called for his sons and set them round about him, and said: "O my sons,
I am going the way of all the earth; and I recommend to you my
resolution and beseech you not to be negligent in keeping it, but to be
mindful of the desires of him who begat you and brought you up, and to
preserve the customs of your country, and to recover your ancient form
of government which is in danger of being overturned, and not to be
carried away with those that either by their own inclination or out of
necessity betray it, but to become such sons as are worthy of me; to be
above all force and necessity, and so to dispose your souls as to be
ready when it shall be necessary to die for your laws, as sensible of
this, by just reasoning, that if God see that you are so disposed he
will not overlook you, but will have a great value for your virtue, and
will restore to you again what you have lost and will return to you that
freedom in which you shall live quietly and enjoy your own customs.
"Your bodies are mortal and subject to fate; but they receive a sort of
immortality by the remembrance of what actions they have done; and I
would have you so in love with this immortality that you may pursue
after glory, and that when you have undergone the greatest difficulties
you may not scruple for such things to lose your lives. I exhort you
especially to agree one with another, and in what excellency any one of
you exceeds another, to yield to him so far, and by that means to reap
the advantage of everyone's own virtues. Do you then esteem Simon as
your father because he is a man of extraordinary prudence, and be
governed by him in what counsels he gives you. Take Maccabaeus for the
general of your army, because of his courage and strength, for he will
avenge your nation and will bring vengeance on your enemies. Admit among
you the righteous and religious, and augment their power."
When Mattathias had thus discoursed to his sons and had prayed to God to
be their assistant and to recover to the people their former
constitution, he died a little afterward, and was buried at Modin, all
the people making great lamentation for him. Whereupon his son Judas
took upon him the administration of public affairs, in the hundred and
forty-sixth year; and thus, by the ready assistance of his brethren and
of others, Judas cast their enemies out of the country and put those of
their own country to death who had transgressed its laws, and purified
the land of all the pollutions that were in it.
When Apollonius, the general of the Samaritan forces, heard this he took
his army and made haste to go against Judas, who met him and joined
battle with him, and beat him and slew many of his men, and among them
Apollonius himself, their general, whose sword, being that which he
happened then to wear, he seized upon and kept for himself; but he
wounded more than he slew, and took a great deal of prey from the
enemy's camp, and went his way; but when Seron, who was general of the
army of Celesyria, heard that many had joined themselves to Judas, and
that he had about him an army sufficient for fighting and for making
war, he determined to make an expedition against him, as thinking it
became him to endeavor to punish those that transgressed the King's
injunctions. He then got together an army as large as he was able, and
joined to it the renegade and wicked Jews, and came against Judas.
He then came as far as Bethoron, a village of Judea, and there pitched
his camp; upon which Judas met him, and when he intended to give him
battle he saw that his soldiers were backward to fight because their
number was small and because they wanted food, for they were fasting. He
encouraged them and said to them that victory and conquest of enemies
are not derived from the multitude in armies, but in the exercise of
piety toward God; and that they had the plainest instances in their
forefathers, who, by their righteousness and exerting themselves on
behalf of their own laws and their own children, had frequently
conquered many ten thousands, for innocence is the strongest army. By
this speech he induced his men to contemn the multitude of the enemy,
and to fall upon Seron; and upon joining battle with him he beat the
Syrians; and when their general fell among the rest they all ran away
with speed, as thinking that to be their best way of escaping. So he
pursued them unto the plain and slew about eight hundred of the enemy,
but the rest escaped to the region which lay near to the sea.
