throughout seven
reigns, the struggle continued; Judaea taking advantage of every trouble
and difficulty in Syria to detach herself more and more completely from
her oppressor; being a continual thorn in her side, a constant source of
weakness, preventing more than anything else the recovery of her power.
The triumph which Epiphanes obtained in the distant Armenia (B.C.
166-5), where he defeated and captured the king, Artaxias, was a poor
set-off against the foe which he had created to himself at his doors
through his cruelty and intolerance.

In another quarter, too, the Syrian power received a severe shake
through the injudicious violence of Epiphanes. The Oriental temples
had, in some instances, escaped the rapacity of Alexander's generals and
"Successors;" their treasuries remained unviolated, and contained large
hoards of the precious metals. Epiphanes, having exhausted his own
exchequer by his wars and his lavish gifts, saw in these un-plundered
stores a means of replenishing it, and made a journey into his
south-eastern provinces for the purpose. The natives of Elymais,
however, resisted his attempt, and proved strong enough to defeat it;
the baffled monarch retired to Tabae, where he shortly afterward fell
sick and died. In the popular belief his death was a judgment upon him
for his attempted sacrilege; and in the exultation caused by the event
the bands which joined these provinces to the Empire must undoubtedly
have been loosened.

Nor did the removal of Epiphanes (B.C. 164) improve the condition of
affairs in Syria. The throne fell to his son, Antiochus Eupator, a boy
of nine, according to Appian, or, according to another authority, of
twelve years of age. The regent, Lysias, exercised the chief power, and
was soon engaged in a war with the Jews, whom the death of Epiphanes
had encouraged to fresh efforts. The authority of Lysias was further
disputed by a certain Philip, whom Epiphanes, shortly before his death,
had made tutor to the young king. The claims of this tutor to the
regent's office being supported by a considerable portion of the army, a
civil war arose between him and Lysias, which raged for the greater
part of two years (B.C. 163-2), terminating in the defeat and death
of Philip. But Syrian affairs did not even then settle down into
tranquillity. A prince of the Seleucid house, Demetrius by name, the son
of Seleucus IV., and consequently the first cousin of Eupator, was at
this time detained