Antiquities of the Jews — Book 12, Chapter 4

1. After this Antiochus made a friendship and league with Ptolemy, and
gave him his daughter Cleopatra to wife, and yielded up to him
Celesyria, and Samaria, and Judea, and Phoenicia, by way of dowry. And
upon the division of the taxes between the two kings, all the principal
men framed the taxes of their several countries, and collecting the sum
that was settled for them, paid the same to the [two] kings. Now at this
time the Samaritans were in a flourishing condition, and much distressed
the Jews, cutting off parts of their land, and carrying off slaves. This
happened when Onias was high priest; for after Eleazar's death, his
uncle Manasseh took the priesthood, and after he had ended his life,
Onias received that dignity. He was the son of Simon, who was called The
Just: which Simon was the brother of Eleazar, as I said before. This
Onias was one of a little soul, and a great lover of money; and for that
reason, because he did not pay that tax of twenty talents of silver,
which his forefathers paid to these things out of their own estates, he
provoked king Ptolemy Euergetes to anger, who was the father of
Philopater. Euergetes sent an ambassador to Jerusalem, and complained
that Onias did not pay his taxes, and threatened, that if he did not
receive them, he would seize upon their land, and send soldiers to live
upon it. When the Jews heard this message of the king, they were
confounded; but so sordidly covetous was Onias, that nothing of things
nature made him ashamed.

2. There was now one Joseph, young in age, but of great reputation among
the people of Jerusalem, for gravity, prudence, and justice. His
father's name was Tobias; and his mother was the sister of Onias the
high priest, who informed him of the coming of the ambassador; for he
was then sojourning at a village named Phicol, 13 where he was born.
Hereupon he came to the city [Jerusalem], and reproved Onias for not
taking care of the preservation of his countrymen, but bringing the
nation into dangers, by not paying this money. For which preservation of
them, he told him he had received the authority over them, and had been
made high priest; but that, in case he was so great a lover of money, as
to endure to see his country in danger on that account, and his
countrymen suffer the greatest damages, he advised him to go to the
king, and petition him to remit either the whole or a part of the sum
demanded. Onias's answer was this: That he did not care for his
authority, and that he was ready, if the thing were practicable, to lay
down his high priesthood; and that he would not go to the king, because
he troubled not himself at all about such matters. Joseph then asked him
if he would not give him leave to go ambassador on behalf of the nation.
He replied, that he would give him leave. Upon which Joseph went up into
the temple, and called the multitude together to a congregation, and
exhorted them not to be disturbed nor affrighted, because of his uncle
Onias's carelessness, but desired them to be at rest, and not terrify
themselves with fear about it; for he promised them that he would be
their ambassador to the king, and persuade him that they had done him no
wrong. And when the multitude heard this, they returned thanks to
Joseph. So he went down from the temple, and treated Ptolemy's
ambassador in a hospitable manner. He also presented him with rich
gifts, and feasted him magnificently for many days, and then sent him to
the king before him, and told him that he would soon follow him; for he
was now more willing to go to the king, by the encouragement of the
ambassador, who earnestly persuaded him to come into Egypt, and promised
him that he would take care that he should obtain every thing that he
desired of Ptolemy; for he was highly pleased with his frank and liberal
temper, and with the gravity of his deportment.