When king Antiochus heard of these things he was very angry at what had
happened; so he got together all his own army, with many mercenaries
whom he had hired from the islands, and took them with him, and prepared
to break into Judea about the beginning of the spring; but when, upon
his mustering his soldiers, he perceived that his treasures were
deficient, and there was a want of money in them, for all the taxes were
not paid, by reason of the seditions there had been among the nations,
he having been so magnanimous and so liberal that what he had was not
sufficient for him, he therefore resolved first to go into Persia and
collect the taxes of that country. Hereupon he left one whose name was
Lysias, who was in great repute with him, governor of the kingdom, as
far as the bounds of Egypt and of the Lower Asia and reaching from the
river Euphrates, and committed to him a certain part of his forces and
of his elephants and charged him to bring up his son Antiochus with all
possible care until he came back; and that he should conquer Judea and
take its inhabitants for slaves and utterly destroy Jerusalem, and
abolish the whole nation; and when king Antiochus had given these things
in charge to Lysias, he went into Persia, and in the hundred and
forty-seventh year he passed over Euphrates and went to the superior
provinces.
Upon this Lysias chose Ptolemy the son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor, and
Gorgias, very potent men among the King's friends, and delivered to them
forty thousand foot-soldiers and seven thousand horsemen, and sent them
against Judea, who came as far as the city Emmaus and pitched their camp
in the plain country. There came also to them auxiliaries out of Syria
and the country round about, as also many of the renegade Jews; and
besides these came some merchants to buy those that should be carried
captives--having bonds with them to bind those that should be made
prisoners--with that silver and gold which they were to pay for their
price; and when Judas saw their camp and how numerous their enemies
were, he persuaded his own soldiers to be of good courage, and exhorted
them to place their hopes of victory in God and to make supplication to
him, according to the custom of their country, clothed in sackcloth, and
to show what was their usual habit of supplication in the greatest
dangers, and thereby to prevail with God to grant them the victory over
their enemies. So he set them in their ancient order of battle used by
their forefathers, under their captains of thousands, and other
officers, and dismissed such as were newly married, as well as those
that had newly gained possessions, that they might not fight in a
cowardly manner out of an inordinate love of life, in order to enjoy
those blessings.
When he had thus disposed his soldiers he encouraged them to fight by
the following speech, which he made to them: "O my fellow-soldiers, no
other time remains more opportune than the present for courage and
contempt of dangers; for if you now fight manfully you may recover your
liberty, which, as it is a thing of itself agreeable to all men, so it
proves to be to us much more desirable, by its affording us the liberty
of worshipping God. Since, therefore, you are in such circumstances at
present, you must either recover that liberty and so regain a happy and
blessed way of living, which is that according to our laws and the
customs of our country, or to submit to the most opprobrious sufferings;
nor will any seed of your nation remain if you be beat in this battle.
Fight therefore manfully, and suppose that you must die though you do
not fight; but believe that besides such glorious rewards as those of
the liberty of your country, of your laws, of your religion, you shall
then obtain everlasting glory. Prepare yourselves, therefore, and put
yourselves into such an agreeable posture that you may be ready to fight
with the enemy as soon as it is day to-morrow morning."
And this was the speech which Judas made to encourage them. But when the
enemy sent Gorgias with five thousand foot and one thousand horse, that
he might fall upon Judas by night, and had for that purpose certain of
the renegade Jews as guides, the son of Mattathias perceived it and
resolved to fall upon those enemies that were in their camp, now their
forces were divided. When they had therefore supped in good time and had
left many fires in their camp he marched all night to those enemies that
were at Emmaus; so that when Gorgias found no enemy in their camp, but
suspected that they were retired and had hidden themselves among the
mountains, he resolved to go and seek them wheresoever they were.
But about break of day Judas appeared to those enemies that were at
Emmaus, with only three thousand men, and those ill-armed by reason of
their poverty; and when he saw the enemy very well and skilfully
fortified in their camp he encouraged the Jews and told them that they
ought to fight, though it were with their naked bodies, for that God had
sometimes of old given such men strength, and that against such as were
more in number, and were armed also, out of regard to their great
courage. So he commanded the trumpeters to sound for the battle, and by
thus falling upon the enemy when they did not expect it, and thereby
astonishing and disturbing their minds, he slew many of those that
resisted him and went on pursuing the rest as far as Gadara and the
plains of Idumea, and Ashdod, and Jamnia; and of these there fell about
three thousand. Yet did Judas exhort his soldiers not to be too desirous
of the spoils, for that still they must have a contest and battle with
Gorgias and the forces that were with him, but that when they had once
overcome them then they might securely plunder the camp because they
were the only enemies remaining, and they expected no others.
