The Kings of Asia Honor the Jews

The Jews also received honors from the kings of Asia when they fought as their allies. Seleucus Nicator made them citizens in the cities he built in Asia and in Lower Syria, and in the capital itself, Antioch, and gave them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians and Greeks who lived there, so that these privileges continue to this very day. A proof of this is that, since the Jews were unwilling to use oil prepared by foreigners, he ordered that they receive a fixed sum of money from the officials in charge of the gymnasiums as the value of that oil. When the people of Antioch tried to take this money away from them in the last war, Mucianus, who was then governor of Syria, kept it for them. And afterward, when Vespasian and his son Titus ruled the inhabited world, the people of Alexandria and of Antioch petitioned that these rights of citizenship be taken away; but they did not obtain their request. In this anyone may see the consideration and magnanimity of the Romans, especially of Vespasian and Titus. They had gone to a great deal of trouble in the war against the Jews, and were angry with them because they did not hand over their weapons but carried on the war to the very end; yet they did not take away any of the privileges just mentioned that belonged to them as citizens. They restrained their anger and overruled the petitions of the Alexandrians and the Antiochenes, who were very powerful peoples, and did not give in to them, either out of favor to these peoples or out of their old grudge against those whose wicked opposition they had crushed in the war. Nor would they alter any of the ancient favors granted to the Jews, but said that those who had borne arms against them and fought them had already been punished, and that it was not just to deprive those who had done no wrong of the privileges they enjoyed. [a]

We know too that Marcus Agrippa was of the same mind toward the Jews. The people of Ionia were very angry with them, and begged Agrippa that they, and they alone, might have the rights of citizenship that Antiochus, the grandson of Seleucus (whom the Greeks called “the God”), had granted them; and they demanded that if the Jews were to share in them, they should be obliged to worship the gods the Ionians themselves worshiped. But when the matter was brought to trial, the Jews won and obtained leave to keep their own customs, with Nicolaus of Damascus pleading for them; for Agrippa ruled that he could not make innovations. Anyone who wants to know this matter in detail should read the hundred and twenty-third and hundred and twenty-fourth books of the history of this Nicolaus. Now this decision of Agrippa is not so much to be wondered at, for at that time our nation had not made war on the Romans. But one may well be astonished at the generosity of Vespasian and Titus, that after such great wars and struggles as they had with us, they should show such moderation. But I will now return to the part of my history from which I made this digression. [e]

