usand horsemen. Antiochus
gave them the meeting, and fought desperately; and indeed when he had
gotten the victory, and was bringing some auxiliaries to that part of
his army that was in distress, he was slain. When Antiochus was fallen,
his army fled to the village Cana, where the greatest part of them
perished by famine.

2. After him [42] Arems reigned over Celesyria, being called to the
government by those that held Damascus, by reason of the hatred they
bare to Ptolemy Menneus. He also made thence an expedition against
Judea, and beat Alexander in battle, near a place called Adida; yet did
he, upon certain conditions agreed on between them, retire out of Judea.

3. But Alexander marched again to the city Dios, and took it; and then
made an expedition against Essa, where was the best part of Zeno's
treasures, and there he encompassed the place with three walls; and when
he had taken the city by fighting, he marched to Golan and Seleucia; and
when he had taken these cities, he, besides them, took that valley which
is called The Valley of Antiochus, as also the fortress of Gamala.
He also accused Demetrius, who was governor of those places, of many
crimes, and turned him out; and after he had spent three years in this
war, he returned to his own country, when the Jews joyfully received him
upon this his good success.

4. Now at this time the Jews were in possession of the following cities
that had belonged to the Syrians, and Idumeans, and Phoenicians: At
the sea-side, Strato's Tower, Apollonia, Joppa, Jamhis, Ashdod, Gaza,
Anthedon, Raphia, and Rhinocolura; in the middle of the country, near to
Idumea, Adorn, and Marissa; near the country of Samaria, Mount Carmel,
and Mount Tabor, Scythopolis, and Gadara; of the country of Gaulonitis,
Seleucia and Gabala; in the country of Moab, Heshbon, and Medaba, Lemba,
and Oronas, Gelithon, Zorn, the valley of the Cilices, and Pollo; which
last they utterly destroyed, because its inhabitants would not bear to
change their religious rites for those peculiar to the Jews. [43] The
Jews also possessed others of the principal cities of Syria, which had
been destroyed.

5. After this, king Alexander, although he fell into a distemper by hard
drinking, and had a quartan ague, which held him three years, yet would
not leave off going out with his army, till he was quite spent with the
labors he had undergone, and died in the bounds of Ragaba, a fortress
beyond Jordan. But when his qu