And just as he was speaking to his soldiers, Gorigas' men looked down
into that army which they left in their camp and saw that it was
overthrown and the camp burned; for the smoke that arose from it showed
them, even when they were a great way off, what had happened. When,
therefore, those that were with Gorgias understood that things were in
this posture, and perceived that those that were with Judas were ready
to fight them, they also were affrighted and put to flight; but then
Judas, as though he had already beaten Gorgias' soldiers without
fighting, returned and seized on the spoils. He took a great quantity of
gold and silver and purple and blue, and then returned home with joy,
and singing hymns to God for their good success; for this victory
greatly contributed to the recovery of their liberty.
Hereupon Lysias was confounded at the defeat of the army which he had
sent, and the next year he got together sixty thousand chosen men. He
also took five thousand horsemen and fell upon Judea, and he went up to
the hill country of Bethsur, a village of Judea, and pitched his camp
there, where Judas met him with ten thousand men; and when he saw the
great number of his enemies, he prayed to God that he would assist him,
and joined battle with the first of the enemy that appeared and beat
them and slew about five thousand of them, and thereby became terrible
to the rest of them. Nay, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit of
the Jews, how they were prepared to die rather than lose their liberty,
and being afraid of their desperate way of fighting, as if it were real
strength, he took the rest of the army back with him and returned to
Antioch.
When, therefore, the generals of Antiochus' armies had been beaten so
often, Judas assembled the people together, and told them that after
these many victories which God had given them, they ought to go up to
Jerusalem and purify the Temple and offer the appointed sacrifices. But
as soon as he with the whole multitude was come to Jerusalem and found
the Temple deserted and its gates burned down and plants growing in the
Temple of their own accord on account of its desertion, he and those
that were with him began to lament and were quite confounded at the
sight of the Temple; so he chose out some of his soldiers and gave them
orders to fight against those guards that were in the citadel until he
should have purified the Temple. When therefore he had carefully purged
it and had brought in new vessels, the candlestick, the table [of
shewbread], and the altar [of incense], which were made of gold, he hung
up the veils at the gates and added doors to them.
He also took down the altar [of burnt-offering], and built a new one of
stones that he gathered together and not of such as were hewn with iron
tools. So on the five-and-twentieth day of the month of Casleu, which
the Macedonians call Apelleus, they lighted the lamps that were on the
candlestick and offered incense upon the altar [of incense], and laid
the loaves upon the table [of shew-bread], and offered burnt-offerings
upon the new altar [of burnt-offering]. Now it so fell out that these
things were done on the very same day on which their divine worship had
fallen off and was reduced to a profane and common use after three
years' time; for so it was, that the Temple was made desolate by
Antiochus, and so continued for three years. This desolation happened to
the Temple in the hundred forty and fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day
of the month Apelleus, and on the hundred and fifty-third Olympiad; but
it was dedicated anew, on the same day, the twenty-fifth of the month
Apelleus, in the hundred and forty-eighth year, and on the hundred and
fifty-fourth Olympiad. And this desolation came to pass according to the
prophecy of Daniel, which was given four hundred and eight years before,
for he declared that the Macedonians would dissolve that worship [for
some time].
Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices
of the Temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon;
but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices, and he
honored God and delighted them by hymns and psalms. Nay, they were so
very glad at the revival of their customs, when after a long time of
intermission they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their
worship, that they made it a law for their posterity that they should
keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their Temple worship,
for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this festival
and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was, because this liberty
beyond our hopes appeared to us, and that thence was the name given to
that festival. Judas also rebuilt the walls round about the city, and
reared towers of great height against the incursions of enemies, and set
guards therein. He also fortified the city Bethsura that it might serve
as a citadel against any distresses that might come from our enemies.
When these things were over, the nations round about the Jews were very
uneasy at the revival of their power and rose up together and destroyed
many of them, as gaining advantage over them by laying snares for them
and making secret conspiracies against them. Judas made perpetual
expeditions against these men, and endeavored to restrain them from
those incursions and to prevent the mischiefs they did to the Jews. So
he fell upon the Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, at Acra-battene, and
slew a great many of them and took their spoils. He also shut up the
sons of Bean, that laid wait for the Jews; and he sat down about them,
and besieged them, and burned their towers and destroyed the men [that
were in them]. After this he went thence in haste against the Ammonites
who had a great and a numerous army, of which Timotheus was the
commander. And when he had subdued them he seized on the city of Jazer,
and took their wives and their children captives and burned the city and
then returned into Judea. But when the neighboring nations understood
that he was returned they got together in great numbers in the land of
Gilead and came against those Jews that were at their borders, who then
fled to the garrison of Dathema, and sent to Judas to inform him that
Timotheus was endeavoring to take the place whither they were fled. And
as these epistles were reading, there came other messengers out of
Galilee who informed him that the inhabitants of Ptolemais, and of Tyre
and Sidon, and strangers of Galilee, were gotten together.
Accordingly Judas, upon considering what was fit to be done with
relation to the necessity both these cases required, gave order that
Simon his brother should take three thousand chosen men and go to the
assistance of the Jews in Galilee, while he and another of his brothers,
Jonathan, made haste into the land of Gilead with eight thousand
soldiers. And he left Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, to be
over the rest of the forces, and charged them to keep Judea very
carefully and to fight no battles with any persons whomsoever until his
return. Accordingly Simon went into Galilee and fought the enemy and put
them to flight, and pursued them to the very gates of Ptolemais, and
slew about three thousand of them, and took the spoils of those that
were slain and those Jews whom they had made captives, with their
baggage, and then returned home.
Now as for Judas Maccabaeus and his brother Jonathan, they passed over
the river Jordan, and when they had gone three days' journey they
lighted upon the Nabateans, who came to meet them peaceably and who told
them how the affairs of those in the land of Galilee stood and how many
of them were in distress and driven into garrisons and into the cities
of Galilee, and exhorted him to make haste to go against the foreigners,
and to endeavor to save his own countrymen out of their hands. To this
exhortation Judas hearkened and returned into the wilderness, and in the
first place fell upon the inhabitants of Bosor, and took the city, and
beat the inhabitants, and destroyed all the males, and all that were
able to fight, and burned the city. Nor did he stop even when night came
on, but he journeyed in it to the garrison where the Jews happened to be
then shut up, and where Timotheus lay round the place with his army; and
Judas came upon the city in the morning, and when he found that the
enemy were making an assault upon the walls, and that some of them
brought ladders on which they might get upon those walls, and that
others brought engines [to batter them], he bid the trumpeter to sound
his trumpet, and he encouraged his soldiers cheerfully to undergo
dangers for the sake of their brethren and kindred; he also parted his
army into three bodies and fell upon the backs of their enemies. But
when Timotheus' men perceived that it was Maccabaeus that was upon them,
of both whose courage and good success in war they had formerly had
sufficient experience, they were put to flight; but Judas followed them
with his army and slew about eight thousand of them. He then turned
aside to a city of the foreigners called Malle, and took it, and slew
all the males and burned the city itself. He then removed from thence,
and overthrew Casphom and Bosor, and many other cities of the land of
Gilead.
