Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/606

 592 HEBREWS ensued (169). Not satisfied with this, Antio- chus destroyed the walls of the city, garrisoned a new citadel with his soldiers, and decreed the general and exclusive introduction of Greek idolatry. The image of the king was placed in the temple, swine were sacrificed on the altar, new altars were everywhere erected for the obligatory worship of the Olympian Jupi- ter, the Hebrew Scriptures were burned, cir- cumcision was prohibited, and every act of opposition made a capital crime and punished with extreme cruelty. Thousands after thou- sands were dragged into captivity, sold as slaves, or butchered. Finally the king de- parted on an expedition against the Parthians, leaving the completion of his work to his gen- eral Apollonius (167). The latter continued it in the spirit of his master, but soon met with a sudden check. Mattathias, an old priest of the village of Modin, and of the distinguished house of the Asmoneans, and his five sons John (Johanan), Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan, commanded to sacrifice to Jupiter, drew their swords in defence of their religious liberty, and soon after were able to defend that of others. The people flocked after them into the wilder- ness, whence they sallied forth to destroy the altars of their oppressors. Contempt of death gave victory, and victory created new warriors. The work of liberation was successfully com- menced when the old patriot died (166), leaving the command in the hands of Judas, who well deserved by his overwhelming victories the surname of the Hammer (MalclcaV), though the name of Maccabees, which is applied to the whole house, and the title of the apocryphal books of their history, may have been derived from the initials of a supposed Scriptural sign, M(i), K(amokha) B(aelim) Y(ehovah) (" Who is like thee among the gods, O Everlasting?"), or from those of the name of the father, Mat- tathias Kohen (the priest) ben (son of) Johanan. Terror reigned among the Syrians in Judea. Their greatly superior forces suffered defeat after defeat under Apollonius, Seron, Lysias, Timo- theus, Nicanor, and other generals. Jerusalem was reconquered, the temple purified, a treaty of alliance concluded with the Romans, the traitor Menelaus was executed by order of An- tiochus, and the latter soon after died (164). But the bold struggle of the heroic brothers again became desperate. Eleazar (or perhaps another warrior of the same name), rushing through the thickest of the enemy to transpierce an elephant, on which he supposed the young king Eupator himself to be seated, was crush- ed to death under the falling animal. Judas, seeing himself deserted by most of his follow- ers at the approach of an immense host under Bacchides, and having no alternative but flight or death, chose the latter, attacked the Syrians with 800 men, broke through one of their wings, but was surrounded by the other, and perished with all his companions (160). The surviving brothers again fled to the wilderness of the south, carrying on a desultory warfare, in which John soon after fell. But the protracted strug- gles for succession to the throne of Syria, be- tween the various kings and usurpers who fol- lowed Eupator, Demetrius Soter the son of Epiphanes, his pretended brother, Alexander Balas, Demetrius Nicator the son of Soter, An- tiochus the son of Balas, Antiochus Sidetes the son of Nicator, and Tryphon, gave Jonathan, who now commanded, and after him Simon, ample opportunity to restore the fortune of the war. Jonathan's friendship was soon sought by the rival pretenders ; he made peace with the one or the other, was acknowledged as high priest, strategus, and ethnarch of Judea, and was successful in his long wars, but was finally enticed to an interview with Tryphon, and assassinated with his sons. Simon con- quered the citadel of Jerusalem, renewed the alliance with Rome, and was proclaimed an independent prince. The independence of Judea was successfully defended against An- tiochus Sidetes under the command of Jo! in and Judas his sons, but the old man was soon after assassinated with his sons Judas and Mat- tathias by his own son-in-law Ptolemy (135). His surviving son, John Hyrcanus, who suc- ceeded him, resisted the invasion of Antioelius Sidetes, concluded a peace, and further devel- oped the independence of the country, extend- ing its limits by the conquest of Idumeea, and of the city of Samaria, which he destroyed, as well as the temple on Mount Gerizim. The Samaritans were thus crushed, but the Sad- ducees attained great influence under his rei^n, and the religious dissensions, assuming also a civil aspect, gradually undermined the founda- tions of the newly restored state. John Hyr- canus and his sons Aristobulus (106-'5) and Alexander Jannseus (105-78), belong to the small number of Maccabees who died a natural death ; for the race of priestly warriors, who conquered their dignity by the sword, were doomed to perish by the sword, and only the earlier members of the house who fought for the liberty of their people fell in glorious battles. Aristobulus, who assumed the royal title, ordered the murder of his brother Antig- onus, while their mother was starved in a dun- geon. Alexander Jannaeus proved equally bar- barous in a war of six years against the major- ity of his people, who abhorred him as a de- bauched tyrant and Sadducee, and stained Ids victory by the execution of 800 of the most im- portant rebels before the eyes of his revelling court. Thousands sought refuge in flight, and he was allowed to continue his reign till his death, when he advised his wife Alexandra (or Salome) to follow an opposite line of policy. She ac- cordingly chose her councillors from among the distinguished men of the national party, and re- called the exiles. Of her two sons, she appoi ntfd Hyrcanus high priest, keeping the political rule herself. Dissatisfied with this arrangement, the younger, Aristobulus, sought for support among the Sadducees, and after the death of their mother (71) a long civil war was waged by the