of it himself; another (1) party declared in favor of Ptolemy Philometor king of Egypt, whose mother Cleopatra was the daughter of Antiochus the great, and fifter of the late king Seleucus; and neither was Antiochus Epiphanes the right heir to the crown, but his nephew Demetrius the fon of Seleucus, who was then an hostage at Rome. However he obtained the kingdom by flatteries. He flattered (2) Eumenes king of Pergamus and Attalus his brother, and by fair promifes engaged their afsistance, and they the more readily affifted him, as they were at that juncture jealous of the Romans, and were willing therefore to secure a friend in the king of Syria. He flattered too (3) the Syrians, and with great show of clemency obtained their concurrence. He flattered alfo (4) the Romans, and sent embassadors to court their favor, to pay them the arrears of tribute, to present them befides with golden vessels of five hundred pound weight, and to defire that the friendship and alliance, which they had had with his father, might be renewed with him, and that they would lay their com mands upon him as upon a good and faithful confederate king; he would never be wanting in any duty. Thus he came in peaceably; and as he flattered the Syrians, the Syrians flattered him again, (5) and bestowed upon him the title of Epiphanes or the illustrious: but the epithet of vile or rather despicable, given him by the prophet, agrees better with his true character. For, as (6) Polybius and other heathen hiftorians describe him, he would steal out of the palace, and ramble about the streets in difguife; would mix with the lowest company, and drink and revel with them to the greatest excess; would put on the Roman gown, and go about canvassing for votes, in imitation of the candidates for offices at Rome; would

fometimes scatter money in the streets among his followers, and fometimes pelt them with stones; would wash in the public baths, and expose himself by all manner of ridiculous and indecent gestures; with a thousand such freaks and extravagancies, as induced (7) Polybius who was a contemporary writer, and others after him, instead of Epiphanes or the illustrious, more rightly to call him Epimanes or the madman.

But frantic and extravagant as he was, he was however successful and victorious. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him; or rather more agreeably to the (8) original, And the arms of the overflower shall be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant: And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully. (ver. 22, 23.) The arms which were overflown from before him, were those of his competitors for the crown, Heliodorus (9) the murderer of Seleucus and his partizans, as well as those of the king of Egypt, who had formed some designs upon Syria, were vanquished by the forces of Eumenes and Attalus, and were diffipated by the arrival of Antiochus, whose prefence disconcerted all their meafures. The prince also of the covenant was broken, that is the high-priest of the Jews; and fo (1) Theodoret understands and explains it. • The prince of the covenant: • He speaketh of the pious high-priest, the brother of Jason, and foretelleth, that even he should be turned

τας

(7) Πολύβιος δ εν τη έκλη και εικοση των ίςοριων καλει αυτον ́ Επιμανη και εκ Επιφανη, δια πραξεις. Polybius libro vigefimo sexto historiarum eum vocat επιμανη, non επιφανη, ob ea quæ ab illo gesta funt. Athenæus Lib. 10. p. 439. Vide etiam Lib. 2. p. 45. Lib. 5. p. 193.

(8) Και βραχιονες τε καλακλύζονίος Βραχι καλακλυσθησοίλαι απο προσωπε αυθε Sept.

quelques desseins fur la Syrie, furent vaincus par les forces d'Attalus, et d'Eumenes; et diflipez par l'arivee d'Antiochus, dont la présence deconcerta tous leurs desseins. Calmet. Vide, fi placet, Appian. Syriac. p. 116, 117. Grot. hic.

(1) Και γε ἡγεμενο διαθηκής, λέγει γαρ τον αρχιερεα τον ευσεβη, τον τε Ιωσωνος αδέλφου, και προ διδασκει, ότι κακείνον τε αρχιερα τευειν παύσει. Et dux fæderis. Principem sacredotum intelligi vult pium Jasonis fratrem, præmonetque fore ut illum etiam abdicet pontificatu maximo. Theod. in locum. p. 683. Tom. 3. Edit. Sirmondi,

' out of his office.' As foon as Antiochus was feated in the throne, (2) he removed Onias from the high priefthood, and preferred Jason the brother of Onias to that dignity, not for any crime committed against him by the former, but for the great fums of money which were offered to him by the latter. For Jason offered to give him no less than three hundred and fixty talents of filver for the high priesthood, befides eighty more upon another account: and good Onias was not only difplaced to make way for a wicked ufurper, but after a few years, living at Antioch, he was with as great treachery as cruelty murdered by the king's deputy. But though Antiochus had made a league with Jason the new highpriest, yet he did not faithfully adhere to it, but acted deceitfully. For Menelaus the brother of Jafon (3) being fent to the Syrian court, with a commiffion from his brother, to pay the tribute, and to transact some bufinefs with the king; he by his address and flattery fo far infinuated himself into the royal favor, that he attempted to fupplant his elder brother Jason, as Jason had fupplanted his elder brother Onias; and proffered to give three hundred talents more for the high priesthood than Jason had given for it. The king readily accepted the proposal, and issued his mandate for the depofing of Jafon, and advancing of Menelaus in his room: but he could not effect the change without an armed force, which put Menelaus in poffeffion of the place, and com pelled Jafon to fly, and take shelter in the land of the Ammonites.

