e manner following: "Fanius, the
son of Marcus, the praetor, gathered the senate together on the eighth
day before the Ides of February, in the senate-house, when Lucius
Manlius, the son of Lucius, of the Mentine tribe, and Caius Sempronius,
the son of Caius, of the Falernian tribe, were present. The occasion
was, that the ambassadors sent by the people of the Jews [26] Simon, the
son of Dositheus, and Apollonius, the son of Alexander, and Diodorus,
the son of Jason, who were good and virtuous men, had somewhat to
propose about that league of friendship and mutual assistance which
subsisted between them and the Romans, and about other public affairs,
who desired that Joppa, and the havens, and Gazara, and the springs [of
Jordan], and the several other cities and countries of theirs, which
Antiochus had taken from them in the war, contrary to the decree of the
senate, might be restored to them; and that it might not be lawful for
the king's troops to pass through their country, and the countries of
those that are subject to them; and that what attempts Antiochus had
made during that war, without the decree of the senate, might be made
void; and that they would send ambassadors, who should take care that
restitution be made them of what Antiochus had taken from them, and that
they should make an estimate of the country that had been laid waste
in the war; and that they would grant them letters of protection to
the kings and free people, in order to their quiet return home. It
was therefore decreed, as to these points, to renew their league of
friendship and mutual assistance with these good men, and who were sent
by a good and a friendly people." But as to the letters desired, their
answer was, that the senate would consult about that matter when their
own affairs would give them leave; and that they would endeavor, for the
time to come, that no like injury should be done to them; and that their
praetor Fanius should give them money out of the public treasury to bear
their expenses home. And thus did Fanius dismiss the Jewish ambassadors,
and gave them money out of the public treasury; and gave the decree of
the senate to those that were to conduct them, and to take care that
they should return home in safety.

3. And thus stood the affairs of Hyrcanus the high priest. But as for
king Demetrius, who had a mind to make war against Hyrcanus, there was
no opportunity nor room for it, while both the Syrians and the soldiers
b