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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:
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"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.
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