command the situation in Syria. He spurned, we are told, the arts of conciliation by which he had mounted. Probably he had also underestimated the hold which, in spite of everything, the Seleucid name had upon the Macedonians of Asia. His soldiers deserted in numbers to the legitimate side; Seleucia lay only some twelve miles from Antioch.1

Of the war, as it went on during those days, we know only one incident. Sarpedon, one of the generals of Demetrius, made an attempt to wrest the city of Ptolemaïs from Tryphon, but was defeated and compelled to retire. After the victory the soldiers of Tryphon were marching along the shore, when they were overtaken by an enormous wave and drowned. The wave also deposited a quantity of fish, so that when the forces of Sarpedon returned, they found dead men and fish in mingled heaps. "The corpses of their enemies were a pleasant sight, and they carried away great abundance of fish. They sacrificed to Posidon Tropaios in the suburbs of the city.2

1 Joseph. Arch. xiii. § 220 f.

Posidonius ap. Athen. viii. 333 b=frag. 10 F.H.G. iii. p. 254; Strabo xvi. 758.

CHAPTER XXX

ANTIOCHUS SIDETES

THE tedious circle in which the later history of the Seleucid kingdom runs the rival claimant ousting the King in possession by the favour of the army and people, then making himself unpopular, and being in turn ousted by the oscillation of the people's favour to another claimant-was about to fulfil itself in the case of Tryphon.

But the new claimant was not a man like the other ineffectual personalities who flit across the stage in that time of ruin and confusion. One more man capable of rule and of great action, one more luminous figure, the house which had borne the empire of Asia had to show the world before it went out into darkness.

Antiochus, the younger surviving son of Demetrius I, had grown up in the Pamphylian city of Side. Its people were among the boldest seafarers of that coast; their naval contingent had formed a principal element in the fleet of Antiochus the Great King. And that the seafaring tradition was maintained is shown by the fact that in the last century B.C. the people of Side were prominent among the pirates, and Side was a great pirate stronghold and mart. It was in close touch with the hill-peoples behind, who, as we have seen, were ready to join any adventure which promised fighting and loot. Such an environment might not be an ideal one for the education of a prince, but it was incomparably better than a Syrian palace, and wild seafaring men were better comrades than eunuchs and panders.

3

3 Strabo xiv. 664.

The young prince, now about twenty,' was in Rhodes when the news that his brother was a captive in Irân reached him.2 He at once made ready to step into the breach and rescue the heritage of his house from strangers. The mercenaries were got together and a fleet, prepared no doubt in the docks of Side. He sent letters to the various communities of Syria announcing his purpose, and summoning them to give him their allegiance. If the document in the Book of the Maccabees can be trusted, he already assumed in these letters the title of king. But the coast cities of Cole-Syria, overawed by the garrisons of Tryphon, refused to open to him. Nor does he seem to have anticipated a favourable reception in those which acknowledged Demetrius."

But it was impossible for the party of the legitimate house to continue the struggle against Tryphon without a head. Even at Seleucia there was a movement to deliver up the city to Tryphon. The councillors of Queen Cleopatra at last told her that there was no course left but to call in Antiochus to take the place of Demetrius, both as king and as her (third) husband. Thus was entrance into the kingdom opened for Antiochus. He arrived at Seleucia in 138, married Cleopatra and assumed the diadem as King Antiochus Euergetes."

Antiochus was in Seleucia! At the tidings the star of Tryphon finally declined. Another king of the old house, whose record was as yet unstained, of whom men might hope anything-the news awoke all the old loyalty, and the soldiery

1 Wilcken calls him sixteen (Pauly-Wissowa, i. p. 2478). Since, however, he has just given 164 as the year of his birth, sixteen is either a slip in arithmetic or a misprint for twenty-six. But the year 164 cannot have been that of his birth (see p. 232, with Appendix R).

2 App. Syr. 68.

31 Macc. 15, 1 f.

Joseph. Arch. xiii. § 222.

5 Else why should he not simply have landed at Seleucia or in one of the Phoenician ports?

61 Macc. 15, 10; Joseph. Arch. § 222. Coins are struck in the name of Demetrius in 173 aer. Sel. = 140-139 B. C., at Tyre and Gaza (Babelon, p. 127), in that of Antiochus at Tyre in 174 aer. Sel. 139-138 B.C. (ibid. p. 137 f.).

