The Murder of Simon

Not long after Demetrius had been taken captive, Trypho, who was acting as guardian to Antiochus the son of Alexander, also called The God, killed him after he had reigned four years, and gave out that he had died under the surgeons’ hands. He then sent his friends and those closest to him to the soldiers, promising to give them a great deal of money if they would elect him king. He let them know that Demetrius had been made a prisoner by the Parthians, and that Demetrius’s brother Antiochus, if he came to power, would do them much harm in revenge for their revolt. The soldiers, hoping to grow rich from a kingdom given to Trypho, declared him their ruler. But once Trypho had control of affairs, he showed that his nature was wicked. While he was a private man, he had courted the common people and put on a show of moderation, luring them by these means into whatever he wanted; but when he had taken the kingdom, he threw off the pretense and was the true Trypho. This made his enemies stronger, for the army came to hate him and went over to Cleopatra, Demetrius’s wife, who was then shut up in Seleucia with her children. Antiochus, the brother of Demetrius, who was called Soter, was wandering about, and no city would receive him because of Trypho. Cleopatra sent to him and invited him to come to her, to marry her and take the kingdom. She invited him partly because her friends persuaded her to, and partly because she was afraid, since some of the people of Seleucia were ready to hand the city over to Trypho. [a] When Antiochus arrived at Seleucia and his strength was growing every day, he set out to make war on Trypho. He defeated him in battle, drove him out of Upper Syria into Phoenicia, pursued him that far, and besieged him in Dor, a fortress hard to take, where he had fled. He also sent envoys to Simon, the high priest of the Jews, about friendship and alliance. Simon gladly accepted his proposal and sent a great deal of money and food for the soldiers besieging Dor, supplying Antiochus so generously that for a short while he was counted among his closest friends. Trypho fled from Dor to Apamea, was taken there under siege, and was put to death after reigning three years. [c]

But Antiochus, out of greed and baseness, forgot the services Simon had rendered him in his need. He handed over an army to Cendebeus, one of his friends, and sent him out to ravage Judea and capture Simon. When Simon heard of Antiochus’s lawless act, though he was an old man by now, he was so stirred by the injustice he had received from Antiochus, and took on a spirit so far beyond his years, that he led the war like a young man. He sent his sons ahead with the best fighting men among the soldiers, while he himself advanced with the army by another route and set many men in ambush in the ravines of the mountains. He failed in none of his attempts, and having beaten the enemy at every point, he spent the rest of his life in peace. He too made an alliance with the Romans. [d] He ruled the Jews eight years in all, and died at a banquet through a plot laid against him by his son-in-law Ptolemy. Ptolemy seized his wife and two of his sons and kept them in chains, and sent men to kill the third son, John, who was also called Hyrcanus. But the young man saw them coming, escaped the danger they brought, and hurried to the city, trusting in the people because of his father’s good deeds and because the crowds hated Ptolemy. When Ptolemy, too, tried to get in by another gate, the people drove him away, having already let Hyrcanus in. [e]