A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i-vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x. JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7.-b. xii. c. 14. there are some particulars which refer to times as low as Alexander the Great, and therefore a later time must be assigned for their reception into the canon. And if so, there seems to be none so proper as that when the men of the great synagogue, who, under the direction and presidency of Simon the Just, were employed in this work, ceased to be. Simon was succeeded in the pontificate by his brother Eleazar, (for his son Onias was but a minor when he died); and, upon the death of Ptolemy Soter, his son Ptolemy Philadelphus succeeded in the throne of Egypt, and pursued his father's example in continuing the museum, or college of learned men, which he had erected, and in augmenting the noble library which he had left behind him at Alexandria. To this purpose, hear ing that the Jews had among them a famous book, namely, the book of their law, which well deserved a place among his collection, he sent to Eleazar the high a This was a large edifice in Alexandria, which stood in that quarter of the city called Brachium, and was designed for the habitation of such learned men as made it their study to improve philosophy, and all useful knowledge, like that of the Royal Society at London, and the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. This building, which was not far distant from the palace, was surrounded with a portico or piazza, where the philosophers walked and conversed, and had in it a common hall, where they used to eat together. The members of this society were under the government of a president, whose office was of that consideration and dignity, that, during the reign of the Ptolemies, he was always constituted by those kings, and afterwards by the Roman emperors. The revenues appointed for the maintenance of this college, from the first foundation of it, were large. From it did proceed men of very excellent literature; and to it was owing, that Alexandria, for a great many ages together, was the greatest school of learning in all those parts of the world; until, in the war which the Alexandrians had with Aurelian the Roman emperor, all that quarter of the city where the museum stood was destroyed, and with it this college of learned men dissolved. Prideaux's Connection, anno 285. 6 This library was at first placed in the museum; but, when it was filled with books to the number of 400,000 volumes, there was another library erected within the Serapeum, or the famous temple where the image of Serapis was set up, which increased in time to the number of 300,000 volumes, and these two put together inade up the number of 700,000 volumes in the whole, of which the royal libraries of the Ptolemean kings at Alexandria are said to consist. Their manner of collecting them was not so very honourable; for whatever books were brought by any foreigner into Egypt, these they seized, and sending them to the museum, where they maintained people for that purpose, they caused them o be transcribed, and then sent the copies to the owners, but aid up the originals in the library. When Julius Caesar waged war with the Alexandrians, it so happened, that the library in The Brachium was burned, and the 400,000 yolumes that were aid up there were all consumed. But that of the Serapeum still remained, and soon grew to be larger, and of more eminent note than the former ; but at length, in the year of our Lord 642, when the Saracens made themselves masters of the city, they otally destroyed it. For, when the general of the army wrote o Omar, who was then the caliph or emperor of the Saracens, o know his pleasure concerning it, his answer was, "that if hese books contained what was agreeing with the Alcoran, there was no need of them, because the Alcoran alone was sufficient or all truth; but if they contained what was disagreeing with , they were not to be endured: " and therefore he ordered, that whatsoever the contents of them were, they should all be deroyed.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 285. C Josephus hath given us both Ptolemy's letter to Eleazar, nd Eleazar's answer at large; but whether these pieces are enuine or no, is a matter of some dispute among the learned. They are too long, however, to be here inserted; but the subance of the letter is,-"That both Ptolemy and his father ad been extremely kind to the Jews; his father, in placing them offices of trust; and himself, in redeeming great numbers of | priest, to desire an authentic copy of it: and, because it was written in a language that he did not understand, he desired him, at the same time, to send a competent number of learned men, well versed in both the Hebrew and Greek tongues, who, out of the former, might translate it for him unto the latter. This Eleazar failed not to do; and, from the joint labours of the LXX. or rather LXXII. translators, that were employed in the work, the version has ever since gone under the name of the Septuagint but of this piece of history we have already had occasion to say what we thought sufficient, towards the conclusion of our d apparatus. After the death of Ptolemy Philadelphus, his son Euergetes came to the crown of Egypt, and Onias succeeded his uncle, though not immediately, in the pontificate. He was the son of Simon the Just; but in many things, the very reverse of his father. At the best he was but a weak and inconsiderate man; ' but being now grown very old, and very covetous, he took no care to pay Ptolemy Euergetes the annual tribute of twenty talents, which his predecessors used to do; so that, when the arrears were swelled to a large sum, the king sent one Athenion, an officer of his court, to Jerusalem, to demand the full payment of the money, upon peril of having an army sent among them to dispossess them of their country. 