Chapter Fifteen

Letters of the new king Antiochus to Simon and the Jews (Antt. XIII, 7, 1–2) (1 Macc 15:1-9). Antiochus’s landing in the kingdom of his fathers and his struggle against Trypho (1 Macc 15:10-14). The return of the Jewish envoys from Rome with letters concerning the alliance (1 Macc 15:15-24). Antiochus’s second siege of Dora. Antiochus’s treacherous treatment of Simon (1 Macc 15:25-36). Trypho’s flight and the attack of the royal commander Cendebeus on Judea (1 Macc 15:37-41).

1 Maccabees 15:1. And Antiochus, son of King Demetrius, sent letters from the islands of the sea to Simon, the great priest and ruler of the people of the Jews, and to all the people. Antiochus VII Sidetes, son of Demetrius I and younger brother of Demetrius II, who had been taken captive by the Parthians. He acquired his surname — Σιδήτης — from the Pamphylian city of Sida, where he was raised. — “From the islands of the sea.” According to Appian Syr. c. 65, Antiochus learned of his brother’s capture on the island of Rhodes. At this time Trypho was waging a fierce struggle with Demetrius’s commanders and satraps — Dionysius in Mesopotamia, Sarpedon and Palamedes in Syria, and Aeschion in coastal Seleucia, where Queen Cleopatra also resided. Antiochus, meanwhile, wandered helplessly from one place to another, nowhere being received out of fear of Trypho, until at last Cleopatra — on the advice of her friends and out of fear that the city would go over to Trypho — offered him her hand and the throne.

1 Maccabees 15:2–6. They read as follows: “King Antiochus to Simon the high priest and ruler of the people, and to the Jewish people — greetings. Whereas wicked men have seized the kingdom of our fathers, I intend to recover the kingdom in order to restore it as it was before. I have raised a large army and built warships; and I want to march through the land to punish those who have devastated our land and laid waste to many cities in the kingdom. Now I confirm to you all the tax exemptions that the kings before me have granted you, and whatever other gifts they have granted you; I permit you to coin your own money in your land. See note on XIII:42.

1 Maccabees 15:7. Let Jerusalem and the sanctuary be free; and all the weapons that you have prepared and the fortresses that you have built and which are in your possession — let them remain with you. See note on X:31; cf. XIII:38.

1 Maccabees 15:8. And every royal debt and all future royal debts — from now on and forever — shall be released to you. See note on XIII:39.

1 Maccabees 15:9–10. When we have established our kingdom, we will honor you and your people and the temple with great honor, so that your glory may be known throughout the whole world.” In the one hundred and seventy-fourth year Antiochus entered the land of his fathers, and all the troops rallied to him, so that only a few remained with Trypho. “In the 174th year” of the Seleucid era — 139–138 BC. Antiochus entered “the land of his fathers,” i.e., Seleucia, where Cleopatra had promised him her hand and the throne.

1 Maccabees 15:11. And King Antiochus pursued him, and Trypho fled to Dora, which is by the sea; Dora — Greek τὰ Δώρα and ἡ Δώρα, built by the Phoenicians on the Mediterranean Sea, deep in the promontory of Carmel, 9 miles north of Caesarea (near modern Tantura or Tortura). The account of Antiochus’s siege of this Dora is interrupted by the story of the return of Simon’s envoys from Rome (vv. 15–24) (cf. XIV:24).

1 Maccabees 15:12–15. For he saw that troubles had overwhelmed him and that his troops had deserted him. And Antiochus came to Dora with one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and eight thousand cavalry, surrounded the city, and the ships approached from the sea; he pressed the city from land and sea and allowed no one to enter or leave. Then Numenius and those with him arrived from Rome with letters to kings and provinces, in which the following was written: “With letters to kings and provinces” — in copies, as we learn from v. 24.

1 Maccabees 15:16. “Lucius, consul of Rome, to King Ptolemy — greetings. The letter, whose content is cited here by way of example, is addressed to “King Ptolemy,” i.e., Ptolemy Euergetes II or Physcon, who after the death of his brother Philometor (XI:16) reigned for another 29 years. The letters are signed in the name of the consul Lucius — Λεύκιος, the Greek form of the name Lucius. This was therefore either Lucius Caecilius Metellus or Lucius Calpurnius Piso — contemporaries of Simon. It is more likely that reference is made to the second Lucius, who was consul (with M. Popillius Laenas) in the year 615 from the founding of Rome — 139 BC.

1 Maccabees 15:17–18. There have come to us the Jewish envoys, our friends and allies, sent by the high priest Simon and the people of the Jews to renew the ancient friendship and alliance, and they have brought a golden shield weighing a thousand minas. See note on XIV:24.

1 Maccabees 15:19–20. It has therefore seemed good to us to write to the kings and the provinces that they should do them no harm and not make war against them or their cities or their land, and not assist those making war against them. We have decided to accept the shield from them. “We have decided to accept the shield from them” — as if in a gesture of goodwill toward the Jews, but by no means as a favor on their part that obliged acceptance of the treaty conditions; which is why some have found it more natural to read this verse between vv. 18 and 19.

