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[236]
But Antiochus, being very uneasy at the miseries that Simon had brought
upon him, he invaded Judea in the fourth years' of his reign, and the first
year of the principality of Hyrcanus, in the hundred and sixty-second olympiad.
1
And when he had burnt the country, he shut up Hyrcanus in the city, which
he encompassed round with seven encampments; but did just nothing at the
first, because of the strength of the walls, and because of the valor of
the besieged, although they were once in want of water, which yet they
were delivered from by a large shower of rain, which fell at the setting
of the Pleiades 2
However, about the north part of the wall, where it happened the city was
upon a level with the outward ground, the king raised a hundred towers
of three stories high, and placed bodies of soldiers upon them; and as
he made his attacks every day, he cut a double ditch, deep and broad, and
confined the inhabitants within it as within a wall; but the besieged contrived
to make frequent sallies out; and if the enemy were not any where upon
their guard, they fell upon them, and did them a great deal of mischief;
and if they perceived them, they then retired into the city with ease.
But because Hyrcanus discerned the inconvenience of so great a number of
men in the city, while the provisions were the sooner spent by them, and
yet, as is natural to suppose, those great numbers did nothing, he separated
the useless part, and excluded them out of the city, and retained that
part only which were in the flower of their age, and fit for war. However,
Antiochus would not let those that were excluded go away, who therefore
wandering about between the wails, and consuming away by famine, died miserably;
but when the feast of tabernacles was at hand, those that were within commiserated
their condition, and received them in again. And when Hyrcanus sent to
Antiochus, and desired there might be a truce for seven days, because of
the festival, be gave way to this piety towards God, and made that truce
accordingly. And besides that, he sent in a magnificent sacrifice, bulls
with their horns gilded, 3
with all sorts of sweet spices, and with cups of gold and silver. So those
that were at the gates received the sacrifices from those that brought
them, and led them to the temple, Antiochus the mean while feasting his
army, which was a quite different conduct from Antiochus Epiphanes, who,
when he had taken the city, offered swine upon the altar, and sprinkled
the temple with the broth of their flesh, in order to violate the laws
of the Jews, and the religion they derived from their forefathers; for
which reason our nation made war with him, and would never be reconciled
to him; but for this Antiochus, all men called him Antiochus the Pious,
for the great zeal he had about religion.
1 Josephus's copies, both Greek and Latin, have here a gross mistake, when they say that this first year of John Hyrcanus, which we have just now seen to have been a Sabbatic year, was in the 162nd olympiad, whereas it was for certain the second year of the 161st. See the like before, B. XII. ch. 7. sect. 6.
2 This heliacal setting of the Pleiades, or seven stars, was, in the days of Hyrcanus and Josephus, early in the spring, about February, the time of the latter rain in Judea; and this, so far as I remember, is the only astronomical character of time, besides one eclipse of the moon in the reign of Herod, that we meet with in all Josephus; the Jews being little accustomed to astronomical observations, any further than for the uses of their calendar, and utterly forbidden those astrological uses which the heathens commonly made of them.
3 Dr. Hudson tells us here, that this custom of gilding the horns of those oxen that were to be sacrificed is a known thing both in the poets and orators.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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