2 Onias had a nephew by his sister's side, whose them from slavery, and employing several of them both in his court and camp; and that, as a farther testimony of his kindness to them, he proposed to make a translation of their law into the Greek language, for which he desired them to send a proper number of such men as he knew were qualified for the undertaking." In answer to which, Eleazar acknowledges the receipt of his most gracious letter, and of the valuable presents which he had sent; and, in return promises, that the people should not fail to pray to God daily for the protection of his person, and the prosperity of his royal family; and that, pursuant to his commands, he had sent an authentic copy of the law, and six men out of each tribe to assist in the translation of it.Jewish Hist. b. xii. c. 2. d Those who would see more at large what are the opinions of learned men concerning the Septuagint, and the account which Aristæas gives of the manner in which it was done, may consult the critics who have expressly handled this matter, such as Scaliger, Usher, Walton, Frassen, Dupin, Valdal, Hody, Calmet, Whiston, and Prideaux in his Connection, anno 277. e After the death of his beloved wife Arsinoe, Ptolemy did not long survive her: for, being of a tender constitution himself, and having farther weakened it by a luxurious indulgence, he could not bear the approach of age, or the grief of mind which he fell under upon this occasion; but, sinking under these burdens, he died, in the sixty-third year of his life, after he had reigned in Egypt thirty-eight years. As he was a learned prince, himself, and a great patron of learning, many of those who were eminent for any part of literature resorted to him from all parts, and partook of his favour and bounty. Seven celebrated poets of that age are said to have lived at his court: four of which, namely, Theocritus, Callimachus, Lycophron, and Aratus, have their works still remaining; and, among these, the first of them has a whole Idyllium, and the second, part of two hymns, written in his praise. Manetho, the Egyptian historian, dedicated his history to him; and Zoilus the snarling critic, came also to his court ; but how great soever his wit was, he could never recommend himself to king Ptolemy, who hated him for the bitterness and ill-nature of it: and, for the same reason, having drawn on himself the odium and aversion of all men, he at length died miserahly; for some say that he was stoned; others that he was burned to death; and others again, that he was crucified by king Ptolemy, for a crime that deserved that punishment.—Prideaux's Connection, anno 249. set out for Alexandria; and falling in upon the road with several of the chief nobility of Cœlo-Syria and Phoenicia, whose business at court was to farm the royal revenues of these provinces, he joined company with them, and having learned from their discourse of what value these revenues were, he made use of that intelligence afterwards, both to his own and the king's advantage. A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i-vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii—x, JOS. HIST, b. xi. c. 7—b. xii, c. 14, name was Joseph, a young man of great reputation among the Jews, for prudence, justice, and sanctity of life. He, as soon as he heard of the message, which Athenion had brought, and of the people's great consternation thereupon, went immediately to his uncle, and severely upbraided him with his ill management of the public interest, who, for the lucre of a little money, had exposed the whole nation to such imminent danger, which now there was no way to avoid, as he told him, but by his going immediately to the Egyptian court, and, by a timely application to the king there, endeavouring to pacify his wrath. The bare mentioning of a journey to Alexandria a so terrified the high priest, that upon his declaring, that he would quit his station both in church and state, rather than undertake it, Joseph offered, with his permission, and the people's approbation to go in his stead. In the mean time he took care to entertain Athenion at his own house, as long as he continued in Jerusalem, in a very splendid and magnificent manner: when he departed, he presented him with several very valuable gifts; and so sent him away in a good disposition, to make as favourable a representation to the king as the case would bear, until himself should come to the Egyptian court, in order to give him a full satisfaction. Athenion was so taken with this prudent behaviour, and kind entertainment of Joseph, that when he came to give the king a report of his embassy, he could not but mention his name with pleasure; and when he told him of his intentions to come and wait upon him himself, he set forth his character with so much advantage, that the king expressed a desire to see him. In a short time Joseph a This city, which was built by Alexander the Great, A.M. 3673, was, after his death, made the capital of Egypt, by Ptolemy and his successors, for almost 300 years. Dinocrates, who rebuilt the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after it had been burned by Erostratus, was the