What follows is not affigning a reason for any thing that preceded, and therefore ought not to have been tranflated For he shall come up, but And he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province, or as it is in the margin, He shall enter into the peaceable and fat places of the province, and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers fathers, he shall fcatter among them the prey, and Spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall

(2) 2 Macc. IV. Joseph. de Maccabæis. Sect. 4. p. 1395. Edit, Hud

fon.

(3) 2 Macc. ibid. Sulpicii Severi Sacr. Hift. Lib. 2. p. 85. Edit. Elzęvir. 1656.

forecast

1

forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time. (ver. 23, 24.) Antiochus Epiphanes had been many years an hostage at Rome; and coming from thence with only a few attendants, he appeared in Syria little at first, but foon received a great increase, and became Strong with a small people. By the (4) friendship of Eumenes and Attalus he entered peaceably upon the upper provinces; and appointed Timarchus and Heraclides, the one to be governor of Babylon, and the other to be his treasurer, two brothers, with both of whom he had unnatural commerce. He likewife entered peaceably upon the provinces of Cœle-Syria and Palestine. And whereever he came, he outdid his fathers, and his fathers fathers in liberality and profufion. He scattered among them the prey, and spoil, and riches. The (5) prey of his enemies, the spoil of temples, and the riches of his friends as well as his own revenues, were expended in public shows, and bestowed in largesses among the people. The writer of the first book of Maccabees affirms, that (6) in the liberal giving of gifts he abounded above the kings that were before him. Josephus teftifies, that (7) he was magnanimous and munificent. Polybius recounts (8) various instances of his extravagance, and relates particularly, that (9) fometimes meeting accidentally with people whom he had never feen before, he would enrich them with unexpected presents; and (1) fometimes standing in the public streets, he would throw away his money and cry aloud Let him take it to whom fortune shall give it. His generosity was the more requifite to fix the provinces of Cœle-Syria and Palestine in his interest, because they were claimed as of

(4) Appian. de Bell. Syr. p. 117. Edit. Steph. p. 187. Edit. Tollii.

(5) Polyb. apud Athenæum. Lib. 5. p. 195. Edit. Cafaubon.

(6) 1 Масс. III. 30.

(7) Jofeph. Antiq. Lib. 12. Cap. 7. Sect. 2. p. 537. Edit. Hudson. μεγαλοψυχος και φιλοδωρος. vir magni animi, et largitor.

(8) Polyb. ibid. p. 194, &c. Lib. 10. p. 438, &c.

(9) εξ απανλησεως δι τισι τυγ

χανων ὡς μη ἑωρακει πόλε εδίδε δω ρεας απροσδόκητες. aliquando fortè obvios, quos nunquam viderat, infperatis muneribus afficeret. p. 194.

(1) αλλοίε δε εν ταις δημοσιαις ὁδοις ἱσαμενος λεγειν, τινι ἡ τυχη διδωσε λαβείω, και ριψας το αργυριον ωχέλο. nonnunquam publica via stantem cum proclamaffet, Sumat cui fortuna dederit, jactis sparsisque aureis nummis difceffife. p. 438

right belonging to the king of Egypt. Ptolemy Epi phanes was now dead; his queen Cleopatra was dead too; (2) and Eulæus an eunuch, and Lenæus, who were administrators of the kingdom for the young king Ptolemy Philometor, demanded the restitution of these provinces, alleging with very good reason, that they were affigned to the first Ptolemy in the last partition of the empire among Alexander's captains; that they had remained ever fince in the poffeffion of the kings of Egypt, till Antiochus the great took them away unjustly in the minority of Ptolemy Epiphanes the present king's father; and after he had taken them away, he agreed to furrender them again in dowry with his daughter Cleopatra. Antiochus denied these pleas and pretences with the direct contrary affertions; and forefeeing, as well he might forefee, that these demands would prove the ground and occafion of a new war between the two crowns, (3) he came to Joppa to take a view of the frontiers, and to put them into a proper posture of defence. In his progress he came to Jerufalem, where he was honorably received by Jason the high-priest, and by all the people; and as it was evening, he was ushered into the city with torch-light and with great rejoicings: and from thence he went into Phoenicia, to fortify his own strong holds, and to forecast his devices against those of the enemy. The (4) Seventy and the Arabic tranflator with a little variation in the reading render it, to forecast his devices against Egypt. Thus he did even for a time, and employed fome years in his hostile preparations.

At length Antiochus, in the fifth year of his reign, (5) defpifing the youth of Ptolemy, and the inertness of his tutors, and believing the Romans to be too much employed in the Macedonian war to give him any inter

or

(2) Et quum post mortem Cleopatræ Eulaius eunuchus nutricius Philometoris, et Lenæus Ægyptum regerent, et repeterent Syriam quam Antiochus fraude occupaverat, tum est inter avunculum et puerum Ptolemæum prælium. Hieron. in locum. Col. 1127. Polyb. Legat. 72. 5

p. 892. Legat. 82. p. 908. Edit. Cafaubon.

(3) 2 Macc. IV. 21, 22.

(4) Και επ ̓ Αιγυπιον λογιειται λογισμός. Sept. Et cogitabit adverfus Ægyptum cogitationes. Arab. Instead of מבצרים they read מציים

(5) Liv. Lib. 42, Cap. 29.

ruption,