The Fall of Alexander Balas

When Demetrius had been killed in battle, as we related above, Alexander took over the kingdom of Syria. He wrote to Ptolemy Philometor asking for his daughter in marriage. It was only right, he said, for Ptolemy to join himself by marriage to one who had recovered the rule of his forefathers, who had been raised to it by God’s providence and had conquered Demetrius, and who was in other respects not unworthy to be related to him. Ptolemy gladly received the proposal. He wrote back, congratulating him on having recovered the rule of his forefathers and promising to give him his daughter. He told him to meet him at Ptolemais, where he would bring her; for he would escort her that far from Egypt himself and give his child to him in marriage there. When Ptolemy had written this, he came in haste to Ptolemais, bringing his daughter Cleopatra with him. He found Alexander there before him, as he had asked, and gave him his child in marriage, and as her dowry as much silver and gold as it was fitting for a king to give. [a] When the wedding was being celebrated, Alexander wrote to Jonathan the high priest and told him to come to Ptolemais. He came to the two kings, gave them splendid gifts, and was honored by them both. Alexander even made him take off his own clothes and put on purple, and made him sit beside him on the platform. He ordered his officers to go with him into the middle of the city and proclaim that no one was permitted to speak against him or give him any trouble. When the officers had done this, those who had come ready to accuse Jonathan and who bore him ill will saw the honor the king had proclaimed for him, and they ran away, afraid that some harm might come to them as well. King Alexander was so eager to show Jonathan favor that he enrolled him as the first of his Friends. [b]

But in the hundred and sixty-fifth year Demetrius the son of Demetrius set sail from Crete with a great many mercenaries, whom Lasthenes the Cretan had supplied him, and landed in Cilicia. The news threw Alexander into anxiety and confusion. He hurried at once out of Phoenicia to Antioch, to make matters there safe before Demetrius arrived. He left Apollonius Taos as governor of Coele-Syria. Apollonius came to Jamnia with a large army and sent word to Jonathan the high priest that it was not right for him alone to live at ease and with power of his own, not subject to the king; it brought Apollonius reproach from everyone that he had not yet made him subject to the king. “So do not deceive yourself, sitting among the mountains and imagining that you have strength. If you trust your own forces, come down into the plain and match yourself against our army, and the outcome of the victory will show who is the braver. But know this: the best men of every city are serving with me, and these are the very men who have always beaten your forefathers. Fight it out with us in country where a man defends himself with weapons and not with stones, and where there is no place for you to flee to when you are beaten.” [c]

