cheenc03a.pdf

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SELEUCIDLE
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came to an abrupt ending. For at this moment the
Rolnln victory at I'ydna (168 B.c.) changed the whole
face of affairs in the East.
Popilivs .+"as, the Roman envoy, a harsh, mde man,
demanded m the name of the senate that Antlochus rhould
. .
It was upon his return to Syria after finding the prize
of Egypt, so nearly within his grasp. thus forever snatched
frum him, that Antiochus committed those ouwger is
Palestine which earned him the undying hatred of the
Jews, and for which he is pilloried in the kooks of Daniel
and Maccabees as the very personification of impiety.
AIrewJv , awn . his first return. in 170 B.c.. he had
captured Jernsulem, slain and enslaved thousands of
Jews, entered the Holy of Holies, and despoiled the
tenlole . i , I Macc. 1zof. r Macc. ,511, f.: . 3eeA~~roCHuS 2.
JAson. Me~~~aus). Now the king determined to
carry through the Hellenisation of Palestine. A royal
edict made the practice of Jewish rites punishable by
death ; the temple was dedicated to Zeus Olympios
(r68 B.C. See I Macc.141 f. 2 Macc.6, f ).' There
perrecufionr led to the revolt of the Maccabees. The
outbreak of Mattathias at Modin (167 Kc.) seems to
have attracted little attention at the capital. It war not
until the death of .Mattathias and the assumption of
leadership of the movement by his son Judas (166 B.C. ),
who defeated several detachments (that of Apollonius,
I Macc, 310; that of Seron. I Macc. 3q). that 'his
name came near even unto the kine.' " and enereetic "
measures were taken to suppress the insurrection
(I hlacc. 3q). The general conduct of Yhe operations
was entrusted to LYSIAS lo.v.1. ,. ,. 'an honourable man.
and one of the seed royal' (r Ma~c.3~~); but the
victories of Jndas at Emmaus and Beth-zur secured the
practical evacuation of the country, and gave opportunity
for the purification and rededication of the Temple
(I Macc. 436 f , 2 Macc 101 f I. Antiochur was unable
apparently to direct upon Judea the whole force of the
empire, before which the Jewish national party must
undoubtedly hare succumbed. He war engaged
beyond the Euphrates (r Mncc. 3,,), not, as the Jewish
narrative nuts it, to 'take the tributes of the countries.
and to gather much money' (I Macc.331). hut more
probahly in safe-guarding his frontiers against the growine
Dower of the Paithians lco Tac. Hirc.58: 'rer
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Antiochur demere superrtitionem et mores Gi~corum
dare adnirun. quominus tseterrimam genrem in rnelius
rnutwet, Parthorum bello prohibitus est').
The sequence and extent of hir oprarions in this quzrler =re
unknown. After making an attempt to plunder a temple of
Arremir in F.r.vwa~s (u.D., see also NANEA), Anti~~hoe dled of
discas" at Tab9 in perria: some raid that he died mad (Pol.
31 XI. Appian, TF". 66); the proferredlycircumr,s",ial narratives
or. sracc. o ./- and 2 Macc.9. f ue mutllilly cnntradictory
and of no historical in general M*cc*ar~s Flnsr
% 10, SECOND, SzI)., When, 17 fact. wecomparethelariepirod:
of this king's life vlth that of his father, we mny well doubt
whether the tradition is not aconfusion partly rugperled by and
founded upon the nickmme Epimsner applied to Antiahur IV.
coins uith hi3 0w"~ncme.
1 Perhaps the %rage outhrenk at J~mralcm upon thc ~ccond
occ,asion was due to $om= nlore perronal grievance lhnn mere
rerlrlancc to >nnovarlunr. The nationalist3 of Palestine may
have he=" in part rerponrihl~ $0, th. delay and failure of his
Egypri;" expedirian, ri hlahasy suggests, ep.