architect who drew the plan of it, and had the chief direction of the work; but to have it carried on with more expedition, Alexander appointed Cleomenes, one of his captains to be the surveyor of it; and for this reason, Justin (b. xiii. c. 4.) calls him the founder of it. The happy situation of this city between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and upon the river Nile, drew thither the commerce of the east and west, and made it in a very little time one of the most flourishing cities in the world. It has still some small repute for merchandise; but what has occasioned the decay of its trade, is the discovery of the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, on the south of Africa. Before this discovery the whole spice trade was carried into this part of the world through this city; for the spices were brought from the East Indies, up the Red Sea to Egypt, and from thence were carried by land on camels to Alexandria. When Egypt became a province of the Roman empire, this city continued the metropolis of it, and when the Arabians took it, which was about 640 years after Christ, there were 4000 palaces still standing in it, 4000 bagnios, 40,000 Jews paying tribute, 400 squares, and 12,000 persons that sold herbs and fruits. Here, as we said, was the famous Serapeum, or temple of Serapis, for beauty of workmanship and magnificence of structure, inferior to nothing but the Roman capitol. Here was the museum, or college of philosophers; and here that noble library, which was erected by Ptolemy Philadelphus, but unhappily burned in the war between Cæsar and Pompey, but notwithstanding all its former splendour and magnificence, this city is now become a poor village, by the Egyptians called Rachot, without any thing remarkable in it, except its ruins, and the remains of its former grandeur; only without the city, Pompey's pillar, the shaft whereof is six fathoms high, all of one piece of curious granite, is justly admired as one of the finest columns that is any where to be seen.-Calmet's Dictionary under the word; and Wells' Geography of the New Testament. When they all arrived at Alexandria, the king was gone to Memphis ; so that Joseph made haste thither, and had the good fortune to meet him, the queen, and Athenion, all in the same chariot, returning to Alexandria. The king, upon Athenion's signifying who he was, called him into the chariot; and having mentioned his uncle's ill-usage, in not paying him his tribute, he was thereupon entertained with so handsome an apology for that neglect, which he chiefly imputed to his uncle's old age, and other infirmities, that he not only satisfied the king, but gave him withal so good an opinion of the advocate, that, when they came to Alexandria, he ordered him to be lodged in the palace, and entertained at his expense. When the day of farming out the revenues to the best bidder was come, the Syrian and Phoenician noblemen, with whom Joseph had travelled to Alexandria, best down their price, and would give no more for all the duties of Cœlo-Syria, Phœnicia, Judea, and Samaria, than eight thousand talents: but Joseph having found fault with them for undervaluing the king's revenues, offered to give twice as much, even exclusive of the forfeitures, which used before to belong to the farmers; and was thereupon admitted to be the king's receiver. general of all these provinces. Upon the credit of this employment, he borrowed st Alexandria five hundred talents, wherewith he satisfied the king for his uncle's arrears; and having received a guard of two thousand men, to support him in the collertion of the duties, he left Alexandria, and immediately entered upon it. In some places he met with opposition, and very opprobrious language; but having ordered the chief ringleaders to be seized, and exemplary justice to be executed upon them, he hereby so terrified the rest. that they readily paid him his demands without any m lestation. And in this office he continued for the spare of two and twenty years, under Ptolemy Euergetes, and This was a very famous city, and, till the time of the P lemies, who removed to Alexandria, the place of residence ir the ancient kings of Egypt. It was situated above the pare of the river Nile, where the Delta begins. Towards the s of this city stood the famous pyramids, two of which w esteemed the wonders of the world; and, in this city, was fed o ox Apis, which Cambyses slew in contempt of the Egypt worshipping it as a god. The kings of Egypt took great pie sure in adorning this city; and in all its beauty it entioned till the Arabians made a conquest of Egypt under the Ca Omar. The general who took it built another city just bị l which was called Fustat, because his tent had been a long set up in that place, and the Caliph's Fatamites, when they be came masters of Egypt, added another to it, which is known la us at this day by the name of Grand Cairo. The Mam Sultans, of the dynasty of the Carcassians, having afterwa built a strong fort on the eastern shore of the Nile, did, b grees, annex a city to it, which came to be called the New Căn as what the Fatamites had built was called the Old; but it m be observed, that the ancient Memphis stood on the shore of the Nile, whereas whatever the Arabians have built, from time to time, is on the eastern shore of that river.