moment on the friendship of the Jews. They had destroyed, without his lifting a finger, the revolted army which menaced his rear. He lost no time in confirming their loyalty. He raised Jonathan yet another step in rank, sending him the golden clasp which distinguished the King's Kinsmen. He granted to him and his heirs the town of Ekron and its territory for personal possession.1

But the disturbers of the existing settlement in Syria would have to reckon with the virtual suzerain, the King of Egypt. Ptolemy Philometor could not look on while his nominee was thrust aside. He was soon upon the scene in commanding force. The government of Alexander Balas had convinced him that the veiled and informal ascendancy he had designed to keep over Syria was not enough. An enterprising and independent Seleucid king menaced Egypt, a weak and dependent one was unable to hold the country in the Ptolemaic interest. Philometor therefore now determined to assure his supremacy in a more direct and open way. He crossed into Palestine with an imposing army, while his fleet moved up along the coast. In each of the principal cities of the sea-board, as he went north, he dropped a garrison of his own (perhaps in 147). At Azotus the inhabitants showed. him the appalling relics of the Jewish visitation-the blackened shrines and heaps of charred corpses. Ptolemy reserved his judgment. He had not yet repudiated Alexander, and the Jews were ostensibly fighting on the same side. Jonathan himself came to meet the King of Egypt at Joppa, and accompanied him as far as the river Eleutherus (mod. Nahr-al-Kebîr), the frontier of the Cole-Syrian province.2

When all the coast cities as far as Seleucia were occupied by Ptolemy's garrisons, the alliance between Ptolemy and Alexander was severed by an open quarrel. Ptolemy asserted that whilst he had been at Ptolemaïs he had detected an attempt upon his life on the part of Ammonius, Alexander's

3

11 Macc. 10, 69. f. Josephus in his paraphrase mistakes the situation. 2 Ibid. 11, 1 f.; Strabo xvi. 753.

3 This tends to show what was inferred above, that Ptolemaïs was the seat of the court of Alexander. Ptolemy also already has his daughter, Queen Cleopatra, in his hands. Alexander, one supposes, had left her and the people of the court, including Ammonius, at Ptolemaïs when he hurried to Antioch.

prime minister. Ammonius had fled to Alexander at Antioch, and Ptolemy demanded that he should be given up for execution. Alexander evaded the demand, and Ptolemy renounced

his alliance.

But he did not intend even now to take formal possession of the Seleucid kingdom. To leave the kingship and government to a king of his own making, married to his daughter, was more convenient, and now that he held the coast cities in his own hands, seemed safe. He therefore proffered his support and the hand of Cleopatra to Demetrius.1

Demetrius, or rather the people who directed his action, naturally accepted the offer. Cleopatra was to take as her second husband a boy of fourteen or less. Alexander's position was hopeless. It must have been now, if not earlier, that he sent Cleopatra's child, Antiochus, to the Arab chieftain Yamlik, to be reared in the wilderness.2 Soon he was unable to hold down the discontent of Antioch. Even Hierax and Diodotus, who had been his instruments for governing the city, went over to the majority; they used their position to expel Alexander from the city. He fled to the Cilician hills, where, if anywhere, there was a chance of his getting together bands to retrieve his fortunes. Ammonius was left exposed to the vengeance of the Antiochenes. He tried to escape in

feminine attire, but the hated face was recognized, and he was done to death.s

Antioch was now at a stand. It had expelled Alexander, but it had also a short time before risen against Demetrius Soter, and apprehended what would follow the return of his son. A solution of the difficulty seemed for Ptolemy Philometor to take himself the inheritance of Seleucus. He was an able statesman, and a man of gracious and lovable character; he was also a Seleucid on the mother's side. When he came to Antioch, citizens and soldiers alike called upon him to ascend the throne; they were for binding two diadems upon his head, those of Egypt and Asia.

1 See Appendix O.

21 Macc. 11, 39; Joseph. Arch. xiii. § 131; Diod. xxxiii. 4a. In Diod. xxxii. 9d the Arab chief to whom Alexander had confided his child is called Diocles.

3 Diod. xxxii. 9c; Joseph. Arch. xiii. §§ 108, 112.

PLATE IV

1. CLEOPATRA THEA EUETERIA,

2. CLEOPATRA AND ANTIOCHUS VIII PHILOMETOR (GRYPOSI 3. ANTIOCHUS VIII (GRYPOS).

4. ANTIOCHUS IX PHILOPATOR (CYZICENUS).

5. SELEUCUS VI EPIPHANES.

6. ANTIOCHUS X EUSEBES.

7. ANTIOCHUS XI PHILADELPHUS.

8. PHILIP I PHILADELPHUS.

9. DEMETRIUS III (AKAIROS).

10. TIGRANES OF ARMENIA.

II. THE TYCHE OF ANTIOCH ON THE COINS OF TIGRANES. STRUCK

IN ANTIOCH.