Antiquities of the Jews — Book 13, Chapter 4

1. Demetrius being thus slain in battle, as we have above related,
Alexander took the kingdom of Syria; and wrote to Ptolemy Philometor,
and desired his daughter in marriage; and said it was but just that he
should be joined an affinity to one that had now received the
principality of his forefathers, and had been promoted to it by God's
providence, and had conquered Demetrius, and that was on other accounts
not unworthy of being related to him. Ptolemy received this proposal of
marriage gladly; and wrote him an answer, saluting him on account of his
having received the principality of his forefathers; and promising him
that he would give him his daughter in marriage; and assured him that he
was coming to meet him at Ptolemais, and desired that he would there
meet him, for that he would accompany her from Egypt so far, and would
there marry his child to him. When Ptolemy had written thus, he came
suddenly to Ptolemais, and brought his daughter Cleopatra along with
him; and as he found Alexander there before him, as he desired him to
come, he gave him his child in marriage, and for her portion gave her as
much silver and gold as became such a king to give.

2. When the wedding was over, Alexander wrote to Jonathan the high
priest, and desired him to come to Ptolemais. So when he came to these
kings, and had made them magnificent presents, he was honored by them
both. Alexander compelled him also to put off his own garment, and to
take a purple garment, and made him sit with him in his throne; and
commanded his captains that they should go with him into the middle of
the city, and proclaim, that it was not permitted to any one to speak
against him, or to give him any disturbance. And when the captains had
thus done, those that were prepared to accuse Jonathan, and who bore him
ill-will, when they saw the honor that was done him by proclamation, and
that by the king's order, ran away, and were afraid lest some mischief
should befall them. Nay, king Alexander was so very kind to Jonathan,
that he set him down as the principal of his friends.

3. But then, upon the hundred and sixty-fifth year, Demetrius, the son
of Demetrius, came from Crete with a great number of mercenary soldiers,
which Lasthenes, the Cretian, brought him, and sailed to Cilicia. This
thing cast Alexander into great concern and disorder when he heard it;
so he made haste immediately out of Phoenicia, and came to Antioch, that
he might put matters in a safe posture there before Demetrius should
come. He also left Apollonius Daus 7 governor of Celesyria, who coming
to Jamnia with a great army, sent to Jonathan the high priest, and told
him that it was not right that he alone should live at rest, and with
authority, and not be subject to the king; that this thing had made him
a reproach among all men, that he had not yet made him subject to the
king. "Do not thou therefore deceive thyself, and sit still among the
mountains, and pretend to have forces with thee; but if thou hast any
dependence on thy strength, come down into the plain, and let our armies
be compared together, and the event of the battle will demonstrate which
of us is the most courageous. However, take notice, that the most
valiant men of every city are in my army, and that these are the very
men who have always beaten thy progenitors; but let us have the battle
in such a place of the country where we may fight with weapons, and not
with stones, and where there may be no place whither those that are
beaten may fly."

