Chapter 8.
THE JEWS BECOME CONFEDERATES WITH CESAR WHEN HE FOUGHT AGAINST
EGYPT. THE GLORIOUS ACTIONS OF ANTIPATER, AND HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH CAESAR.
THE HONORS WHICH THE JEWS RECEIVED FROM THE ROMANS AND ATHENIANS.FJAJ 14.40
1. NOW after Pompey was dead, and after that victory Caesar had gained
over him, Antipater, who managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful
to Caesar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of Hyrcanus;
for when Mithridates of Pergainus was bringing his auxiliaries, and was
not able to continue his march through Pelusium, but obliged to stay at
Askelon, Antipater came to him, conducting three thousand of the Jews,
armed men
He had also taken care the principal men of the Arabians should
come to his assistance; and on his account it was that all the Syrians
assisted him also, as not willing to appear behindhand in their alacrity
for Cesar, viz
Jamblicus the ruler, and Ptolemy his son, and Tholomy the
son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount Libanus, and almost all the cities.
So Mithridates marched out of Syria, and came to Pelusium; and when its
inhabitants would not admit him, he besieged the city
Now Antipater signalized
himself here, and was the first who plucked down a part of the wall, and
so opened a way to the rest, whereby they might enter the city, and by
this means Pelusium was taken
But it happened that the Egyptian Jews,
who dwelt in the country called Onion, would not let Antipater and Mithridates,
with their soldiers, pass to Caesar; but Antipater persuaded them to come
over with their party, because he was of the same people with them, and
that chiefly by showing them the epistles of Hyrcanus the high priest,
wherein he exhorted them to cultivate friendship with Caesar, and to supply
his army with money, and all sorts of provisions which they wanted; and
accordingly, when they saw Antipater and the high priest of the same sentiments,
they did as they were desired
And when the Jews about Memphis heard that
these Jews were come over to Caesar, they also invited Mithridates to come
to them; so he came and received them also into his army.FJAJ 14.41
2. And when Mithridates had gone over all Delta, as the place is called,
he came to a pitched battle with the enemy, near the place called the Jewish
Camp
Now Mithridates had the right wing, and Antipater the left; and when
it came to a fight, that wing where Mithridates was gave way, and was likely
to suffer extremely, unless Antipater had come running to him with his
own soldiers along the shore, when he had already beaten the enemy that
opposed him; so he delivered Mithridates, and put those Egyptians who had
been too hard for him to flight
He also took their camp, and continued
in the pursuit of them
He also recalled Mithridates, who had been worsted,
and was retired a great way off; of whose soldiers eight hundred fell,
but of Antipater's fifty
So Mithridates sent an account of this battle
to Caesar, and openly declared that Antipater was the author of this victory,
and of his own preservation, insomuch that Caesar commended Antipater then,
and made use of him all the rest of that war in the most hazardous undertakings;
he happened also to be wounded in one of those engagementsFJAJ 14.42
3. However, when Caesar, after some time, had finished that war, and
was sailed away for Syria, he honored Antipater greatly, and confirmed
Hyrcanus in the high priesthood; and bestowed on Antipater the privilege
of a citizen of Rome, and a freedom from taxes every where; and it is reported
by many, that Hyrcanus went along with Antipater in this expedition, and
came himself into Egypt
And Strabo of Cappadocia bears witness to this,
when he says thus, in the name of Aslnius: "After Mithridates had
invaded Egypt, and with him Hyrcanus the high priest of the Jews."
Nay, the same Strabo says thus again, in another place, in the name of
Hypsicrates, that "Mithridates at first went out alone; but that Antipater,
who had the care of the Jewish affairs, was called by him to Askelon, and
that he had gotten ready three thousand soldiers to go along with him,
and encouraged other governors of the country to go along with him also;
and that Hyrcanus the high priest was also present in this expedition."