— Calmet's Dictionary, under the word. them more furious, were intoxicated with wine, mingled with frankincense: but the king, the night before, having sitten up late at a drunken carousal, overslept himself, so that the show was put off' till the day following; and, the next night, having done the same again, the show, for the same cause, was put off to the third day. All this while the Jews, continuing shut up in the Hippodrome, ceased not with lifted up hands and voices, to pray unto God for their deliverance, which, accordingly, he vouchsafed them. For, on the third day, when the king was present, and the elephants were let loose, instead of falling upon the Jews, they turned all their rage upon those that came to see the show, and destroyed great numbers. This wonderful interposal of providence, in the protection of these poor people, together with some strange appearances, at the same time, seen in the air, so terrified the king, and all the spectators, that he ordered all the Jews to be set free; restored them to their former privileges; revoked every decree that had been made against them, and, among other favours, indulged them with his liberty-even to put to death all those Jews, who, in fear of persecution, had apostatized from their religion, which accordingly they put in rigorous execution, A. M. 3596. A.C.408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i-vi. 7. 2 MAC, iii-x. JOS, HIST. b. xi. c. 7—b. xii. c. 14. Philopater his son, until Ptolemy Epiphanes, the son of Philopater lost these provinces to Antiochus the Great. On the death of Ptolemy Euergetes his son Philopater (not without some suspicion of having poisoned his father) succeeded to the throne; and, in the fifth year of his reign, having, at Raphia, a town not far from Gaza, defeated the army of Antiochus the Great, he afterwards visited the cities which by this victory he had regained, among which Jerusalem was one. Here he took a view of the temple, gave valuable donatives to it, and offered up many sacrifices to the God of Israel: but, not being content with this view from the outer court, beyond which no Gentile was allowed to pass, he was for going into the sanctuary, nay, even into the holy of holies itself, where no one but the high priest (and that only on the great day of expiation) was allowed to enter. This made a great uproar all over the city. The high priest informed him of the sacredness of the place, and of the law of God, which forbade his entrance. The priests and Levites were gathered together to hinder it. The people did earnestly deprecate it; and great lamentations were every where made, upon the apprehension of the approaching profanation of their holy temple. But all to no purpose. The king, the more he was opposed, the more resolute he was to have his will satisfied, and, accordingly, pressed into the inner court; but as Upon the death of Ptolemy Philopater, his son he was passing farther to go into the temple, he was Ptolemy Epiphanes, a child but of five years old, sucseized with such a sudden terror and consternation of ceeded him in the throne: but Antiochus the Great, takmind, that he was carried out of the place, in a manner ing the advantage of the young king's inability to oppose half dead, and, in a short time, departed from Jerusa-him, marched an army into Cœlo-Syria and Palestine, lem, highly incensed against the whole nation of the Jews, and venting many bitter threatenings against them. Nor was he forgetful to put his threats in execution. For no sooner was he returned to Alexandria, but he published a decree, and caused it to be engraven on a pillar erected at the gate of his palace, excluding every one who would not sacrifice to the god whom he worshipped, from having any access to him; degrading the Jews from the rights and privileges they had in the city; and ordering them all to come, and be stigmatised with the mark of an ivy leaf (the badge of his god Bacchus) by a hot iron impressed upon them, and, as many as re-edict, granted them many favours, and, among the rest, fused to come, commanding them to be put to death. Nor did his rage end here for, being determined to extirpate the whole Jewish nation, as many at least as were in his dominions, he sent out orders to his officers, requiring them to bring all the Jews who lived any where in Egypt, bound in chains to Alexandria; and having shut them up in the Hippodrome, (a large place, without the city, where the people used to assemble to see horse-races, and other shows,) he proposed the next day to make a spectacle of them, by having them destroyed by his a elephants. The elephants, to make 1 2 Mac. vi. 7. a In the books of the Maccabees, we find frequent mention made of elephants, because after the reign of Alexander the Great, these animals were very much employed in the armies, which the kings of Syria and Egypt raised. They were naturally of a very quiet and gentle disposition, and never made use of their strength, but when they were irritated, or compelled to it and for this reason, we find that the elephants which were in the army of Antiochus Eupater, had the blood of grapes and mulberries shown them, thereby to animate them to the combat, (1 Mac. vi. 34,) as those, which here Ptolemy Philopater kept, were intoxicated with incense dipped in wine, to make hem and, in a very short time, made himself master of them. The Egyptians, however, under the command of Scapas their general, endeavoured to regain them, and had actually recovered Jerusalem into their possession; but, upon the approach of Antiochus in person, and the defeat which he gave them at Paneas, the Jews, who had been but badly used by Scapas, a very covetous and rapacious man, submitted to him very cheerfully; and receiving him and his army into the city, assisted him in the reduction of the castle, where Scapas had left a garrison. In acknowledgment of which services, he, by a public a liberty to live according to their own laws and religion, and a power to prohibit any stranger to enter within the sept of the temple, alluding to the attempt which Philopater had lately made that way. But Antiochus had greater things in view, than the subjection of a province or two; and therefore, to have more mad and furious. When they are thus irritated and inflamed, their strength is prodigious, and nothing can stand before them. Every creature that comes in their way, they trample under foot, overthrow whole squadrons, knock down trees, and demolish houses.