This provoked Jonathan. He picked ten thousand soldiers and set out in haste from Jerusalem with his brother Simon. At Joppa he camped outside the city, because the people of Joppa had shut their gates against him; they had a garrison inside that Apollonius had put there. But when Jonathan began preparing to besiege them, they were afraid he would take their city by force, and they opened the gates to him. When Apollonius heard that Joppa had been taken by Jonathan, he took three thousand horsemen and eight thousand foot soldiers and came to Ashdod. Setting out from there, he marched quietly and slowly, and coming toward Joppa he made as if to withdraw, and so drew Jonathan into the plain; for he was confident in his cavalry and placed his hopes of victory in it. Jonathan came out and pursued Apollonius toward Ashdod. But as soon as his enemy was in the plain, Apollonius turned and gave battle. Apollonius had placed a thousand horsemen in ambush in a ravine, so that they would appear behind their enemies. Jonathan saw it and was not alarmed. He drew up his army in a square and made it ready to meet the enemy on both sides, facing both the attack from the front and the attack that would come from behind. As the battle went on toward evening, he gave part of his forces to his brother Simon and ordered him to engage the enemy’s main body, while he himself ordered the men with him to shelter behind their armor and take the missiles of the horsemen. They did as they were ordered. The enemy horsemen threw their missiles at them until they had emptied their quivers and did them no harm; for what was thrown did not get through to their bodies, but struck shields locked and joined close together, which easily overcame it, and it fell away without effect. When the enemy had grown slack from throwing at them from early morning until late in the day, Simon saw that they were worn out and engaged their main body. His soldiers fought with great eagerness, and he put the enemy to flight. When the horsemen saw the foot soldiers running, they did not stand either. They were exhausted themselves from fighting until evening, and their hope in the foot soldiers was gone, so they fled in disorder and confusion, until they were split apart and scattered over the whole plain. Jonathan pursued them as far as Ashdod, killing many, and forced the rest, who despaired of escape, to take refuge in the temple of Dagon, which was in Ashdod. He took the city at the first assault and burned it and the villages around it. Nor did he spare the temple of Dagon; he burned that too, and destroyed those who had fled into it. The whole number of the enemy who fell in the battle or were burned in the temple was eight thousand. Having defeated so large a force, Jonathan set out from Ashdod and came to Ashkelon. He camped outside the city, and the people of Ashkelon came out to meet him, bringing him gifts of hospitality and doing him honor. He thanked them for their goodwill and returned from there to Jerusalem with a great deal of plunder, which he had taken in defeating his enemies. When Alexander heard that Apollonius, his general, had been beaten, he pretended to be glad of it, since Apollonius had attacked Jonathan, his friend and ally, against his wishes. He sent to Jonathan, bore witness to his worth, and gave him rewards and honors: a gold clasp, such as it is the custom to give to the kinsmen of kings, and Ekron and its district as his own allotment. [f]

About this time King Ptolemy, called Philometor, came into Syria with a fleet and an army to fight on Alexander’s side, for Alexander was his son-in-law. At Alexander’s command all the cities received him gladly and escorted him as far as the city of Ashdod. There everyone complained loudly to him about their temple of Dagon that had been burned, accusing Jonathan of destroying it, setting the countryside on fire, and killing many of them. Ptolemy heard this and said nothing. Jonathan went to meet Ptolemy at Joppa and received from him splendid gifts of hospitality and every honor. Then, having escorted him as far as the river called Eleutherus, he returned to Jerusalem. At Ptolemais, against all expectation, Ptolemy came very near to being killed, for Alexander laid a plot against him through Ammonius, who happened to be his friend. When the plot came to light, Ptolemy wrote to Alexander demanding Ammonius for punishment, saying that Ammonius had plotted against him and ought to pay the penalty for it. When Alexander would not hand him over, Ptolemy understood that Alexander himself was the one who had laid the plot, and he turned bitterly against him. Alexander had already offended the people of Antioch on account of Ammonius, for they had suffered many wrongs at his hands. Ammonius, however, paid the penalty for his crimes: he was slaughtered shamefully, like a woman, while trying to hide himself in women’s clothing, as we have related elsewhere. [h]

Ptolemy now blamed himself for having given his daughter in marriage to Alexander and for his alliance against Demetrius, and he broke off the relationship. He took his daughter away and at once sent to Demetrius to make an alliance and friendship with him, promising to give him his daughter as his wife and to restore him to the rule of his father. Demetrius was delighted with the embassy and accepted both the alliance and the marriage. One hard task still remained for Ptolemy: to persuade the people of Antioch to receive Demetrius, for they were hostile to him because of the wrongs his father Demetrius had done them. Yet he accomplished this too. The people of Antioch hated Alexander because of Ammonius, as we have shown, and they readily threw him out of Antioch; and Alexander, driven out of the city, went into Cilicia. Ptolemy then came to Antioch and was proclaimed king by its people and by the army, and he was compelled to put on two diadems, one of Asia and the other of Egypt. But he was by nature good and just, and did not reach for splendor; besides this he was shrewd in reckoning the future, and he decided to avoid becoming an object of envy to the Romans. So he called the people of Antioch to an assembly and persuaded them to receive Demetrius. He told them that Demetrius would bear them no grudge over his father if they now did him this kindness. He pledged himself to be a teacher of good conduct and a guide to Demetrius, and promised that he would not let him undertake anything bad. For himself, he said, the kingdom of Egypt was enough. With this speech he persuaded the people of Antioch to receive Demetrius. [i]

