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| Chapter XIX.
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Chapter XIX.
But that the order of the
dates may be correctly preserved, and that it may appear more clearly
who this Antiochus was, we shall enumerate both the names and times of
the kings who came after Alexander in Syria. Well, then, king Alexander
having died, as we have related above, his whole empire was portioned
out by his friends, and was governed for some time by them under the
name of the king.346
| 346 They did not
themselves, for a time, assume the name of king, but, as said above,
professed to rule under the authority of king Arridæus, brother of
Alexander. | Seleucus, after
the lapse of nine years, was himself styled king in Syria, and reigned
thirty-two years. After him came Antiochus, his son, with a reign of
twenty-one years. Then came Antiochus, the son of Antiochus, who was
surnamed Theus, and he reigned fifteen years. After him, his son
Seleucus, surnamed Callinicus,
reigned twenty-one years. Another Seleucus, the son of Callinicus,
reigned three years. After his death Antiochus, the brother of
Callinicus, held Asia and Syria for thirty-seven years. This is the
Antiochus against whom Lucius Scipio Asiaticus made war; and he, being
worsted in the war was stripped of a part of his empire. He had two
sons, Seleucus and Antiochus, the latter of whom he had given as a
hostage to the Romans. Thus, then, Antiochus the great having died, his
younger son Seleucus obtained the kingdom, under whom, as we have said,
Onias the priest had an accusation brought against him by Simon. Then
Antiochus was set free by the Romans, and there was given in his place
as hostage Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who was at that time
reigning. Seleucus dying in the twelfth year of his reign, his brother
Antiochus, who had been a hostage at Rome, seized the kingdom. He, five
years after the beginning of his reign, did, as we have shown above,
lay waste Jerusalem. For, as he had to pay a heavy tribute to the
Romans, he was almost of necessity compelled, in order to meet that
enormous expense, to provide himself with money by rapine, and to
neglect no opportunity of plundering. Then, after two years, the Jews
being again visited by a similar disaster to that which they had
suffered before, lest it should happen that, driven on by their
numerous miseries, they should commence war, he placed a garrison in
the citadel. Next, with the view of overturning the holy law, he
published an edict, that all, forsaking the traditions of their
ancestors, should live after the manner of the Gentiles. And there were
not wanting those who readily obeyed this profane enactment. Then truly
there was a horrible spectacle presented; through all the cities
sacrifices were publicly offered in the streets, while the sacred
volumes of the law and the prophets were consumed with
fire.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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