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word. 6 This Ptolemy was a man entirely given up to his lusts and voluptuous delights. Drinking, gaming, and lasciviousness, were the whole employments of his life. Agathoclea his concubine, and Agathocles her brother, who was his catamite, governed him absolutely; and when Arsinoe, who was both his sister and wife, complained of the neglect, which, by means of these two favourites, was put upon her, this so offended the king and his catamite, that orders were given to have her put to death. But he did not long survive her; for, having worn out a strong constitution by his intemperance and debaucheries, he ended his life before he had lived out half the course of it.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 204. A. M. 3596, A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. 1—vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii—x. JOS. HIST, b. xi. c. 7—b, vii. c. 14. his armies at liberty to engage the Romans, a who, since the defeat of Hannibal, in the second Punic war, were become justly formidable, made a peace with Ptolemy, and, giving him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, with her he resigned the provinces of Colo-Syria and Palestine, by way of dower. By this means Judea reverted to the Egyptian crown, and Joseph, the nephew of Onias, the high priest, was reinstated in the office of collecting the king's revenues, in that and the neighbouring provinces. But, as Ptolemy, in a short time, had a son by Cleopatra, upon which occasion it was necessary for Joseph, among other great officers of state, to congratulate the king and queen, and to make them such presents as were usual, he, being now too old to take such a journey, and his other sons refusing to go, was obliged to send Hyrcanus, who was the youngest, but the best qualified for such a negotiation, to make his compliment in his stead. But the history of the young man's birth is somewhat remarkable. 'As Joseph's occasions, in his less advanced years, called him frequently to Alexandria; one night while he was at supper with the king,' he fell desperately in love with a beautiful damsel that danced before him; and, not being able to master his inordinate passion, he communicated it to his brother Salimius, who had accompanied him in his journey, and carried with him a daughter of his, with an intent to marry her at Alexandria, and desired of him, if possible, to procure him the enjoyment of her; but, as secretly as he could, because of the sin and shame that would attend such an act. Salimius promised that he would: but instead of that, he conveyed his own daughter into his bed, and, the next morning, as secretly conveyed her away, so that his brother never discovered the deceit. In this manner Joseph accompanied with her several nights; till, every time growing more and more enamoured, he made his complaint one day to his brother, of his hard fate, who, by the laws of his religion, was forbidden to marry the woman that he loved, because she was an alien whereupon the other discovered the whole matter to him, and how, instead of the admired dancer, he had put his daughter to bed to him, as thinking it more eligible to wrong his own child, than to suffer him to join himself to a strange woman, which their law expressly forbade. The surprisingness of this discovery, and the singular instance of his brother's kindness, so wrought upon Joseph's heart, that he immediately made the young woman his wife, and of her, the next year, was born this Hyrcanus. a It was by Hannibal's instigation that he entered upon this war, wherein he was far from having the success which he expected. Two years he took up in preparations for it; and had got together an army consisting of seventy thousand foot, twelve thousand horse, and fifty-four elephants; but the Romans, with less than half the number, met him near Magnesia, under mount Siphilus, and there gave him a total overthrow. 6 According to the Jewish law, an uncle might marry his niece, though an aunt (Lev. xviii. 