Alexander and the Kings After Him

Alexander of Macedon made war against him. When Darius was defeated, the sovereign power was taken from the Persians, after it had lasted two hundred and fifty years from the time Cyrus established it. Alexander, the conqueror of almost every nation, is said to have visited the temple at Jerusalem and brought gifts into it. And he proclaimed throughout all the territory he had brought under his rule that the Jews living there were free to return to their own country. He died at Babylon at the end of the twelfth year of his reign, seven years after he had conquered Darius. [a]

His friends, who had fought those great wars alongside him, divided his empire among themselves. For some time they governed the provinces they had taken charge of without using the title of king. Meanwhile a certain Arrhidaeus Philip, Alexander’s brother, reigned. He was a very weak character, and the sovereignty was given to him in name and appearance only; the real power was in the hands of the men who had divided the army and the provinces among themselves. This state of things did not last long, however, for they all preferred to be called kings.

In Syria the first king after Alexander was Seleucus, and Persia and Babylon were under his rule as well. At that time the Jews paid the king a yearly tribute of three hundred talents of silver, but they were governed by their own priests, not by foreign officials. And they lived by the customs of their ancestors, until a great many of them were corrupted again by a long peace. They began to throw everything into confusion with factions and to stir up trouble, as they reached for the high priesthood out of lust, greed, and the desire for power.