3. When Ptolemy's ambassador was come into Egypt, he told the king of
the thoughtless temper of Onias; and informed him of the goodness of the
disposition of Joseph; and that he was coming to him to excuse the
multitude, as not having done him any harm, for that he was their
patron. In short, he was so very large in his encomiums upon the young
man, that he disposed both the king and his wife Cleopatra to have a
kindness for him before he came. So Joseph sent to his friends at
Samaria, and borrowed money of them, and got ready what was necessary
for his journey, garments and cups, and beasts for burden, which
amounted to about twenty thousand drachmae, and went to Alexandria. Now
it happened that at this time all the principal men and rulers went up
out of the cities of Syria and Phoenicia, to bid for their taxes; for
every year the king sold them to the men of the greatest power in every
city. So these men saw Joseph journeying on the way, and laughed at him
for his poverty and meanness. But when he came to Alexandria, and heard
that king Ptolemy was at Memphis, he went up thither to meet with him;
which happened as the king was sitting in his chariot, with his wife,
and with his friend Athenion, who was the very person who had been
ambassador at Jerusalem, and had been entertained by Joseph. As soon
therefore as Athenion saw him, he presently made him known to the king,
how good and generous a young man he was. So Ptolemy saluted him first,
and desired him to come up into his chariot; and as Joseph sat there, he
began to complain of the management of Onias: to which he answered,
"Forgive him, on account of his age; for thou canst not certainly be
unacquainted with this, that old men and infants have their minds
exactly alike; but thou shalt have from us, who are young men, every
thing thou desirest, and shalt have no cause to complain." With this
good humor and pleasantry of the young man, the king was so delighted,
that he began already, as though he had had long experience of him, to
have a still greater affection for him, insomuch that he bade him take
his diet in the king's palace, and be a guest at his own table every
day. But when the king was come to Alexandria, the principal men of
Syria saw him sitting with the king, and were much offended at it.

4. And when the day came on which the king was to let the taxes of the
cities to farm, and those that were the principal men of dignity in
their several countries were to bid for them, the sum of the taxes
together, of Celesyria, and Phoenicia, and Judea, with Samaria, [as they
were bidden for,] came to eight thousand talents. Hereupon Joseph
accused the bidders, as having agreed together to estimate the value of
the taxes at too low a rate; and he promised that he would himself give
twice as much for them: but for those who did not pay, he would send the
king home their whole substance; for this privilege was sold together
with the taxes themselves. The king was pleased to hear that offer; and
because it augmented his revenues, he said he would confirm the sale of
the taxes to him. But when he asked him this question, Whether he had
any sureties that would be bound for the payment of the money? he
answered very pleasantly, "I will give such security, and those of
persons good and responsible, and which you shall have no reason to
distrust." And when he bid him name them who they were, he replied, "I
give thee no other persons, O king, for my sureties, than thyself, and
this thy wife; and you shall be security for both parties." So Ptolemy
laughed at the proposal, and granted him the farming of the taxes
without any sureties. This procedure was a sore grief to those that came
from the cities into Egypt, who were utterly disappointed; and they
returned every one to their own country with shame.

5. But Joseph took with him two thousand foot soldiers from the king,
for he desired he might have some assistance, in order to force such as
were refractory in the cities to pay. And borrowing of the king's
friends at Alexandria five hundred talents, he made haste back into
Syria. And when he was at Askelon, and demanded the taxes of the people
of Askelon, they refused to pay any thing, and affronted him also; upon
which he seized upon about twenty of the principal men, and slew them,
and gathered what they had together, and sent it all to the king, and
informed him what he had done. Ptolemy admired the prudent conduct of
the man, and commended him for what he had done, and gave him leave to
do as he pleased. When the Syrians heard of this, they were astonished;
and having before them a sad example in the men of Askelon that were
slain, they opened their gates, and willingly admitted Joseph, and paid
their taxes. And when the inhabitants of Scythopolis attempted to
affront him, and would not pay him those taxes which they formerly used
to pay, without disputing about them, he slew also the principal men of
that city, and sent their effects to the king. By this means he gathered
great wealth together, and made vast gains by this farming of the taxes;
and he made use of what estate he had thus gotten, in order to support
his authority, as thinking it a piece of prudence to keep what had been
the occasion and foundation of his present good fortune; and this he did
by the assistance of what he was already possessed of, for he privately
sent many presents to the king, and to Cleopatra, and to their friends,
and to all that were powerful about the court, and thereby purchased
their good-will to himself.