4. With this Jonathan was irritated; and choosing himself out ten
thousand of his soldiers, he went out of Jerusalem in haste, with his
brother Simon, and came to Joppa, and pitched his camp on the outside of
the city, because the people of Joppa had shut their gates against him,
for they had a garrison in the city put there by Apollonius. But when
Jonathan was preparing to besiege them, they were afraid he would take
them by force, and so they opened the gates to him. But Apollonius, when
he heard that Joppa was taken by Jonathan, took three thousand horsemen,
and eight thousand footmen and came to Ashdod; and removing thence, he
made his journey silently and slowly, and going up to Joppa, he made as
if he was retiring from the place, and so drew Jonathan into the plain,
as valuing himself highly upon his horsemen, and having his hopes of
victory principally in them. However, Jonathan sallied out, and pursued
Apollonius to Ashdod; but as soon as Apollonius perceived that his enemy
was in the plain, he came back and gave him battle. But Apollonius had
laid a thousand horsemen in ambush in a valley, that they might be seen
by their enemies as behind them; which when Jonathan perceived, he was
under no consternation, but ordering his army to stand in a square
battle-array, he gave them a charge to fall on the enemy on both sides,
and set them to face those that attacked them both before and behind;
and while the fight lasted till the evening, he gave part of his forces
to his brother Simon, and ordered him to attack the enemies; but for
himself, he charged those that were with him to cover themselves with
their armor, and receive the darts of the horsemen, who did as they were
commanded; so that the enemy's horsemen, while they threw their darts
till they had no more left, did them no harm, for the darts that were
thrown did not enter into their bodies, being thrown upon the shields
that were united and conjoined together, the closeness of which easily
overcame the force of the darts, and they flew about without any effect.
But when the enemy grew remiss in throwing their darts from morning till
late at night, Simon perceived their weariness, and fell upon the body
of men before him; and because his soldiers showed great alacrity, he
put the enemy to flight. And when the horsemen saw that the footmen ran
away, neither did they stay themselves, but they being very weary, by
the duration of the fight till the evening, and their hope from the
footmen being quite gone, they basely ran away, and in great confusion
also, till they were separated one from another, and scattered over all
the plain. Upon which Jonathan pursued them as far as Ashdod, and slew a
great many of them, and compelled the rest, in despair of escaping, to
fly to the temple of Dagon, which was at Ashdod; but Jonathan took the
city on the first onset, and burnt it, and the villages about it; nor
did he abstain from the temple of Dagon itself, but burnt it also, and
destroyed those that had fled to it. Now the entire multitude of the
enemies that fell in the battle, and were consumed in the temple, were
eight thousand. When Jonathan therefore had overcome so great an army,
he removed from Ashdod, and came to Askelon; and when he had pitched his
camp without the city, the people of Askelon came out and met him,
bringing him hospitable presents, and honoring him; so he accepted of
their kind intentions, and returned thence to Jerusalem with a great
deal of prey, which he brought thence when he conquered his enemies. But
when Alexander heard that Apollonius, the general of his army, was
beaten, he pretended to be glad of it, because he had fought with
Jonathan his friend and ally against his directions. Accordingly, he
sent to Jonathan, and gave testimony to his worth; and gave him honorary
rewards, as a golden button, 8 which it is the custom to give the king's
kinsmen, and allowed him Ekron and its toparchy for his own inheritance.

5. About this time it was that king Ptolemy, who was called Philometor,
led an army, part by the sea, and part by land, and came to Syria, to
the assistance of Alexander, who was his son-in-law; and accordingly all
the cities received him willingly, as Alexander had commanded them to
do, and conducted him as far as Ashdod; where they all made loud
complaints about the temple of Dagon, which was burnt, and accused
Jonathan of having laid it waste, and destroyed the country adjoining
with fire, and slain a great number of them. Ptolemy heard these
accusations, but said nothing. Jonathan also went to meet Ptolemy as far
as Joppa, and obtained from him hospitable presents, and those glorious
in their kinds, with all the marks of honor; and when he had conducted
him as far as the river called Eleutherus, he returned again to
Jerusalem.

6. But as Ptolemy was at Ptolemais, he was very near to a most
unexpected destruction; for a treacherous design was laid for his life
by Alexander, by the means of Ammonius, who was his friend; and as the
treachery was very plain, Ptolemy wrote to Alexander, and required of
him that he should bring Ammonius to condign punishment, informing him
what snares had been laid for him by Ammonius, and desiring that he
might be accordingly punished for it. But when Alexander did not comply
with his demands, he perceived that it was he himself who laid the
design, and was very angry at him. Alexander had also formerly been on
very ill terms with the people of Antioch, for they had suffered very
much by his means; yet did Ammonius at length undergo the punishment his
insolent crimes had deserved, for he was killed in an opprobrious
manner, like a woman, while he endeavored to conceal himself in a
feminine habit, as we have elsewhere related.

7. Hereupon Ptolemy blamed himself for having given his daughter in
marriage to Alexander, and for the league he had made with him to assist
him against Demetrius; so he dissolved his relation to him, and took his
daughter away from him, and immediately sent to Demetrius, and offered
to make a league of mutual assistance and friendship with him, and
agreed with him to give him his daughter in marriage, and to restore him
to the principality of his fathers. Demetrius was well pleased with this
embassage, and accepted of his assistance, and of the marriage of his
daughter. But Ptolemy had still one more hard task to do, and that was
to persuade the people of Antioch to receive Demetrius, because they
were greatly displeased at him, on account of the injuries his father
Demetrius had done them; yet did he bring this about; for as the people
of Antioch hated Alexander on Ammonius's account, as we have shown
already, they were easily prevailed with to cast him out of Antioch;
who, thus expelled out of Antioch, came into Cilicia. Ptolemy came then
to Antioch, and was made king by its inhabitants, and by the army; so
that he was forced to put on two diadems, the one of Asia, the other of
Egypt: but being naturally a good and a righteous man, and not desirous
of what belonged to others, and besides these dispositions, being also a
wise man in reasoning about futurities, he determined to avoid the envy
of the Romans; so he called the people of Antioch together to an
assembly, and persuaded them to receive Demetrius; and assured them that
he would not be mindful of what they did to his father in case he should
be now obliged by them; and he undertook that he would himself be a good
monitor and governor to him, and promised that he would not permit him
to attempt any bad actions; but that, for his own part, he was contented
with the kingdom of Egypt. By which discourse he persuaded the people of
Antioch to receive Demetrius.