7 Sidetes is, of course, only his popular nickname. Perhaps it is hardly necessary to say that such nicknames must be distinguished from the official surnames, but a general reader may be confused from the fact that by common practice in modern books some of the kings are described by their official surnames and some by their nicknames.

upon whom Tryphon relied were soon flocking to Seleucia. Tryphon was left with only a remnant. He was rapidly driven from northern Syria, and Antiochus entered the capital.1

Tryphon fell back upon the southern coast, the region with which his relations, like those of Alexander Balas, had been close, and shut himself in the strong town of Dora. Antiochus pressed his flight and invested the place both by sea and land. At last, reduced to extremities, Tryphon slipped out of the harbour in a boat and reached Ptolemaïs.4 But it was not safe apparently for him to stay there, for he went on to Orthosia, and thence crossing the hills into the Orontes valley, made his last stand in the place where he had been bred and had first built up his power, Apamea. In some fortress of that region he was again besieged and finally captured. Antiochus would not, of course, allow him to live, but he permitted him to be his own executioner." With the disappearance of Tryphon there were none left to claim the Syrian throne but the children of Demetrius Soter.

The vigorous spirit and the ability of his father had been. inherited by Antiochus "of Side." He addressed himself with success to remedy the frightful disorganization which the double kingship had produced in Syria. Communities which had broken away from all superior authority were taught that they were once more members of a kingdom. Among such communities was the Jewish state."

Already while Antiochus was sitting before Dora there were ominous signs of his intention to regulate this quarter of the kingdom. The immunity and internal freedom conceded to the Jews he did not revoke, but he could not pass over the complaints brought him by those who had been driven from their homes or subjected to forced contributions by the Jewish bands in the regions round Judaea, nor the seizure of places

1 1 Macc. 15, 10; Joseph. Arch. xiii. § 223.

2 Ascalon seems to have been the chief minting-place of Tryphon at the end of his reign, Babelon, p. 137.

A story is told in Frontin ii. 13, 2, that Tryphon on some occasion delayed the pursuit of Antiochus by scattering money behind him.

Charax, frag. 40 (F.H.G. iii. p. 644).

5 1 Macc. 15, 37.

6 Joseph. Arch. xiii. § 224; Strabo xiv. 668.

7 Just. xxxvi. 1, 9.

beyond the Jewish border, such as Gazara and Joppa. For the injury done to his subjects he demanded from Simon an indemnity of 500 talents, and for the places he had seized 500 talents more-a perfectly rational and, as far as we can judge, moderate demand.

Athenobius, one of the Friends, was sent to convey the King's requisition to the High-priest. Simon, according to the custom of the East, tried to bargain, and started low down with the offer of 100 talents. But the King's officer had had an opportunity to observe the great wealth already accumulated by the ruling family of the Jews, and he met Simon's attempt to bargain with stony silence.1

Antiochus, on receiving his report, instructed Cendebaeus, the governor of the Philistine coast,2 to apply force. He himself was occupied for the time with the pursuit of Tryphon. But the attempts of Cendebaeus to enter Judaea were unfortunate. Simon was now too old to take the field in person, but his sons, Judas and John, commanded the Jewish forces and drove Cendebaeus back into the plain.3

was no more.

As soon as Antiochus had settled more pressing concerns he himself undertook the reduction of the Jews to order. This was not till the fourth year of his reign (in the spring or summer of 134). By then the last of the brethren of Judas Simon had ended his life a year before (February 135) by a family tragedy. His son-in-law, Ptolemy the son of Abub, designing to secure the first place in the Jewish state for himself, had invited Simon to a carousal in the fortress of Dok, and then fallen upon the old warrior while he was in his cups. But Ptolemy's design failed owing to the promptitude of John, the son of Simon, who at the time of the murder was in Gazara.5 Before Ptolemy could seize Jerusalem, John was already there installed in the room of his

1 1 Macc. 15, 26 f.

2 ἐπιστράτηγον (or, according to another reading, στρατηγὸν) τῆς παραλίας, 1 Macc. 15, 38. The Greek of 1 Macc. does not give the officials' titles with exactness, and we do not therefore know whether Cendebaeus was strategos of all Cole-Syria or commanded in one district of it only.

31 Macc. 15, 38 f.

4 Joseph. Arch. xiii. § 236. See Schürer, i. p. 259, note 5.

51 Macc. 16, 1 f.