12, 13, and xx. 19,) might not marry her nephew, for which the Jewish writers assign this reason: That the aunt being in respect of the nephew, in the same degree with the father or mother, in the line of descent, had naturally a superiority over him; and therefore for him to make her his wife, and thereby to bring her down to be in a degree below him, as all wives in respect of their husbands are, Hyrcanus, when he undertook the journey to Alexandria, persuaded his father not to send his presents from Judea, but to purchase them rather at Alexandria, obtained, by this means, an unlimited credit upon his agent in that city and therefore, when he came thither, instead of ten talents, as might be expected, he demanded a thousand, which in our money amounts to above two hundred thousand pounds. With this money he bought an hundred beautiful boys for the king, and an hundred beautiful young maids for the queen, at the price of a talent a head; and when he presented them, they carried each a talent in their hands, the boys for the king, and the young maids for the queen; so that this article alone cost him four hundred talents. The rest he expended all in valuable gifts to the courtiers, and great officers about the king, except what he kept for his own private use. By these means growing highly in favour with the king, queen, and all the court, he made use of his interest to supplant his father; and under pretence of his old age and imbecility, obtained of the king a commis sion to be the collector of the royal revenues in all the country beyond Jordan; which so enraged his brothers, that, with their father's connivance at least, if not direct approbation, they conspired to waylay him, and cut him off, as he returned: but the guards who attended him, and were to assist him in the execution of his office, proved too strong in the assault, wherein two of his brothers fell. When he came to Jerusalem, however, his father would not see him, and nobody would own him; so that he passed over Jordan, and entered upon the execution of his office: but upon his father's death, which happened soon after, a war commenced between him and his sur viving brothers, about the paternal estate, which, for some time, disturbed the peace of the Jews at Jerusalem. But as the high priest, and generality of the people, sided with the brothers, he was again forced to retreat beyond Jordan, where he lived in a strong castle; until Antiochus Epiphanes, succeeded to the throne of Syria, and threatening to punish him according to his deserts, made him, for fear of his threats, fall upon his sword and slay himself. Upon the unhappy death of Antiochus the Great, his son Seleucus Philopater succeeded him in the kingdow of Syria, to which was annexed Judea, and the other would be to disturb and invert the order of nature; but that there is no such thing done, when the uncle married the niece, in which case, both keep the same degree and order that they were in before, without the least mutation.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 187. c On his coming into the province of Elymais, hearing that in that country there was a great treasure in the temple of Jupiter Belus, and being in great difficulties how to raise money to pay the Romans, he seized the temple by night, and spoiled it of all its riches; which so enraged the people of the country, that to revenge this sacrilege, they rose upon him, and slew him, and all that were with him. He was a prince of that latidable character for humanity, clemency, beneficence, and of great justice in the administration of his government, and till the fiftieth year of his life, managed all his affairs with that valour, prudence, and application, as made him prosper in all his undertakings, and deservedly gained him the title of the Great; but in the latter part of his life, declining in the wisdom of his conduct, as well as in the vigour of his application, every thing he did then lessened him as fast as all his actions had aggrandized him before. Prideaux's Connection, anno 187. A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC, i-vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x. JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7—b. xii. c. 14 2 very terrible enemy and persecutor of the Jews. No sooner was he settled in the kingdom, but being destitute of money, and having an heavy tribute to pay to the Romans, he deposed Onias, a man of singular piety and goodness, from the high priesthood, and for 360 talents, which he engaged to pay yearly, sold it to his brother Jason. But as Jason had supplanted Onias, so his brother Menelaus, being sent to Antioch with this tribute-money, for 300 talents more than Jason had given, purchased the priesthood, and had him, in like manner deposed: whereupon he withdrew to the country of the Ammonites, waiting for some revolution in his favour. adjacent provinces. At his first accession, he favoured | ochus the Great, upon the Syrian throne, who proved a the Jews, and supplied them with all things for the service of the temple at his own expense; but being, some time after, informed by one Simon a Benjamite, that there were great riches in the temple, he sent his treasurer Heliodorus, to make seizure of them, and bring them to Antioch. But Heliodorus, going into the temple for that purpose, and entering into the sacred treasury, was stopped in his attempt by an apparition of angels, armed, as it were, to defend the place against his sacrilegious hands; for these are the words wherein the history of the Maccabees relates the matter: 'There appeared unto him an horse, with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very fair covering, and he ran fiercely, and sinote at him with his fore-feet; and he that sat upon the horse, seemed to have a complete harness of gold. Moreover, two other men appeared before him, notable in strength, excellent in beauty, and comely in apparel, who stood by him on either side, scourging him continually, and giving him many sore stripes,' insomuch that he fell to the ground; but being taken up by those that attended him, and carried off in a litter, he continued speechless, and without all hopes of life, for some time, till, at the intercession of his friends, the high priest prayed to God for him, and so