8. But now Alexander made haste with a numerous and great army, and came
out of Cilicia into Syria, and burnt the country belonging to Antioch,
and pillaged it; whereupon Ptolemy, and his son-in-law Demetrius,
brought their army against him, [for he had already given him his
daughter in marriage,] and beat Alexander, and put him to flight; and
accordingly he fled into Arabia. Now it happened in the time of the
battle that Ptolemy' horse, upon hearing the noise of an elephant, cast
him off his back, and threw him on the ground; upon the sight of which
accident, his enemies fell upon him, and gave him many wounds upon his
head, and brought him into danger of death; for when his guards caught
him up, he was so very ill, that for four days' time he was not able
either to understand or to speak. However, Zabdiel, a prince among the
Arabians, cut off Alexander's head, and sent it to Ptolemy, who
recovering of his wounds, and returning to his understanding, on the
fifth day, heard at once a most agreeable hearing, and saw a most
agreeable sight, which were the death and the head of Alexander; yet a
little after this his joy for the death of Alexander, with which he was
so greatly satisfied, he also departed this life. Now Alexander, who was
called Balas, reigned over Asia five years, as we have elsewhere
related.

9. But when Demetrius, who was styled Nicator, 9 had taken the kingdom,
he was so wicked as to treat Ptolemy's soldiers very hardly, neither
remembering the league of mutual assistance that was between them, nor
that he was his son-in-law and kinsman, by Cleopatra's marriage to him;
so the soldiers fled from his wicked treatment to Alexandria; but
Demetrius kept his elephants. But Jonathan the high priest levied an
army out of all Judea, and attacked the citadel at Jerusalem, and
besieged it. It was held by a garrison of Macedonians, and by some of
those wicked men who had deserted the customs of their forefathers.
These men at first despised the attempts of Jonathan for taking the
place, as depending on its strength; but some of those wicked men went
out by night, and came to Demetrius, and informed him that the citadel
was besieged; who was irritated with what he heard, and took his army,
and came from Antioch, against Jonathan. And when he was at Antioch, he
wrote to him, and commanded him to come to him quickly to Ptolemais:
upon which Jonathan did not intermit the siege of the citadel, but took
with him the elders of the people, and the priests, and carried with him
gold, and silver, and garments, and a great number of presents of
friendship, and came to Demetrius, and presented him with them, and
thereby pacified the king's anger. So he was honored by him, and
received from him the confirmation of his high priesthood, as he had
possessed it by the grants of the kings his predecessors. And when the
Jewish deserters accused him, Demetrius was so far from giving credit to
them, that when he petitioned him that he would demand no more than
three hundred talents for the tribute of all Judea, and the three
toparchies of Samaria, and Perea, and Galilee, he complied with the
proposal, and gave him a letter confirming all those grants; whose
contents were as follows: "King Demetrius to Jonathan his brother, and
to the nation of the Jews, sendeth greeting. We have sent you a copy of
that epistle which we have written to Lasthones our kinsman, that you
may know its contents. 'King Demetrus to Lasthenes our father, sendeth
greeting. I have determined to return thanks, and to show favor to the
nation of the Jews, which hath observed the rules of justice in our
concerns. Accordingly, I remit to them the three prefectures, Apherims,
and Lydda, and Ramatha, which have been added to Judea out of Samaria,
with their appurtenances; as also what the kings my predecessors
received from those that offered sacrifices in Jerusalem, and what are
due from the fruits of the earth, and of the trees, and what else
belongs to us; with the salt-pits, and the crowns that used to be
presented to us. Nor shall they be compelled to pay any of those taxes
from this time to all futurity. Take care therefore that a copy of this
epistle be taken, and given to Jonathan, and be set up in an eminent
place of their holy temple.'" And these were the contents of this
writing. And now when Demetrius saw that there was peace every where,
and that there was no danger, nor fear of war, he disbanded the greatest
part of his army, and diminished their pay, and even retained in pay no
others than such foreigners as came up with him from Crete, and from the
other islands. However, this procured him ill-will and hatred from the
soldiers; on whom he bestowed nothing from this time, while the kings
before him used to pay them in time of peace as they did before, that
they might have their good-will, and that they might be very ready to
undergo the difficulties of war, if any occasion should require it.