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by Lysias, and accompanied by the boy-king himself. The line of attack chosen was again by the south, and once more the frontier fortress of the Jews, Beth-sur, was besieged. Judas came as in former years to battle. But against the real force of the kingdom his bands could not make head. He was defeated at Beth-Zachariah near Beth-sur. brother Eleazar was among the slain. Eleazar had fallen, the story says, in an attack upon one of the elephants, which he supposed to carry the King. Judas fell back, leaving the way open, to the neighbourhood of Gophna. The King and Lysias advanced to Jerusalem and laid siege to the nationalist fortress on Mount Zion, while part of the royal army was left to prosecute the siege of Beth-sur. There was a great scarcity of food in Judaea, both because of the number of refugees brought in during the last years, and because at that moment a Sabbath year was in course.' Beth-sur was compelled by famine to surrender, and a royal garrison took the place of the Jewish one.2

But once more the nationalists were saved from a desperate predicament by outside events. A certain Philip who had been with Antiochus Epiphanes in Persis, and received from the dying king, it was said, the diadem and seal which carried the chief authority in the kingdom, now set himself up against Lysias in Antioch. It was imperative for Lysias to come to terms quickly with the Jews. What the terms of the agreement were it is impossible to make out precisely. Liberty for the Jewish worship had been already conceded in 164, and the question since then had been whether equal liberty was to be given by the nationalists to Hellenism, or whether the Hasmonaean party were exclusively to possess the state. It would appear that Lysias must now have abandoned the Hellenizers and offered the friendship of the Seleucid government to the Hasmonaeans, if they on their part would recognize the Seleucid supremacy. Judas was to hold the chief power in Judaea, but hold it as the King's strategos. Menelaus,

3

1 This Sabbath year is calculated to have extended from autumn 164 to

autumn 163.

21 Macc. 6, 20 f.; Joseph. Bell. 1, § 41 f.

3 2 Macc. 13, 24. nyeμovidny is probably corrupt, not the name of the strategos,

the head of the Hellenizing party, the old instrument of the Seleucid court, Lysias made haste to destroy. He had presented himself in the royal camp with the petition to be reinstated in the high-priesthood. Instead of this, after the compact with the Hasmonaeans, Lysias took him back with the army on his return, and at Beroa in northern Syria (Aleppo) he was cast into the fiery furnace.1

The Seleucid King entered Jerusalem as a friend and made an offering in the Temple. But the garrison was left in the akra, and before he departed the nationalist fortress in Jerusalem was dismantled. The situation now created there the Hasmonaeans in power, but trammelled by an irksome allegiance and overlooked by a garrison-had no promise of stability. And now we turn away our eyes for a while from Judaea to northern Syria.

As soon as Lysias returned with the King to the north, a trial of strength took place between him and Philip. In this Philip was worsted, and, flying to Ptolemy Philometor, disappears from history. The palace gang to which Lysias belonged were now absolute. How reckless their administration was is shown by the fact that they committed some crime (perhaps the murder of queen Antiochis whilst she was residing in her old home), which utterly alienated the Cappadocian court, and undid the alliance which had been part of the policy of Antiochus Epiphanes.3

In Rome it was resolved to take advantage of the weakness. of the Seleucid kingdom to cripple it still further. A mission was dispatched in 164, soon after the death of Antiochus

1 2 Macc. 13, 3 f.; Joseph. Arch. xii. § 383 f.

2 2 Macc. 9, 29. According to Joseph. Arch. xii. § 386, he was captured and put to death.

3 A fragment of Polybius (xxxi. 17) tells us all we know about this mysterious Occurrence. The young king of Cappadocia, Ariarathes V, sends to Antioch to recover the bones of his mother and sister. In order that he may not provoke Lysias and so fail of his desire, he does not recriminate as to the "abominable crime which had been perpetrated." This suggests that Antiochis and one of her daughters had been murdered in Antioch by the palace gang. It may well be that Antiochis, who was a masterful woman, after the usual fashion of Macedonian princesses, had mingled in the politics of Syria; perhaps she had supported Philip or tried in some way to rescue her nephew from Lysias and his confederates. 4 Niese, Kritik, p. 83.

