Prev TOC Next
[See page image]

Page 341

 

341 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA 8eleuddn

battle at Pandas which terminated Egyptian rule in Asia (198). The next year Antiochus carried further his assault upon Asia Minor by sea and land, recovering Ptolemaic territory nearly all the way along the southern and eastern coasts. He then challenged Rome by passing into Europe, his successes seeming to him as a Greek to give him the right to intervene in the constant struggle of the Grecian states in behalf of a reunited Greek world. This brought a protesting Roman embassy, demanding his retirement and the restriction of his operations to Asia. But he assumed to be the liberator of Greece from the Romans, despised the Roman power, entered upon the struggle less fully prepared than was his wont, and suffered defeat-at Thermopylae. The Romans carried the war into Asia, and Antiochus met a crushing defeat at Magnesia, after which he was compelled to give up all the territory north of the Taurus mountains, was fined 15,500 talents, and a large quantity of corn. In 188 Antiochus departed to the East, and the report was that he was killed while plundering or on his way to plunder the temple of Baal at Elymais (cf. Dan. xi. 19; I Mace. viii. 6).

Seleucus IV. Philopator (187-176), son of Antiochus the Great, succeeded to a difficult task, that of recovering the prestige lost by his father in the contest with the Romans, while at the same time he had to pay the indemnity imposed by the latter. He found an empty treasury (which his comparatively peaceful reign succeeded in filling) and a consequent advisability for cessation from the ceaseless wars in which his predecessors had engaged (cf. Dan. xi. 20). It is possible, however, that he was prevented from intervening in the wars of the Greek world by an embassy from the Romans. He is the king mentioned in II Mace. iii. as sending, to confiscate the money in the treasury of the Temple at Jerusalem, his minister Heliodorus who is reported to have entered the sanctuary and to have been prevented by a terrible apparition there from accomplishing his purpose. On his return, Heliodorus formed a conspiracy and murdered Seleucus, putting on the throne the infant son.of Seleucus (intending thus to keep the power in his own hands), passing by the elder son Demetrius (a hostage at Rome), and disregarding Antiochus the brother of Philopator. But the Plans of Heliodorus came to nothing when Antiochus forced his way to the throne.

Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (175-164), son of Antiochus III., grew up in Rome where he was a hostage; he accepted Greek citizenship at Athens and a magistracy. Interest in him for the student of Jewish and Christian history centers in his determined attack in behalf of Greek culture and religion upon Jewish nationality, religion, and Scriptures, provoking the uprising which resulted in the temporarily brilliant period of Maccabean rule (see HABMONEANB). That he is the focus of the Book of Daniel (q.v.) is now generally accepted, while his picture, also from a Jewish angle of vision, is in I and II Maccabees (for a brilliant analysis of his character from a more than usually sympathetic point of view consult E. R. Bevan, House of Selerh

cus, ii. 128 sqq., London, 1902). When the stroke

of Heliodorus became known, Epiphanes left for Syria, aided by Eumenes and Attalus of Pergamene, and soon succeeded in seating himself on the throne, overcoming opposition, getting rid in the usual way of rivals, and reducing to quiescence those opposed to him. In 173 he sent an embassy to Rome to seek assurance of friendship, which was granted with some reserve, though amity was assured. War with Egypt was begun by the latter, the object being the annexation of the Seleucid empire to Egypt. But Antiochus made adequate preparation not only for defense but for aggressive action, associated his infant son with him so as to leave a ruler in case of accident, defeated the Egyptians near Pelusium, pushed on and seized that frontier fortress, captured Ptolemy Philometor, established Seleucid government at Memphis with Philometor as viceroy, and withdrew after unsuccessfully assailing Alexandria. But Philometor came to an agreement with his brother to reign jointly, and Epiphanes returned to Egypt to subdue it once more only to receive the Romans' curt order to withdraw (168). Meanwhile his forces had been making a conquest of Cyprus, whence the Romans compelled their withdrawal.

The regions of expansion for Antiochus were thus circumscribed by the great western power. But the peculiar mission to which he deemed himself called was still possible of exercise, and that was the advancement of Hellenic religion and culture in the regions which were acknowledged as his own. He was especially a devotee of Zeus, of whom it is probable that he thought himself an incarnation (hence his own title for himself-Theos Epiphanes, " God Manifest "). Among the Jews, through the favor of the Greek rulers of Egypt and Syria and under the constant pressure of contact and the pass to favor which a tendency to adopt Greek culture put in the hands of apostate Jews, the drift was almost away from their own national religion. Onias had been overthrown as high priest by Jesus (175), who changed his name to the Greek Jason, and was in turn outbid for the priesthood by another Jew with a Greek name, Menelaos. Greek sports and exercises had been introduced for Jewish youth, and some even were ashamed of Jewish parentage and sought to eliminate the marks of it. Of course the nation at large had not gone over to Hellenism, though there was a large drift and it might have come to that. But a report during the king's Egyptian campaign that Jerusalem had declared for Ptolemy led Antiochus to sate his vengeance for defeated plans upon the Jews. The fact that the Hellenism of Menelaos had led to this was probably fuel to the flame of his anger. He first punished Jerusalem as a rebellious city; later he determined upon making it a stronghold of his kingdom as an outpost against Egypt, and to make it safe it was to be Hellenized. The Jewish religion was to be blotted out, the Temple was plundered and converted into a sanctuary of Zeus Olympics, the worship of Dionysos was introduced, the Jews were to sacrifice to heathen deities and eat sacrificed swine, while their books were to be destroyed. These measures were enforced by frequent massa,cres. Such measures as these with a people like the