6. This good fortune he enjoyed for twenty-two years, and was become the
father of seven sons by one wife; he had also another son, whose name
was Hyrcanus, by his brother Solymius's daughter, whom he married on the
following occasion. He once came to Alexandria with his brother, who had
along with him a daughter already marriageable, in order to give her in
wedlock to some of the Jews of chief dignity there. He then supped with
the king, and falling in love with an actress that was of great beauty,
and came into the room where they feasted, he told his brother of it,
and entreated him, because a Jew is forbidden by their law to come near
to a foreigner, to conceal his offense; and to be kind and subservient
to him, and to give him an opportunity of fulfilling his desires. Upon
which his brother willingly entertained the proposal of serving him, and
adorned his own daughter, and brought her to him by night, and put her
into his bed. And Joseph, being disordered with drink, knew not who she
was, and so lay with his brother's daughter; and this did he many times,
and loved her exceedingly; and said to his brother, that he loved this
actress so well, that he should run the hazard of his life [if he must
part with her], and yet probably the king would not give him leave [to
take her with him]. But his brother bid him be in no concern about that
matter, and told him he might enjoy her whom he loved without any
danger, and might have her for his wife; and opened the truth of the
matter to him, and assured him that he chose rather to have his own
daughter abused, than to overlook him, and see him come to [public]
disgrace. So Joseph commended him for this his brotherly love, and
married his daughter; and by her begat a son, whose name was Hyrcanus,
as we said before. And when this his youngest son showed, at thirteen
years old, a mind that was both courageous and wise, and was greatly
envied by his brethren, as being of a genius much above them, and such a
one as they might well envy, Joseph had once a mind to know which of his
sons had the best disposition to virtue; and when he sent them severally
to those that had then the best reputation for instructing youth, the
rest of his children, by reason of their sloth and unwillingness to take
pains, returned to him foolish and unlearned. After them he sent out the
youngest, Hyrcanus, and gave him three hundred yoke of oxen, and bid him
go two days' journey into the wilderness, and sow the land there, and
yet kept back privately the yokes of the oxen that coupled them
together. When Hyrcanus came to the place, and found he had no yokes
with him, he condemned the drivers of the oxen, who advised him to send
some to his father, to bring them some yokes; but he thinking that he
ought not to lose his time while they should be sent to bring him the
yokes, he invented a kind of stratagem, and what suited an age older
than his own; for he slew ten yoke of the oxen, and distributed their
flesh among the laborers, and cut their hides into several pieces, and
made him yokes, and yoked the oxen together with them; by which means he
sowed as much land as his father had appointed him to sow, and returned
to him. And when he was come back, his father was mightily pleased with
his sagacity, and commended the sharpness of his understanding, and his
boldness in what he did. And he still loved him the more, as if he were
his only genuine son, while his brethren were much troubled at it.

7. But when one told him that Ptolemy had a son just born, and that all
the principal men of Syria, and the other countries subject to him, were
to keep a festival, on account of the child's birthday, and went away in
haste with great retinues to Alexandria, he was himself indeed hindered
from going by old age; but he made trial of his sons, whether any of
them would be willing to go to the king. And when the elder sons excused
themselves from going, and said they were not courtiers good enough for
such conversation, and advised him to send their brother Hyrcanus, he
gladly hearkened to that advice, and called Hyrcanus, and asked him
whether he would go to the king, and whether it was agreeable to him to
go or not. And upon his promise that he would go, and his saying that he
should not want much money for his journey, because he would live
moderately, and that ten thousand drachmas would be sufficient, he was
pleased with his son's prudence. After a little while, the son advised
his father not to send his presents to the king from thence, but to give
him a letter to his steward at Alexandria, that he might furnish him
with money, for purchasing what should be most excellent and most
precious. So he thinking that the expense of ten talents would be enough
for presents to be made the king, and commending his son, as giving him
good advice, wrote to Arion his steward, that managed all his money
matters at Alexandria; which money was not less than three thousand
talents on his account, for Joseph sent the money he received in Syria
to Alexandria. And when the day appointed for the payment of the taxes
to the king came, he wrote to Arion to pay them. So when the son had
asked his father for a letter to the steward, and had received it, he
made haste to Alexandria. And when he was gone, his brethren wrote to
all the king's friends, that they should destroy him.

