Chapter 15
Antiochus, son of Demetrius, takes his father's kingdom and writes letters to the Jews. He pursues Tryphon. Simon sent help to Antiochus, and he did not wish to accept it, etc.
15:1 And King Antiochus, son of Demetrius, sent letters to the islands of the sea to Simon the priest, etc.
This Antiochus, who was called Εὐεργέτης, that is, “Benefactor,” and likewise “Faithful,” was the son of Demetrius Soter, and brother of the younger Demetrius, who reigned in Syria after Alexander Philopator (Philopolus). Now Demetrius Soter, after Antiochus Eupator, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, as the Chronicle of Eusebius and Jerome attests, reigned twelve years, after whom Alexander Philopolus reigned eleven years. After him Demetrius, son of Demetrius, reigned three years; but having been captured by the Parthians, he was restricted in Hyrcania by King Arsacides. After him Antiochus Assidetes [Sidetes], his brother, held the kingdom for fourteen years, and after his death Demetrius was restored again, and thereafter held it for four years. How the succession of the kingdom fell to the brothers Demetrius and Antiochus should not seem burdensome to the reader if some material from the History of Pompeius Trogus is introduced here, who relates this in Book 30 as follows: “Antiochus, remembering that his father had been hated because of his arrogance and his brother despised because of his sluggishness, so that he might not fall into the same vices, after taking Cleopatra, his brother’s wife, in marriage, pursued with the greatest diligence the cities which at the beginning of his brother’s rule had revolted, and when he had subdued them, he again added them to the boundaries of the kingdom. He also subdued the Jews, who, under Macedonian rule, in the time of his father Demetrius, had by arms vindicated themselves into freedom, whose strength was so great that after this they accepted no king of the Macedonians, and, using domestic rulers, greatly harassed Syria with wars.”
Likewise in Book 38, and in the thirty‑eighth year of his earlier narrative, he adds the following: “For Demetrius, as mentioned above, when he had brought war against the Parthians and had been victorious in many engagements, was suddenly surrounded by ambushes, and having lost his army, was captured. Arsacides in Hyrcania granted him not only the royal attire [Arsacides, king of the Parthians, of great and princely spirit, furnished him in Hyrcania not only with royal attire], but also gave him his daughter in marriage, and promised that he would restore to him the kingdom of Syria, which Tryphon had seized during his absence. After the death of this king, when Demetrius had lost hope of returning and could no longer bear captivity, weary of a private life, though wealthy, he silently planned flight back to his kingdom. His encourager and companion was his friend Gallimander, who, after Demetrius’ capture, had come from Syria through the deserts of Arabia, with guides acquired for money, to Babylon in Parthian dress. But Phrahates, who had succeeded Arsacides, pursued the fugitive with cavalry speed, and, taking the shorter routes, overtook and brought him back. When he was led to the king, not only pardon but also a reward for his loyalty was granted to Gallimander. Demetrius, however, after being severely chastised, was sent back to his wife in Hyrcania, and ordered to be kept under stricter guard. After an interval of time, when trust in him and in the freedmen he had gained gave him courage, he again fled with the same friend as his companion; but with equal misfortune he was arrested near the borders of the king’s realm, and being led once more to the king, was removed from his sight as hateful. Then again he was given to his wife and children and sent back to Hyrcania, the city that was his place of punishment, and was presented with such golden ornaments in criticism of his childish lightheartedness. But this kindness of the Parthians toward Demetrius, so mild, was produced neither by the custom of the nation nor by consideration of kinship, but because they coveted the kingdom of Syria, intending to make use of Demetrius against his brother Antiochus, as time or the fortune of war might require.”
When he heard this, Antiochus, thinking the war must be seized, led the army, which he had hardened by many wars with neighboring peoples, against the Parthians. But his followers for luxury was no less extensive than for warfare: indeed, many thousands of armed men were followed by three hundred thousand camp‑followers, among whom there were more cooks [indeed, eighty thousand armed men were followed by three hundred thousand camp‑followers, among whom cooks, etc.] and bakers. There was so much silver and gold that the common soldiers fastened their boots with gold and walked underfoot the very material for the love of which peoples fight with steel. The kitchen utensils too were of silver, and altogether they advanced as if to banquets, not to war. As Antiochus arrived, many Eastern kings met him, entrusting themselves and their kingdoms to him, with curses upon Parthian arrogance. Nor was there any delay for battle. Antiochus, victorious in three engagements, when he had taken Babylon, began to be considered great. And so, as all peoples streamed to him, nothing remained to the Parthians except their ancestral territory. Then Phrahates sent Demetrius into Syria with a Parthian military base to occupy the kingdom, so that by this means Antiochus might be recalled to Parthia to defend his own possessions. Meanwhile, since he was not able to prevail by strength, he tried everywhere to ensnare Antiochus by plots. Because of the great number of men, the army of Antiochus was divided among the cities during the winter, and this became the cause of ruin. For when the cities saw themselves burdened by the exactions of supplies and the injuries of the soldiers, they defected to the Parthians; and on the appointed day they attacked the army, dispersed among them in ambush, so that they could not bring help to one another. When this was reported to Antiochus, he marched forward with the force that wintered with him, to bring aid to the nearest cities. On the way he met the king of the Parthians, and fought against him more bravely than his army did; but in the end, although they were overcoming the enemy by bravery, he was abandoned out of fear by his own men and killed. Phrahates gave him a funeral with royal ceremony, and, having fallen in love with the maiden, took as his wife the daughter of Demetrius whom Antiochus had brought with him. Afterwards he began to regret that he had released Demetrius; and when he had quickly sent teams of cavalry to bring him back, they found Demetrius already established in the kingdom, fearing this very thing, and after attempting everything in vain, they returned to their king.