Alexander now set out from Cilicia into Syria with a large army and great preparations, and burned and plundered the territory of Antioch. Ptolemy marched against him with his son-in-law Demetrius (for he had already given him his daughter in marriage), and they defeated Alexander and put him to flight. Alexander fled into Arabia. During the battle Ptolemy’s horse took fright at the trumpeting of an elephant and threw him to the ground. His enemies saw it, rushed at him, and gave him many wounds about the head, so that he was in danger of death; for when his bodyguards snatched him away, he was so ill that for four days he could neither understand anything nor speak. Meanwhile Zabdiel, the Arab chief, cut off Alexander’s head and sent it to Ptolemy. On the fifth day Ptolemy came round from his wounds and recovered his senses, and he heard the sweetest news and saw the sweetest sight at once: the death of Alexander and his head. Not long afterward, filled with joy at Alexander’s death, he too departed this life. Alexander, who was called Balas, had reigned over Asia five years, as we have related elsewhere. [j]

When Demetrius, who was called Nicator, had taken the kingdom, he was wicked enough to begin destroying Ptolemy’s troops, forgetting their alliance and forgetting that Ptolemy was his father-in-law and, by his marriage to Cleopatra, his kinsman. Ptolemy’s soldiers fled from his attempts to Alexandria, but Demetrius took possession of the elephants. Meanwhile Jonathan the high priest gathered an army from all Judea, attacked the citadel in Jerusalem, and besieged it. It held a Macedonian garrison and some of the ungodly men who had abandoned the customs of their fathers. At first these men scorned Jonathan’s efforts to take it, trusting in the strength of the place. But some of the wicked men inside went out by night, came to Demetrius, and told him the citadel was under siege. Angered by the news, he took his army and came from Antioch against Jonathan. When he reached Ptolemais, he wrote to Jonathan ordering him to come to him at Ptolemais in haste. Jonathan did not break off the siege. He took with him the elders of the people and the priests, and brought gold and silver and clothing and a great quantity of gifts. With these he came to Demetrius and presented them to him, and so soothed the king’s anger. Demetrius honored him and confirmed him in the high priesthood, as he had held it from the kings before him. When the deserters accused him, Demetrius did not believe them. Instead, when Jonathan asked to pay three hundred talents for all Judea and the three districts of Samaria, Joppa and Galilee, he granted it, and gave him letters concerning everything, in these words: “King Demetrius to Jonathan his brother and to the nation of the Jews, greeting. We have sent you a copy of the letter that I wrote to Lasthenes our kinsman, so that you may know of it. ‘King Demetrius to Lasthenes his father, greeting. To the nation of the Jews, who are our friends and keep faith with us, I have decided to grant a favor in return for their goodwill. I release to them the three districts of Aphairema, Lydda and Ramathaim, which were added to Judea from Samaria, with everything that belongs to them; also whatever the kings before me received from those who sacrifice in Jerusalem, and whatever came from the fruits of the earth and of the trees, and the other dues that belong to us, and the salt lakes, and the crowns that used to be brought to us. None of these grants shall be revoked, from now on or for all time. See to it, therefore, that a copy of this is made and given to Jonathan, and set up in a prominent place in the holy temple.’” Such was the letter. Then Demetrius, seeing that there was peace, with no danger and no fear of war, disbanded his army and cut their pay, and paid only the foreign mercenaries who had come up with him from Crete and the other islands. This brought him the hatred and hostility of the soldiers. He gave them nothing any more, whereas the kings before him had kept on paying them even in peacetime, to keep their goodwill and have them eager to fight for them if ever the need arose. [k]