrenaica, he caused him to come to him, and put him to death as soon as he arrived, only to prevent a pretended danger, which had no foundation but in his falsely alarmed imagination. That barbarity enraged every body the more against him. They pulled down and dashed to pieces all his statues in Alexandria. He believed that Cleopatra, whom he had repudiated, had roused the people to this action, and to be revenged of her, ordered the throat of Memphitis to be cut, a young prince whom he had by her, of great beauty and hopes. He afterwards caused the body to be cut in pieces, and put into a chest, with the head entire, that it might be known, and sent it by one of his guards to Alexandria, with orders to wait till the birth-day of that princess, which approached, and was to be celebrated with great magnificence, and then to present it to her. His orders were obeyed. The chest was delivered to her in the midst of the rejoicings of the feast, which were immediately changed into mourning and lamentations. The horror cannot be expressed, which the view of that sad object excited against the tyrant, whose monstrous barbarity had perpetrated so unnatural and extraordinary a crime. The abominable present was exposed to the view of the public, with whom it had the same effect as with the court, who had first seen that sad spectacle. The people ran to their arms, and nothing was thought of, but how to prevent that monster from ever re-ascending the throne. An army was formed, and the command of it given to Marsyas, whom the queen had appointed general, and all the necessary precautions were taken for the defence of the country.t Ptolemy Physcon, having raised an army on his side, gave the command of it to Hegelochus, and sent him against the Alexandrians. A battle was fought, and gained by Hegelochus; he even took Marsyas prisoner, and sent him laden with chains to Physcon. It was expected that so bloody a tyrant would have put him to death in the most excruciating torments, but he acted in a quite contrary manner. He pardoned him, and set him at liberty: for, * A. M 3874. Ant. J. C. 130. Justin. 1. xxxviii. c. 8, 9. l. xxxix. c. 1. Val. Max. 1. ix. c. 2-7. Oros 1. v. c. 10. Epist. 1. lix. Ix. Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 375-376. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 17. † A. M. 3875. Ant. J. C. 129. 251 finding by experience, that his cruelties only drew misfortunes upon him, he began to abate in them, and strove to acquire honour by his lenity. Cleopatra, reduced to great extremities by the loss of her army, which was almost entirely cut to pieces in the pursuit, sent to demand aid of Demetrius, king of Syria, who had married her eldest daughter by Philometer, and promised him the crown of Egypt for his reward. Demetrius, without hesitation, accepted that proposal, and marched with all his troops, and laid siege to Pelusium. That prince was no less hated by the Syrians for his haughtiness, tyranny and excesses, than Physcon by the Egyptians. When they saw him at a distance, employed in the siege of Pelusium, they took up arms. The people of Antioch began, and after them those of Apamea; many other cities of Syria followed their example, and joined with them. Demetrius was obliged to leave Egypt, in order to reduce his own subjects to obedience. Cleopatra, destitute of the aid she expected from him, embarked with all her treasures, and took refuge with her daughter, Cleopatra, queen of Syria. This Cleopatra the daughter had been first married to Alexander Bala, and afterwards to Demetrius, in the lifetime of her father Philometer. But Demetrius having been taken prisoner by the Parthians, and detained among them, she had married Antiochus Sidetes, the brother of Demetrius. After the death of Sidetes, she returned to Demetrius her first husband, who being set at liberty by the Parthians, had repossessed himself of Syria; she kept her court at Ptolemais, when her mother came to her. Physcon, as soon as Cleopatra had abandoned Alexandria, returned thither, and re-assumed the government. For, after the defeat of Marsyas, and the flight of Cleopatra, there was no one in a condition to oppose him. After having employed some time in strengthening himself, to revenge the invasion of Demetrius, he set up an impostor against him, called Alexander Zebina. He was the son of a broker of Alexandria. He pretended to be the son of Alexander Bala, and that the crown of Syria was his right. Physcon lent him an army to put him in possession of it. He was no sooner in Syria, than, without examining the justice of his pretensions, the people came in crowds to join him, out of their hatred to Demetrius. They disregarded who was to be their king, provided they got rid of Demetrius.* At length a battle decided the affair. It was fought near Damascus in Cœlosyria. Demetrius was entirely defeated, and fled to Ptolemais, where his wife Cleopatra was. She, who had always at heart his marriage with Rhodoguna, among the Parthians, took this occasion to be revenged, and caused the gates of the city to be shut against him. Would not one think, that in the age of which we now treat, there was a kind of dispute and emulation between the princes and princesses, who should distinguish themselves most by wickedness and the blackest crimes? Demetrius was obliged to fly to Tyre, where he was killed. After his death, Cleopatra reserved to herself part of the kingdom: Zebina had all the rest; and, to establish himself the better, made a strict alliance with Hyrcanus, who, as an able statesman, took advantage of these divisions to strengthen himself, and to obtain for his people the confirmation of their liberty, and many other considerable advantages, which rendered the Jews formidable to their enemies. He had sent, the preceding year, an embassy to Rome, to renew the treaty made with Simon his father. The senate received those ambassadors very graciously, and granted them all they demanded. And because Antiochus Sidetes had made war against the Jews, contrary to the decree of the Romans, and his alliance with Simon; that he had taken several cities, and made them pay tribute for Gazara, Joppa, and some other places, which he had ceded to them; and had made them consent by force to a disadvantageous peace, by besieging the city of Jerusalem; upon what the ambassadors represented * A. M. 3877. Ant. J. C. 127. |