good fortune he enjoyed for twenty-two years; and he
became the father of seven sons by one wife. He had also another son whose
name was Hyrcanus.

[Sidenote: Jos. Ant. XII, 3:3a, b]
Now in the reign of Antiochus the Great, who ruled over all Asia, the
Jews, as well as the inhabitants of Coele-Syria, suffered greatly, and
their land was sorely harassed, for while Antiochus was at war with
Ptolemy Philopator and his son Ptolemy, who was called Epiphanes, these
nations suffered equally both when he was defeated and when he was
victorious. So they were like a ship in the storm which is tossed by the
waves on both sides.

[Sidenote: Jos. Ant. XII, 3:3c-e]
But at length when Antiochus had beaten Ptolemy he seized Judea. And when
Philopator was dead, his son sent out against the inhabitants of
Coele-Syria a great army under Scopas, general of his forces, and took
many of their cities and especially our people, who, when he attacked
them, went over to him. But soon afterwards Antiochus overcame Scopas in a
battle fought at the fountains of the Jordan and destroyed a great part of
his army. And afterwards, when Antiochus subdued those cities of
Coele-Syria which Scopas had captured, and Samaria among them, the Jews of
their own accord went over to him and received him into Jerusalem and gave
plentiful provisions to all his army and readily assisted him when he
besieged the garrison which was in the citadel at Jerusalem.

I. Josephus's Histories. The Greek period began with Alexander's
conquest of Palestine in 332 and extended to the Maccabean uprising in 168
B.C. For the external history of this period the writings of the historian
Josephus are the chief sources. This famous Jewish writer was born in 37
A.D., and apparently lived till about the close of the reign of Domitian
in 96. According to his own testimony he was the son of a priest named
Mattathiah. Until he was sixteen he studied under the Jewish rabbis. He
then spent three years with the Jewish sect known as the Essenes. At the
age of nineteen he joined the party of the Pharisees. His point of view in
general is that of this dominant popular party. He was able to read Latin,
but wrote his histories in Greek. At the age of twenty-six he went to Rome
where he spent three years. Returning to Palestine at the beginning of the
great rebellion against Rome, he was appointed revolutionary governor of
the important province of Galilee. The appointment was unfortunate, for h