But not long after this Timotheus prepared a great army, and took many
others as auxiliaries, and induced some of the Arabians by the promise
of rewards to go with him in this expedition, and came with his army
beyond the brook over against the city Raphon; and he encouraged his
soldiers, if it came to a battle with the Jews, to fight courageously,
and to hinder their passing over the brook; for he said to them
beforehand that "if they come over it we shall be beaten." And when
Judas heard that Timotheus prepared himself to fight he took all his own
army and went in haste against Timotheus, his enemy; and when he had
passed over the brook he fell upon his enemies, and some of them met
him, whom he slew, and others of them he so terrified that he compelled
them to throw down their arms and fly, and some of them escaped; but
some of them fled to what was called the temple of Carnaim, and hoped
thereby to preserve themselves, but Judas took the city and slew them
and burned the temple, and so used several ways of destroying his
enemies.
When he had done this he gathered the Jews together with their children
and wives and the substance that belonged to them, and was going to
bring them back into Judea. But as soon as he was come to a certain city
the name of which was Ephron, that lay upon the road--and as it was not
possible for him to go any other way, so he was not willing to go back
again--he then sent to the inhabitants, and desired that they would open
their gates and permit them to go on their way through the city; for
they had stopped up the gates with stones and cut off their passage
through it. And when the inhabitants of Ephron would not agree to this
proposal, he encouraged those that were with him, and encompassed the
city round and besieged it, and lying round it by day and night took the
city and slew every male in it and burned it all down, and so obtained a
way through it; and the multitude of those that were slain was so great
that they went over the dead bodies. So they came over Jordan and
arrived at the great plain over against which is situate the city
Bethshan, which is called by the Greeks Scythopolis.[67] And going away
hastily from thence, they came into Judea, singing psalms and hymns as
they went, and indulging such tokens of mirth as are usual in triumphs
upon victory. They also offered thank-offerings both for their good
success and for the preservation of their army, for not one of the Jews
was slain in these battles.
[Footnote 67: The reason why Bethshan was called Scythopolis is well
known from Herodotus, b. i., p. 105, and Syncellus, p. 214, that the
Scythians, where they overran Asia, in the days of Josiah, seized on
this city, and kept it as long as they continued in Asia; from which
time it retained the name of Scythopolis, or the City of the Scythians.]
But as to Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, whom Judas left
generals [of the rest of his forces] at the same time when Simon was in
Galilee fighting against the people of Ptolemais, and Judas himself and
his brother Jonathan were in the land of Gilead, did these men also
affect the glory of being courageous generals in war, in order whereto
they took the army that was under their command and came to Jamnia.
There Gorgias, the general of the forces of Jamnia, met them, and upon
joining battle with him they lost two thousand of their army and fled
away, and were pursued to the very borders of Judea. And this misfortune
befell them by their disobedience to what injunctions Judas had given
them not to fight with anyone before his return. For besides the rest of
Judas' sagacious counsels, one may well wonder at this concerning the
misfortune that befell the forces commanded by Joseph and Azarias, which
he understood would happen if they broke any of the injunctions he had
given them. But Judas and his brethren did not leave off fighting with
the Idumeans, but pressed upon them on all sides, and took from them the
city of Hebron, and demolished all its fortifications and set all its
towers on fire, and burned the country of the foreigners and the city
Marissa. They came also to Ashdod, and took it, and laid it waste, and
took away a great deal of the spoils and prey that were in it and
returned to Judea.
THE GRACCHI AND THEIR REFORMS
B.C. 133
THEODOR MOMMSEN
(Cornelia, whose father was Scipio Africanus, preferred to be called
"Mother of the Gracchi" rather than daughter of the conqueror of
Numantia. Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, her sons, were born at a time
when the social condition of Rome was rank with corruption. The small
farmer class were deprived of holdings, the soil was being worked by
slaves, and its products wasted on pleasure and debauchery by the rich;
the law courts were controlled by the wealthy and powerful, while
oppression, bribery, and fraud were generally rampant in the city.