8. But when he was come to Alexandria, he delivered his letter to Arion,
who asked him how many talents he would have [hoping he would ask for no
more than ten, or a little more]; he said he wanted a thousand talents.
At which the steward was angry, and rebuked him, as one that intended to
live extravagantly; and he let him know how his father had gathered
together his estate by painstaking, and resisting his inclinations, and
wished him to imitate the example of his father: he assured him withal,
that he would give him but ten talents, and that for a present to the
king also. The son was irritated at this, and threw Arion into prison.
But when Arion's wife had informed Cleopatra of this, with her entreaty,
that she would rebuke the child for what he had done, [for Arion was in
great esteem with her,] Cleopatra informed the king of it. And Ptolemy
sent for Hyrcanus, and told him that he wondered, when he was sent to
him by his father, that he had not yet come into his presence, but had
laid the steward in prison. And he gave order, therefore, that he should
come to him, and give an account of the reason of what he had done. And
they report that the answer he made to the king's messenger was this:
That "there was a law of his that forbade a child that was born to taste
of the sacrifice, before he had been at the temple and sacrificed to
God. According to which way of reasoning he did not himself come to him
in expectation of the present he was to make to him, as to one who had
been his father's benefactor; and that he had punished the slave for
disobeying his commands, for that it mattered not Whether a master was
little or great: so that unless we punish such as these, thou thyself
mayst also expect to be despised by thy subjects." Upon hearing this his
answer he fell a laughing, and wondered at the great soul of the child.

9. When Arion was apprized that this was the king's disposition, and
that he had no way to help himself, he gave the child a thousand
talents, and was let out of prison. So after three days were over,
Hyrcanus came and saluted the king and queen. They saw him with
pleasure, and feasted him in an obliging manner, out of the respect they
bare to his father. So he came to the merchants privately, and bought a
hundred boys, that had learning, and were in the flower of their ages,
each at a talent apiece; as also he bought a hundred maidens, each at
the same price as the other. And when he was invited to feast with the
king among the principal men in the country, he sat down the lowest of
them all, because he was little regarded, as a child in age still; and
this by those who placed every one according to their dignity. Now when
all those that sat with him had laid the bones Of the several parts on a
heap before Hyrcanus, [for they had themselves taken away the flesh
belonging to them,] till the table where he sat was filled full with
them, Trypho, who was the king's jester, and was appointed for jokes and
laughter at festivals, was now asked by the guests that sat at the table
[to expose him to laughter]. So he stood by the king, and said, "Dost
thou not see, my lord, the bones that lie by Hyrcanus? by this
similitude thou mayst conjecture that his father made all Syria as bare
as he hath made these bones." And the king laughing at what Trypho said,
and asking of Hyrcanus, How he came to have so many bones before him? he
replied, "Very rightfully, my lord; for they are dogs that eat the flesh
and the bones together, as these thy guests have done, [looking in the
mean time at those guests,] for there is nothing before them; but they
are men that eat the flesh, and cast away the hones, as I, who am also a
man, have now done." Upon which the king admired at his answer, which
was so wisely made; and bid them all make an acclamation, as a mark of
their approbation of his jest, which was truly a facetious one. On the
next day Hyrcanus went to every one of the king's friends, and of the
men powerful at court, and saluted them; but still inquired of the
servants what present they would make the king on his son's birthday;
and when some said that they would give twelve talents, and that others
of greater dignity would every one give according to the quantity of
their riches, he pretended to every one of them to be grieved that he
was not able to bring so large a present; for that he had no more than
five talents. And when the servants heard what he said, they told their
masters; and they rejoiced in the prospect that Joseph would be
disapproved, and would make the king angry, by the smallness of his
present. When the day came, the others, even those that brought the
most, offered the king not above twenty talents; but Hyrcanus gave to
every one of the hundred boys and hundred maidens that he had bought a
talent apiece, for them to carry, and introduced them, the boys to the
king, and the maidens to Cleopatra; every body wondering at the
unexpected richness of the presents, even the king and queen themselves.
He also presented those that attended about the king with gifts to the
value of a great number of talents, that he might escape the danger he
was in from them; for to these it was that Hyrcanus's brethren had
written to destroy him. Now Ptolemy admired at the young man's
magnanimity, and commanded him to ask what gift he pleased. But he
desired nothing else to be done for him by the king than to write to his
father and brethren about him. So when the king had paid him very great
respects, and had given him very large gifts, and had written to his
father and his brethren, and all his commanders and officers, about him,
he sent him away. But when his brethren heard that Hyrcanus had received
such favors from the king, and was returning home with great honor, they
went out to meet him, and to destroy him, and that with the privity of
their father; for he was angry at him for the [large] sum of money that
he bestowed for presents, and so had no concern for his preservation.
However, Joseph concealed the anger he had at his son, out of fear of
the king. And when Hyrcanus's brethren came to fight him, he slew many
others of those that were with them, as also two of his brethren
themselves; but the rest of them escaped to Jerusalem to their father.
But when Hyrcanus came to the city, where nobody would receive him, he
was afraid for himself, and retired beyond the river Jordan, and there
abode, but obliging the barbarians to pay their taxes.