he recovered. Thus Menelaus got the chief priesthood by outbidding his brother; but being summoned to appear before the king at Antioch, for non-payment of the money, 3 he left Lysimachus, another of his brothers, his deputy in his absence, and, by his means, got many gold vessels out of the temple, which he selling at Tyre, and the cities. round about raised money enough, not only to pay the king his tribute, but to bribe Andronicus likewise to murder his brother Onias, because he supposed, that at one time or other he might stand in his way, and because he had lately taken the freedom to reprove him sharply for this gross piece of sacrilege. Andronicus did it to earn the money, but was soon overtaken with justice at Antioch, and Lysimachus & Not long after this, the same Heliodorus, aspiring at the crown, poisoned his master Seleucus, in hopes of succeeding him; but Eumenes, king of Pergamus, and Attalus his brother obstructed his design, and placed Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes; a another son of Anti-cities; and often he would give gold to any person whom he '2 Mac. iii. 25, &c. * 2 Mac. iv. 7; Joseph, on Mac. c. 4. 3.2 Mac. iv. 29. 6 This Andronicus seems to have been left by Antiochus at Antioch, to govern in his absence, and without this governor's interposition, Menelaus could not compass his end, to murder his brother; for Onias had fled to the asylum at Daphne, a small distance from the city, which always used to be a place of retreat, secure and inviolable: and therefore Menelaus was forced to give the governor a round sum, to engage him, by false promises of safety, to prevail with his brother to come out, and as soon as he had him in his power, to dispatch him.-Calmet's Commentary. chanced to meet, though an entire stranger; and to another he would make a present of a few dates, or some such trifle. He outdid all his predecessors in the splendour of the games which a If we may credit the conjecture of Appian he was surnamed he celebrated at Daphne in honour of Jupiter Olympius; but his 'Expans (the Illustrious) because he vindicated the claims of conduct was so ridiculous that the foreigners who were present the royal family against the usurpations of the foreigner Helio- thought him insane. Yet he was so strict as to exclude all females dorus. He also bore the surname of tòs, which is still seen up-from the exhibition. He paid little regard to the other gods, on his coins. But as he is represented by historians, he well but for Jupiter Olympius he built a magnificent temple, made merited the surname of Expans. (the Insane) which his subjects offerings to him at an unprecedented expense, and attempted to gave him instead of Expans. He often lounged like a mere compel all his subjects, and the Jews among the rest, to worship idler about the streets of Antioch, attended by two or three ser- him. But without referring to this persecution of the Jewish vants; and, not deigning to look at the nobles, would talk with religion, the other parts of his conduct are amply sufficient to goldsmiths and other mechanics in their workshops, engage in justify the appellation mas, vile, contemptible, which Daniel gives trifling and idle conversation with the lowest of the people, and him. Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth.—ED.. mingle in the society of foreigners and men of the vilest character. He was not ashamed to enter the dissipated circles of the young, to drink and carouse with them, and to promote their revelries by singing and playing on his flute. He often appeared among the common people at the public baths, engaging in every kind of foolish jest without the least regard to the dignity of his station and character. Not unfrequently did he appear in the streets in a state of intoxication, when he would scatter his money about and practise various other fooleries equally extravagant. Sometimes he exhibited still more decisive tokens of madness. He would parade the streets of his capital in a long robe and with a garland of roses upon his head, and if any attempted to pass by or to follow him, he would pelt them with stones which he carried concealed under his garments. When the humour pleased him, he would array himself in a white robe like the candidates at Rome, and in this dress go about Antioch, saluting the citizens whom he met, taking them by the hand,victed of it, Antiochus caused him, with infamy, to be carried embracing them and supplicating their suffrages for some Roman office, of which they probably had never before heard even the name. When he had thus obtained a number of votes, sufficient to constitute him a tribune or an edile, he would with great solemnity seat himself in an ivory chair in the market-place, after the manner of the Romans, listen with deep attention to the most trifling disputes, and pronounce judgment upon them with all the gravity of a Roman magistrate. At other times he publicly appeared in familiar intercourse with panders and common prostitutes. His liberality was profusion without bounds, and often ridiculous. He sometimes presented great sums of money to c For Quias having, by his laudable carriage, while he lived at Antioch, gained much upon the esteem and affections of the people of the place, Greeks as well as Jews, they took his murder in such high indignation, that they both joined in a petition to the king against Andronicus for it. Hereupon, cognisance being taken of the crime, and the wicked murderer con to the place where the murder was committed, and there put to |