Epiphanes was known, consisting of Gnaeus Octavius, Spurius Lucretius and Lucius Aurelius, to "regulate the affairs of the kingdom." By regulating its affairs the Senate understood the destruction of the newly-formed fleet and the corps of elephants, both of which contravened the provisions of the Peace of Apamea. It was believed that the gang would agree to anything, however disastrous or dishonourable to the kingdom, so long as they might hold their places and be secured against the thing they dreaded-the return of Demetrius.1 The mission moved slowly, looking into other matters in the eastern countries on its way. In 163 apparently they had come to Cappadocia, and now the fruits of the fatuous policy of Lysias showed themselves. The throne was held no longer by Ariarathes IV Eusebes, but by his son Mithridates, who had taken the name of Ariarathes on his accession, Ariarathes V Eusebes Philopator. He threw himself heart and soul into any project for humiliating the Seleucid court. He drew a lively picture of the misgovernment and weakness of Lysias and the gang, and offered military support to the Roman envoys. So mean an opinion, however, had the envoys of the present government in Syria that they thought military support quite unnecessary.2

Their estimate was right as far as Lysias and his associates were concerned. They raised no objection to the destruction of the fleet and elephants. But Octavius had left out of account the popular feeling, which was stirred to frenzy at the sight. And he paid the penalty. At Laodicea, whither the envoys had come (to destroy the ships in the harbour or embark on their further journey to Egypt), Octavius, while taking his exercise in the public gymnasium, was set upon by a citizen, called Leptines, and killed. The man instantly became a hero, and went about Laodicea declaring that he had acted under divine inspiration. Among the loudest voices raised in his glorification was that of Isocrates, a professor of letters from Greece, who was now swept by the wave of popular excitement into politics. He began to clamour that the other envoys should share Octavius' fate. He gave voice to all that bitterness against Rome which had become general

1 Polyb. xxxi. 12.

2 Ibid. 13.

among Greek idealists.

But the colleagues of Octavius made

good their escape (163-162).1

The government, of course, was horror-struck at the tragedy. Ostentatious honours were shown to the body of the murdered envoy, and ambassadors went in haste to Rome to assure the Senate that the court was entirely innocent of any share in the crime. But the Senate was not in a hurry to acquit. It maintained that impressive reserve (often the consequence of ignorance or indecision) which so puzzled and frightened the Greeks. It was not, however, from the Senate that the doom of Lysias and the gang came.2

1 Polyb. xxxii. 6; App. Syr. 46.
2 Polyb. xxxi. 19, 1 f.

CHAPTER XXVII

DEMETRIUS THE SAVIOUR

ALL this while the boy who had been growing up in Italy had not lost the hope of coming to his own. When the news of his uncle's death arrived in Rome (164) he had approached the Senate with fair words, begging to be possessed of his inheritance. The Senate need have no doubt that a friendly king would sit upon the Seleucid throne; Demetrius assured them that he actually felt one of themselves, that he looked upon the Senators as his fathers and the young Roman nobles as his brothers. The Senate, Polybius says, was made uncomfortable by this appeal; they had a bad conscience, but they thought they understood Roman interests better than Demetrius, and preferred a powerless child and a palace camarilla to an active prince, however friendly. So the mission was sent to destroy the ships and the elephants.1

Demetrius at that time was twenty-three years old. He bore his captivity impatiently. But it had been a magnificent school. As in the case of Antiochus Epiphanes, to have been educated in Rome, not in a Syrian palace, meant a great deal to the ruler of a kingdom. It was not only that he had grown up in contact with the finest aristocracy and the most vigorous political system of the world, but there met in Rome-as captives, ambassadors, teachers-the greatest of the contemporary Greeks. The circle of Scipio Aemilianus comprised the philosopher Panaetius and the historian Polybius. For the friendship of Demetrius with Polybius we have the authority of Polybius himself, The Achaean statesman and the Seleucid

1 Polyb. xxxi. 12.

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