With Antioch destroyed in Parthia together with his army, his brother Demetrius, freed from Parthian captivity and restored to [the kingdom], when all Syria was in mourning because the army had been lost, decided to wage war against Egypt, as if his own patriarchal [Parthian] campaigns and those of his brother, in which one had been captured and the other killed, had turned out successfully. And the kingdom of Egypt was to be the price of Cleopatra his mother‑in‑law’s aid against her own brother. But while he coveted what belonged to another, as usually happens, he lost his own possessions through the defection of Syria. For the Antiochenes were the first, under the leadership of Trypho, to curse the king’s arrogance, which had become intolerable through his association with [Parthian cruelty]; and soon Apamea and the other cities followed their example, and by reason of the king’s [Demetrius’] absence revolted from him. King Ptolemy of Egypt also, when attacked in war by this same Demetrius, learned that Cleopatra his sister, with Egypt’s wealth placed on ships, had fled to her son and to Demetrius his son‑in‑law in Syria. He then sent a certain young Egyptian, the son of the merchant Protharses, to claim the kingdom of Syria by force of arms; and with an invented story, as though by adoption by King Antiochus he had been received into the royal family, and since the Syrians refused to tolerate any king, lest they endure Demetrius’ arrogance, the name Alexander was given to the young man and vast forces were dispatched from Egypt.
Meanwhile, the body of Antiochus, slain by the king of the Parthians and sent back to Syria for burial in a silver coffin, arrived; and it was received with great zeal by the cities and by King Alexander, to strengthen the credibility of the fabricated tale. This won great popular favor, as everyone believed that the tears shed for him were not insincere. Demetrius, however, defeated by Alexander and oppressed on all sides by surrounding misfortunes, was at last even abandoned by his wife and sons. Left therefore with only a few servants, when he had gone to Tyre, intending to defend himself by the sanctuary of the temple, he was killed as he went out, by order of the captain.
By the foregoing causes, namely that Antiochus claimed from Simon the cities gained by warfare, it is shown that the ancient enemy is always envious of the virtues of the saints and seeks to subject them to his unjust slavery; but Simon, by spiritually claiming them for himself, declared them to be under his own jurisdiction and the inheritance of his fathers, and that he had no fellowship there, because the possession of virtues belongs properly to the elect, not to the depraved. Therefore the lands of the Canaanites, into which the sons of Israel are brought, had once been allotted to the sons of Shem in the division of the world, which were afterwards, by violence and power, possessed by their descendants through the wickedness of persuasion. In this, the exceedingly just judgment of God is confirmed: for He both drove those men out from foreign places which they had wrongly seized, and restored to these holy ones, as their fathers’ possession, that which had been assigned to their lineage in the division of the world; and this is recognized in us with most certain reasoning. For the will of the Lord has by nature assigned the possession of our heart not to vices but to virtues; which, after Adam’s transgression, when vices grew disrespectful, that is, the Canaanite peoples having been driven from their own region, are restored together with them on high, by God’s grace, through our diligence and labor; yet they are not to be believed to have occupied foreign lands, but rather to have received back their own.
15:38 And the king appointed Cendebaeus as commander of the coastal region and of the cavalry army, etc.
What is indicated by Cendebaeus, the commander of the coastal region, whom Antiochus sends to wage war against the Jews, if not the powers of this world and the persecutors of the Christian religion? Antiochus, namely the mystical Antichrist, sends them with an army of officers and executioners for the destruction of the Christian people, so that they may trample down the true Judea, that is, the Church, and either lead the faithful people into captivity through error or destroy them through blasphemy. Cendebaeus is furthermore ordered to build Cedron. For Cedron is a brook or valley near Jerusalem, on the eastern side, which John the Evangelist also mentions in the account of the Lord’s Passion (John 18:1). Cedron was ordered to be built for this reason: so that the gates of the city might be blocked and the people confined. Now Cedron is interpreted as “sadness,” or “grief,” or “pain,” and it is fitting that he was sent to build Cedron to whom it was entrusted to inflict the pain of punishments upon the confessors of Christ.