1 Maccabees 15:21. Therefore, if any wicked men have fled to you from their country, hand them over to the high priest Simon so that he may punish them according to their law. The extradition of fugitives was customarily included among the conditions in concluding peace or alliance treaties (cf. Polyb. XXII, 23 (26) 10; Liv. XXXVII, 38).

1 Maccabees 15:22–23. The same was written to King Demetrius and to Attalus, Ariarathes, and Arsaces, and to all the provinces, and to Sampsames and the Spartans, and to Delos, and to Myndos, and to Sicyon, and to Caria, and to Samos, and to Pamphylia, and to Lycia, and to Halicarnassus, and to Rhodes, and to Phaselis, and to Cos, and to Side, and to Aradus, and to Gortyna, and to Cnidus, and to Cyprus, and to Cyrene. The consul wrote similar letters (like the one in vv. 16–21) to: “King Demetrius.” He had departed to Media at that time and had either not yet been taken captive by the Parthians, or news of his capture had not yet reached Rome. — “Attalus” was the king of Pergamum, probably the second of that name — Philadelphus, since his successor Attalus III Philometor ascended the throne only in 138 BC. — “Ariarathes” (Ἀριαράθης, otherwise Ἀράθη, rendered by Luther as Aretas) is Ariarathes III Philopator, king of Cappadocia, who died in 130 BC. — “Arsaces,” king of Parthia: see note on XIV:2. — “Sampsames” (Ζαμψαμη, otherwise Ζαμψάκη, Latin Lampsaco) — a port city mentioned by Abulfeda, located between Sinope and Trebizond, the modern Samsun, west of Trebizond. — “Delos,” the smallest of the Cycladic islands in the Archipelago, which had carried on a significant trade since the destruction of Corinth — modern Dili, uninhabited and desolate. — “Myndos,” a port in Caria (in southwestern Asia Minor) — modern Mentesche. — “Sicyon,” on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, west of Corinth. — “Caria,” the region of southwestern Asia Minor with the cities of Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and others. — “Samos,” the well-known island near the Ionian coast. — “Pamphylia,” an Asia Minor region on the Mediterranean between Lycia and Cilicia. — “Lycia,” the same, southeast of Caria. — “Halicarnassus,” the large and strongly fortified capital city of Caria, the former residence of Carian kings, birthplace of Herodotus, destroyed by Alexander the Great. — “Rhodes,” the well-known island south of the Carian coast. — “Phaselis” (Φασηλίς) — a large city in Lycia on a rocky promontory with three harbors, destroyed in 78 BC during the Roman struggle against pirates, later revived as a small settlement, but destroyed again in the Turkish war; after that a settlement arose in its place under the name Alaia, now in ruins. — “Cos” — a small island opposite the cities of Cnidus and Halicarnassus (better known by the indeclinable form Κώ). — “Side” (Σίδη) — a port city of Pamphylia. — “Aradus” — an island and city near the Phoenician coast at the mouth of the Eleutherus (see note on XI:7). — “Gortyna” (Γόρτυν) — a significant city in Crete on the southern coast, by the river Lethaus, with two harbors. — “Cnidus” — a Carian city on the Triopion promontory, opposite the island of Cos, connected to the mainland of the Cnidian peninsula by a causeway. — “Cyrene” — the capital city of upper Libya or Cyrenaican Libya (Libya Cyrenaica or Pentapolitana), whose population included an especially large number of Jews.

1 Maccabees 15:24–25. A copy of these letters was written for the high priest Simon. King Antiochus besieged Dora a second time, continually directing assaults against it and constructing siege-engines, and he shut in Trypho so that he could neither enter nor leave. “King Antiochus besieged Dora a second time.” This expression is puzzling if taken in direct connection with the account of the siege of Dora begun in v. 14. The difficulty is resolved by a different rendering of the original: ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ, which means not “a second time,” as the Russian and Slavonic texts translate it, but “on the second day” (ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ, sc. ἡμέρᾳ), i.e., on the second day after Antiochus had surrounded the city (“a second time” would be δεύτερον, τὸ δεύτερον, ἐκ δευτέρου). — “Continually directing assaults against it,” more precisely in the Slavonic: “constantly bringing hands against it” (a translation of the Greek προσάγειν τὰς χεῖρας), i.e., “troops” (cf. Greek V:6 and XI:15).

1 Maccabees 15:26–27. And Simon sent him two thousand picked men as auxiliary forces, along with silver and gold and considerable supplies; but he refused to accept them and rejected everything he had previously agreed with him, and became estranged from him. Simon sends Antiochus an auxiliary detachment, gold, silver, and supplies, but Antiochus arrogantly rejects them. The reason for such a change in Antiochus’s attitude toward Simon can be found solely in the change in Antiochus’s own position. As long as he was in straitened circumstances, he courted the Jews and promised them every possible benefit, keeping those promises only as long as was necessary.