10. At this time Seleucus, who was called Soter, reigned over Asia,
being the son of Antiochus the Great. And [now] Hyrcanus's father,
Joseph, died. He was a good man, and of great magnanimity; and brought
the Jews out of a state of poverty and meanness, to one that was more
splendid. He retained the farm of the taxes of Syria, and Phoenicia, and
Samaria twenty-two years. His uncle also, Onias, died [about this time],
and left the high priesthood to his son Simeon. And when he was dead,
Onias his son succeeded him in that dignity. To him it was that Areus,
king of the Lacedemonians, sent an embassage, with an epistle; the copy
whereof here follows:

"Areus, King Of The Lacedemonians, To Onias, Sendeth Greeting.

"We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that
both the Jews and the Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived
from the kindred of Abraham 14 It is but just therefore that you, who
are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concerns as you
please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our
own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours. Demoteles,
who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us. This
letter is four-square; and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon in his
claws."

11. And these were the contents of the epistle which was sent from the
king of the Lacedemonians. But, upon the death of Joseph, the people
grew seditious, on account of his sons. For whereas the elders made war
against Hyrcanus, who was the youngest of Joseph's sons, the multitude
was divided, but the greater part joined with the elders in this war; as
did Simon the high priest, by reason he was of kin to them. However,
Hyrcanus determined not to return to Jerusalem any more, but seated
himself beyond Jordan, and was at perpetual war with the Arabians, and
slew many of them, and took many of them captives. He also erected a
strong castle, and built it entirely of white stone to the very roof,
and had animals of a prodigious magnitude engraven upon it. He also drew
round it a great and deep canal of water. He also made caves of many
furlongs in length, by hollowing a rock that was over against him; and
then he made large rooms in it, some for feasting, and some for sleeping
and living in. He introduced also a vast quantity of waters which ran
along it, and which were very delightful and ornamental in the court.
But still he made the entrances at the mouth of the caves so narrow,
that no more than one person could enter by them at once. And the reason
why he built them after that manner was a good one; it was for his own
preservation, lest he should be besieged by his brethren, and run the
hazard of being caught by them. Moreover, he built courts of greater
magnitude than ordinary, which he adorned with vastly large gardens. And
when he had brought the place to this state, he named it Tyre. This
place is between Arabia and Judea, beyond Jordan, not far from the
country of Heshbon. And he ruled over those parts for seven years, even
all the time that Seleucus was king of Syria. But when he was dead, his
brother Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, took the kingdom. Ptolemy
also, the king of Egypt, died, who was besides called Epiphanes. He left
two sons, and both young in age; the elder of which was called
Philometer, and the youngest Physcon. As for Hyrcanus, when he saw that
Antiochus had a great army, and feared lest he should be caught by him,
and brought to punishment for what he had done to the Arabians, he ended
his life, and slew himself with his own hand; while Antiochus seized
upon all his substance.