Jacob having been interred with royal pomp, and the seven days' period
of mourning over, the conflict between the sons of Jacob and the sons
of Esau broke out anew. In the skirmish that had ensued when Esau
advanced a claim upon a place in the Cave of Machpelah, while his
brother's remains still lay unburied, he lost forty of his men, and
after his death fortune favored his sons as little. Eighty of their
followers were slain, while of the sons of Jacob not one was lost.
Joseph succeeded in capturing Zepho the son of Eliphaz and fifty of his
men, and he clapped them in chains and carried them off to Egypt.
Thereupon the rest of the attacking army led by Eliphaz fled to Mount
Seir, taking with them the headless corpse of Esau, to bury it in his
own territory. The sons of Jacob pursued after them, but they slew
none, out of respect for the remains of Esau.
On the third day a great army gathered together, consisting of the
inhabitants of Seir and the children of the East, and they marched down
into Egypt with the purpose of making war upon Joseph and his brethren.
In the battle that came off, this army was almost totally destroyed,
not less than six hundred thousand men were mowed down by Joseph and
his warriors, and the small remnant fled precipitately. Returned to
their own country after this fatal campaign, the sons of Esau and the
sons of Seir fell to quarrelling among themselves, and the sons of Seir
demanded that their former allies leave the place, because it was they
that had brought misfortune upon the country.
The sons of Esau thereupon dispatched a messenger in secret to their
friend Agnias, king of Africa, begging his aid against the sons of
Seir. He granted their request, and sent them troops consisting of
foot-soldiers and mounted men. The sons of Seir, on their part, also
sought allies, and they secured the help of the children of the East,
and of the Midianites, who put warriors at their disposal. In the
encounters that ensued between the hostile forces, the sons of Esau
were defeated again and again, partly on account of treachery in their
own ranks, for their men sometimes deserted to the enemy while the
combat was on. At last, however, in the battle that took place in the
desert of Paran, the sons of Esau gained a decisive victory. They
massacred all the warriors of the sons of Seir, and the Midianites and
the children of the East were put to flight.
Thereafter the sons of Esau returned to Seir, and they slew all the
inhabitants of the place, men, women, and children, sparing only fifty
lads and maidens. The former they used as slaves, and the latter they
took to wife. They also enriched themselves with the spoils, seizing
all the possessions of the sons of Seir, and the whole land was divided
among the five sons of Esau. Now these descendants of Esau determined
to put a king over themselves, but in consequence of the treachery
committed during the war there prevailed such hatred and bitterness
among them that they decided never to appoint a ruler from their own
people. Their choice fell upon Bela, the son of Beor, one of the
warriors sent to them by King Agnias. His peer could not be found among
the allied troops for bravery, wisdom, and handsome appearance. They
set the royal crown upon his head, built a palace for him, and gave him
gifts of silver, gold, and gems, until he lived in great opulence. He
reigned happily for thirty years, and met his death then in a war
against Joseph and his brethren.
This war came about because the sons of Esau could not banish from
their memory the disgrace of the defeat inflicted upon them by Joseph
and his people. Having enlisted the aid of Agnias, and of the
Ishmaelites and other nations of the East, they set forth on a second
campaign against Egypt, in the hope of delivering Zepho and his
followers from the hands of Joseph. In spite of their enormous
host—they had no less than eight hundred thousand men of infantry and
cavalry—they were defeated at Raamses by Joseph and his brethren and
their little company of six hundred men. Beside their king Bela, they
left one-fourth of their army upon the field. The loss of their king
discouraged them grievously, and they took to flight, hard pressed by
Joseph, who cut down many of the fugitives.
When he returned from the battle, Joseph ordered manacles and fetters
to be put upon Zepho and his followers, and their captivity was made
more bitter unto them than it had been before.
The sons of Esau appointed Jobab of Bozrah to succeed their dead king
Bela. His reign lasted ten years, but they desisted from all further
attempts at waging war with the sons of Jacob. Their last experience
with them had been too painful, but the enmity they cherished against
them was all the fiercer, and their hatred never abated.
Their third king was Husham, and he ruled over them for twenty years.
During his reign Zepho succeeded in making good his escape from Egypt.
He was received kindly by Agnias, king of Africa, and appointed
commander-in-chief of his troops. He used every means of persuasion to
induce his sovereign lord to enter into a war with Egypt, but in vain,
for Agnias was only too well acquainted with the strength and heroism
of the sons of Jacob. For many years he resisted Zepho's arguments and
blandishments. Indeed, as it was, Agnias had his hands full with other
warlike enterprises. It had happened about this time that a man of the
land of Kittim, 'Uzi by name, whom his countrymen venerated as a god,
died in the city of Pozimana, and he left behind a fair and clever
daughter. Agnias heard of Yaniah's beauty and wisdom, and he sued for
her hand, and his request was granted him by the people of Kittim.
The messengers of Agnias were hastening away from Kittim, bearing to
their master the promise of the inhabitants that Yaniah should become
his wife, when Turnus, king of Benevento, arrived on the same errand.
His suit was rejected, for the people of Kittim were afraid-to break
the promise given to Agnias. In his anger, Turnus went to Sardinia to
make war upon King Lucus, a brother of Agnias, intending to deal with
the latter as soon as the other was rendered harmless. Hearing of the
design hatched by Turnus, Agnias hastened to Sardinia to the assistance
of his brother, and a battle took place in the Valley of Campania.
Against Turnus were arrayed Agnias, his brother Lucus, and the son of
the latter, Niblos, whom his father had appointed commander-in-chief of
the Sardinian troops. In the first encounter, Turnus was the victor,
and the Sardinians lost their general Niblos. But in the second
engagement the army of Turnus was routed completely, and he himself was
left dead on the field. His army fled, pursued closely by Agnias as far
as the cross-road between Rome and Albano. Niblos' body was put inside
of a golden statue, and his father erected a high tower over his grave,
and another over the grave of Turnus, and these two buildings,
connected by a marble pavement, stand opposite to each other, on the
cross-road at which Agnias left off from following after the fugitive
army.
The king of Africa went on to the city of Benevento, but he took no
harsh measures against it and its inhabitants, because it belonged to
the land of Kittim at that time. Thenceforth, however, bands of
soldiers from Africa made incursions, now and again, into the land of
Kittim, under the lead of Zepho, the captain of the African army.
Agnias meantime went to Pozimana, to solemnize his marriage with
Yaniah, and he returned with her to his capital in Africa.[424]