In the reign of Antiochus the Great, who ruled over all Asia, it happened that the Jews, as well as the inhabitants of Coele-Syria, suffered greatly, and their land was sorely harassed. For while he was at war with Ptolemy Philopator and with his son, who was called Epiphanes, these nations suffered alike, both when he was beaten and when he beat the others; so that they were very like a ship in a storm, tossed by the waves on both sides. That was just their situation, caught in the middle between Antiochus’s success and its turn to failure. At length, when Antiochus had beaten Ptolemy, he seized Judea. When Philopator was dead, his son sent out a great army under Scopas, the general of his forces, against the inhabitants of Coele-Syria. Scopas took many of their cities, and in particular our nation, which went over to him when he attacked them. Yet not long afterward Antiochus defeated Scopas in a battle fought at the springs of the Jordan, and destroyed a great part of his army. Afterward, when Antiochus subdued the cities of Coele-Syria that Scopas had taken, and Samaria with them, the Jews went over to him of their own accord, received him into the city, provided plentifully for his whole army and his elephants, and readily helped him when he besieged the garrison Scopas had left in the citadel of Jerusalem. So Antiochus thought it only right to reward the Jews’ diligence and zeal in his service. He wrote to the generals of his armies and to his friends, testified to the good conduct of the Jews toward him, and told them what rewards he had decided to give them for that conduct. I will set down shortly the letters he wrote to the generals about them, but I will first produce the testimony of Polybius of Megalopolis; for this is what he says in the sixteenth book of his history: “Scopas, the general of Ptolemy’s army, set out in haste for the upper parts of the country, and in the winter overthrew the nation of the Jews.” He also says in the same book that “when Scopas had been defeated by Antiochus, Antiochus took Batanea, Samaria, Abila and Gadara; and a little while afterward those Jews who lived around the temple called Jerusalem came over to him. Although I have more to say about this, and particularly about the manifestation that took place at that temple, I put off that account to another occasion.” That is what Polybius relates. But we will return to the course of our history once we have first produced the letters of King Antiochus. “King Antiochus to Ptolemy, greetings. Since the Jews showed their friendship toward us as soon as we entered their country, and when we came to their city received us splendidly, came out to meet us with their senate, gave abundant provisions to our soldiers and to the elephants, and joined us in driving out the Egyptian garrison that was in the citadel, we have thought fit to reward them, to restore the condition of their city, which has been greatly depopulated by the misfortunes that have befallen its inhabitants, and to bring back to the city those who have been scattered abroad. First, we have decided, because of their piety toward God, to grant them as an allowance for their sacrifices of animals fit for sacrifice, and for wine, oil and frankincense, the value of twenty thousand pieces of silver, and fine flour in sacred artabas, according to the law of their country, with about 2,200 bushels of wheat and about 560 bushels of salt. I want these payments made to them in full, as I have sent you orders. I also want the work on the temple finished, and the colonnades, and anything else that needs to be rebuilt. As for timber, let it be brought to them from Judea itself, from the other countries and from Lebanon, free of tax; and I want the same observed for the other materials that will be needed to make the temple more glorious. Let all of that nation live according to the laws of their own country; and let the senate, the priests, the scribes of the temple and the sacred singers be released from the poll tax, the crown tax and the other taxes as well. So that the city may recover its population the sooner, I grant to its present inhabitants, and to those who come to it, freedom from taxes for three years, until the month Hyperberetaeus. We also release them for the future from a third of their taxes, so that the losses they have suffered may be made good. And to all the citizens who were carried off and have become slaves, we grant freedom for themselves and their children, and we order that their property be restored to them.” [f]

These were the contents of this letter. He also published a decree throughout his kingdom in honor of the temple, which read as follows: “No foreigner may enter the enclosure around the temple; this is forbidden to the Jews too, except those who have purified themselves according to their own custom. Let no flesh of horses or mules, or of donkeys wild or tame, be brought into the city, nor that of leopards, foxes or hares, nor in general of any animal that the Jews are forbidden to eat. Let their skins not be brought into it either, nor any such animal be bred in the city. Let them be permitted only the sacrifices handed down from their forefathers, from which they must offer acceptable sacrifice to God. Whoever breaks any of these orders shall pay the priests three thousand drachmas of silver.” Moreover, this Antiochus bore witness to our piety and loyalty in a letter he wrote when he was informed of a revolt in Phrygia and Lydia, while he was in the upper provinces. In it he ordered Zeuxis, the general of his forces and his closest friend, to send some of our nation from Babylon into Phrygia. The letter was this: “King Antiochus to Zeuxis his father, greetings. If you are in good health, it is well; I too am in good health. Having been informed that a revolt has broken out in Lydia and Phrygia, I thought the matter needed great care; and on consulting my friends about what should be done, it was decided to move two thousand Jewish families, with their belongings, out of Mesopotamia and Babylon to the fortresses and the most vital places. For I am convinced that they will be loyal guardians of our possessions, because of their piety toward God, and because I know that my predecessors have testified that they are faithful and do eagerly what they are asked. It is my will, then, though it is a laborious task, that you move these Jews, with a promise that they will be allowed to live by their own laws. When you have brought them to the places mentioned, you are to give each of their families a site for building houses and a portion of land for farming and for planting vines, and you are to release them from paying taxes on the produce of the land for ten years. Let them have a proper quantity of wheat to feed their servants until they receive grain from the land; and let a sufficient share be given to those who serve them with the necessities of life, so that by enjoying our kindness they may show themselves all the more willing and ready in our affairs. Take care of that nation as well, as far as you can, so that no one gives them any trouble.” These testimonies I have produced are enough to show the friendship that Antiochus the Great had for the Jews. [n]