1 Maccabees 15:28–31. And he sent Athenobius, one of his friends, to negotiate with him and say: “You hold Joppa and Gazara and the citadel in Jerusalem — cities of my kingdom; you have laid waste their territories and inflicted great damage on the land, and have seized many places in my kingdom. Therefore, hand over the cities that you have taken, and the tribute from the places you control outside the borders of Judea. Otherwise, give five hundred talents of silver for them, and five hundred more for the destruction you have wrought and for the tribute of the cities; or else we will come and make war on you. The demands that Antiochus presented to Simon through Athenobius stand in striking contradiction to the earlier royal favors of his letter (vv. 5–9). In these demands the king distinguishes between τὰ ὅρια τῆς Ἰουδαίας proper (the borders of Judea) and the cities of Joppa, Gazara, and others as cities of his own kingdom seized by the Jews; he thus understands by “the borders of Judea” only that region which the Jews had occupied on their return from captivity and had held when they came under the dominion of the Syrians. To this region neither Joppa nor Gazara belonged — both had been taken by Simon not long before (XIV:5 and XIII:43 ff.). Likewise, the Jerusalem citadel, having been built by Antiochus Epiphanes and until recently in Syrian hands (cf. I:33 with XIII:49 ff.), could with confident right be counted by Antiochus among the cities (πόλεις) of his kingdom. The “many places” in Antiochus’s kingdom (v. 29) that the Jews held “outside the borders of Judea” may have included Ekron, given to Jonathan by Alexander Balas (X:69), and Gaza, conquered and burned by Jonathan (XI:61). — Among the “devastated” territories there were certainly the plains of Philistia, which had been a constant theater of Jewish military operations (X:83 ff.).

1 Maccabees 15:32. And Athenobius, the king’s friend, came to Jerusalem, and when he saw Simon’s splendor and the treasury with its vessels of gold and silver and the surrounding magnificence, he was astonished and reported to him the king’s words. Simon’s “splendor” (ἡ δόξα) that struck Athenobius was the luxury of his court. — The “treasury” with its vessels of gold and silver (κυλικεῖον, from κύλιξ, calix — cup, goblet) was something like a “sideboard” department or cabinet with buffet and table fittings. — “The surrounding magnificence” (παράστασιν ἱκανήν), in the Slavonic: “a sufficient array” — properly speaking, “a rich retinue of court attendants,” befitting a truly royal court.

1 Maccabees 15:33–37. Simon replied: “We have neither taken foreign land nor seized the property of others, but we hold the inheritance of our fathers, which our enemies at one time unjustly appropriated. We, having found the right moment, have recovered the inheritance of our fathers. As for Joppa and Gazara, which you demand — they themselves caused much harm to our people throughout the land; for these we will give one hundred talents.” Athenobius made no reply, but returned to the king in anger and reported these words to him, and told him of Simon’s splendor and everything he had seen; and the king was greatly enraged. Trypho meanwhile boarded a ship and escaped to Orthosia. The narrative about the siege of Dora, which had been interrupted by the account of Antiochus’s break with Simon (vv. 26–35), now continues. Despite the tight blockade of the fortress (v. 25), Trypho managed to board a ship and sail away to Orthosia. This Orthosia or Orthosias — a Phoenician port city north of Tripolis, south of the mouth of the river Eleutherus (Strabo, XVI p. 753 ff.; cf. Plin. V, 17 and Ptol. V, 15, 4) — its ruins can still be seen on the northern side of the Nahr el Barid.

1 Maccabees 15:38. Then the king appointed Cendebeus commander of the coastal region and gave him infantry and cavalry forces Cendebeus, a known enemy and persecutor of the Jews, is called in some codices ἐπιστράτηγος στράτηγος πρώταρχος 2 Macc 10:11. — “The coastal region” over which he was made “chief commander” is the same narrow coastal strip of land (τῆς παραλίας) along the Mediterranean previously mentioned — XI:8. — “Kedron” — no precise information about it has survived. Judging from v. 40 and XVI:4, 8–10, it lay on the western border of Judea on the plain, southwest of Modein, in the region of Azotus. Further investigation points to its identification with Gedera on the plain (Josh 15:36), southeast of Jamnia, where today Gedrus or Ghedera — a village one hour’s journey southeast of Jamnia — is located.

1 Maccabees 15:39–40. and ordered him to make war on Judea; he also ordered him to build up Kedron and fortify its gates, and to make war on the people; while the king himself pursued Trypho. And Cendebeus came to Jamnia and began to provoke the people and to raid Judea and take the people captive and kill them; “To provoke,” ἐρεθίζειν, more precisely in the Slavonic: “he began to provoke the people.”

1 Maccabees 15:41. and he built up Kedron and stationed cavalry and forces there, so that they would go out from there and patrol the roads of Judea, as the king had commanded him. * * * The Books of the Maccabees have been translated from the Greek, for they do not exist in Hebrew.