This is what Strabo says.FJAJ 14.43
4. But Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, came at this time to Caesar,
and lamented his father's fate; and complained, that it was by Antipater's
means that Aristobulus was taken off by poison, and his brother was beheaded
by Scipio, and desired that he would take pity of him who had been ejected
out of that principality which was due to him
He also accused Hyrcanus
and Antipater as governing the nation by violence, and offering injuries
to himself
Antipater was present, and made his defense as to the accusations
that were laid against him
He demonstrated that Antigonus and his party
were given to innovation, and were seditious persons
He also put Caesar
in mind what difficult services he had undergone when he assisted him in
his wars, and discoursed about what he was a witness of himself
He added,
that Aristobulus was justly carried away to Rome, as one that was an enemy
to the Romans, and could never be brought to be a friend to them, and that
his brother had no more than he deserved from Scipio, as being seized in
committing robberies; and that this punishment was not inflicted on him
in a way of violence or injustice by him that did it.FJAJ 14.44
5. When Antipater had made this speech, Caesar appointed Hyrcauus to
be high priest, and gave Antipater what principality he himself should
choose, leaving the determination to himself; so he made him procurator
of Judea
He also gave Hyrcanus leave to raise up the walls of his own
city, upon his asking that favor of him, for they had been demolished by
Pompey
And this grant he sent to the consuls to Rome, to be engraven in
the capitol
The decree of the senate was this that follows: (13)
Take Dr. Hudson's note upon this place, which I suppose to be the truth:
"Here is some mistake in Josephus; for when he had promised us a decree
for the restoration of Jerusalem he brings in a decree of far greater antiquity,
and that a league of friendship and union only. One may easily believe
that Josephus gave order for one thing, and his amanuensis performed another,
by transposing decrees that concerned the Hyrcani, and as deluded by the
sameness of their names; for that belongs to the first high priest of this
name, [John Hyrcanus,] which Josephus here ascribes to one that lived later
[Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander Janneus]. However, the decree which he
proposes to set down follows a little lower, in the collection of Raman
decrees that concerned the Jews and is that dated when Caesar was consul
the fifth time." See ch. 10. sect. 5.
"Lucius Valerius, the son of Lucius the praetor, referred this to
the senate, upon the Ides of December, in the temple of Concord
There
were present at the writing of this decree Lucius Coponius, the son of
Lucius of the Colline tribe, and Papirius of the Quirine tribe, concerning
the affairs which Alexander, the son of Jason, and Numenius, the son of
Antiochus, and Alexander, the son of Dositheus, ambassadors of the Jews,
good and worthy men, proposed, who came to renew that league of goodwill
and friendship with the Romans which was in being before
They also brought
a shield of gold, as a mark of confederacy, valued at fifty thousand pieces
of gold; and desired that letters might be given them, directed both to
the free cities and to the kings, that their country and their havens might
be at peace, and that no one among them might receive any injury
It therefore
pleased [the senate] to make a league of friendship and good-will with
them, and to bestow on them whatsoever they stood in need of, and to accept
of the shield which was brought by them
This was done in the ninth year
of Hyrcanus the high priest and ethnarch, in the month Panemus." Hyreanus
also received honors from the people of Athens, as having been useful to
them on many occasions
And when they wrote to him, they sent him this
decree, as it here follows "Under the prutaneia and priesthood of
Dionysius, the son of Esculapius, on the fifth day of the latter part of
the month Panemus, this decree of the Athenians was given to their commanders,
when Agathocles was archon, and Eucles, the son of Menander of Alimusia,
was the scribe
In the month Munychion, on the eleventh day of the prutaneia,
a council of the presidents was held in the theater
Dorotheus the high
priest, and the fellow presidents with him, put it to the vote of the people.
Dionysius, the son of Dionysius, gave the sentence
Since Hyrcanus, the
son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnareh of the Jews, continues to
bear good-will to our people in general, and to every one of our citizens
in particular, and treats them with all sorts of kindness; and when any
of the Athenians come to him, either as ambassadors, or on any occasion
of their own, he receives them in an obliging manner, and sees that they
are conducted back in safety, of which we have had several former testimonies;
it is now also decreed, at the report of Theodosius, the son of Theodorus,
and upon his putting the people in mind of the virtue of this man, and
that his purpose is to do us all the good that is in his power, to honor
him with a crown of gold, the usual reward according to the law, and to
erect his statue in brass in the temple of Demus and of the Graces; and
that this present of a crown shall be proclaimed publicly in the theater,
in the Dionysian shows, while the new tragedies are acting; and in the
Panathenean, and Eleusinian, and Gymnical shows also; and that the commanders
shall take care, while he continues in his friendship, and preserves his
good-will to us, to return all possible honor and favor to the man for
his affection and generosity; that by this treatment it may appear how
our people receive the good kindly, and repay them a suitable reward; and
he may be induced to proceed in his affection towards us, by the honors
we have already paid him
That ambassadors be also chosen out of all the
Athenians, who shall carry this decree to him, and desire him to accept
of the honors we do him, and to endeavor always to be doing some good to
our city." And this shall suffice us to have spoken as to the honors
that were paid by the Romans and the people of Athens to Hyrcanus.FJAJ 14.45