ill condition
in the struggles they had one with another, he despised them both.

2. So he made an expedition against Samaria which was a very strong
city; of whose present name Sebaste, and its rebuilding by Herod, we
shall speak at a proper time; but he made his attack against it, and
besieged it with a great deal of pains; for he was greatly displeased
with the Samaritans for the injuries they had done to the people of
Merissa, a colony of the Jews, and confederate with them, and this in
compliance to the kings of Syria. When he had therefore drawn a ditch,
and built a double wall round the city, which was fourscore furlongs
long, he set his sons Antigonus and Arisrobulna over the siege; which
brought the Samaritans to that great distress by famine, that they
were forced to eat what used not to be eaten, and to call for Antiochus
Cyzicenus to help them, who came readily to their assistance, but was
beaten by Aristobulus; and when he was pursued as far as Scythopolis
by the two brethren, he got away. So they returned to Samaria, and shut
them again within the wall, till they were forced to send for the same
Antiochus a second time to help them, who procured about six thousand
men from Ptolemy Lathyrus, which were sent them without his mother's
consent, who had then in a manner turned him out of his government. With
these Egyptians Antiochus did at first overrun and ravage the country of
Hyrcanus after the manner of a robber, for he durst not meet him in
the face to fight with him, as not having an army sufficient for that
purpose, but only from this supposal, that by thus harassing his land he
should force Hyrcanus to raise the siege of Samaria; but because he
fell into snares, and lost many of his soldiers therein, he went away
to Tripoli, and committed the prosecution of the war against the Jews to
Callimander and Epicrates.

3. But as to Callimander, he attacked the enemy too rashly, and was put
to flight, and destroyed immediately; and as to Epicrates, he was such
a lover of money, that he openly betrayed Scythopolis, and other places
near it, to the Jews, but was not able to make them raise the siege of
Samaria. And when Hyrcanus had taken that city, which was not done till
after a year's siege, he was not contented with doing that only, but he
demolished it entirely, and brought rivulets to it to drown it, for he
dug such hollows as might let the water run under it; nay, he took away
the very marks that there h