Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
Note: “He returned” means he began to return, he set out for Babylon, but did not reach it, for he died in the mountains of Persia and Media near Babylon. Therefore “returned” signifies an act begun, not completed: whence for apestrepse, that is, returned, the Greek, Vatican and Royal copies have apestrepsen, that is, to return, or that he might return, that is, he departed (thence seeking Babylonia, as Vatablus renders). Wherefore Pereira on Daniel chap. 11, and Salianus judge that Antiochus died in the mountains of Media, although ABOMINATION, (that is, the abominable idol of Olympian Jove, which Antiochus had set up on the altar in the temple): AND THE SANCTUARY, (that is, the sanctuary, or holy temple) THEY COMPASSED ABOUT WITH WALLS.
12. BUT NOW I REMEMBER THE EVILS.—Behold conscience convicts the wicked man, so that he recognises that he is tormented and driven to death on account of his crimes and sacrileges committed against God, the temple and the Jews. How true: “Conscience is a thousand witnesses!” This is plain in Cain a wanderer and fugitive for the murder of his brother Abel, Genes. 4, in the brothers who sold Joseph, Genes. 42, 21, in Judas the traitor, Matth. 27, 4. For when punishment presses, conscience at once recalls to the mind the fault, as the cause of the punishment, and chastises and strikes it with its rebuke.
15. AND HE GAVE HIM (Philip, his intimate friend) THE CROWN AND HIS ROBE, AND HIS RING,—that he might carry them, as insignia of the king, to his son Antiochus Eupator, a boy, and bring him up and direct him as a tutor, and set him up in the kingdom in his place, taking care that he himself should reign, lest Demetrius should seize a joint reign with him, as in fact he did.
17. AND LYSIAS UNDERSTOOD THAT THE KING WAS DEAD (Antiochus Epiphanes), AND HE SET UP TO REIGN (that is, proclaimed king) ANTIOCHUS HIS SON (nine years old, says Appian) EUPATOR—that is, born of a good and fortunate father, sprung from great ancestry; of Epiphanes, that is, an illustrious father, a noble and illustrious son. So eupatris is called a noble daughter. And eupatridai were called by Theseus the nobles of the Athenians, as Plutarch testifies in the Theseus, who in the Publicola calls the Patricians of the Romans eupatridai, and Budaeus attributes the same name in his epistle to the Venetian Doctors. Otherwise Pagninus in the Hebrew names: “Eupator,” he says, “is the same as ‘good father,’ that is, a good Prince. For he loves his subjects as sons, and shows himself kind and beneficent to them as a father.” The former etymology seems more apt and true. For the Syrians, says Appian in the Syriac history, added to Antiochus the surname Eupator on account of his father’s virtue, as if they said that he was fortunate to whom such a father had fallen.
[the followers of Antiochus] occupying the citadel of Sion, knowing that Judas with his forces was away, by running out continually harassed the few garrison troops, whom Judas had placed in the neighbouring citadel set over against the former to restrain them; indeed also
THEY KEPT THE ISRAELITES SHUT UP ROUND ABOUT THE HOLY PLACES, (so that they dared not set foot outside their citadel and temple: and in this way there was ever increased) THE STRENGTH OF THE GENTILES,—that is, the force and fortitude of the followers of Antiochus. Wherefore Judas besieged them and the citadel of Sion with his whole army in the year 150 of the Greeks, which was the second year of Eupator.
ISRAEL,—envying the glory of Judas, who therefore went to king Antiochus Eupator, urging him to crush Judas, hoping that they would be put by him in the place of Judas, to be prefects and lords of Judea. These then were apostates and traitors of Israel.
28. AND THE KING WAS ANGRY—Antiochus Eupator, a youth, indeed a boy, stirred up by Lysias and his counsellors, who therefore gathered against Judas a hundred thousand footmen and 20 thousand horsemen with 32 elephants which were TRAINED TO BATTLE.
31. AND THEY SALLIED FORTH (the besieged Jews from their stronghold Bethsura), AND BURNT THEM (the engines set up against them by Eupator) AND FOUGHT MANFULLY,—bravely defending themselves and their Bethsura.
34. AND THEY SHEWED THE ELEPHANTS THE BLOOD (the juice or liquor, namely red like blood) OF THE GRAPE AND OF THE MULBERRY (from the mulberry tree) TO PROVOKE THEM TO FIGHT;—that, seeing as it were blood, they might be excited and made fierce to shed the blood of the enemy. For although elephants, bulls and lions do not need this provocation, when they see serpents and other animals hostile to them, yet in battle they need it against men: for with men they have no antipathy.
Moreover that these elephants were enormous and very strong is plain from their being Indian; for they had an Indian driver: and Indian elephants are the largest and strongest, and far surpass the Libyan, as Livy testifies, book 37. Again from this, that each elephant carried on its back a lofty and strong tower and in it 32 armed men with a store of missiles and arms. Besides this, that to each elephant stood five hundred horsemen, so that to the 32 elephants in all there stood sixteen thousand horsemen, fighting together with the elephants and for the elephants. So much the greater was the virtue of Judas and of the Jews, generously fighting with such monsters. Moreover to each elephant stood a thousand footmen, so that to the 32 elephants stood 32 thousand footmen. Note first that the ancients used elephants; and why the Indians still use them in battles, for causes which Vegetius recounts, book 3 On military affairs chap. 24:
“Elephants,” he says, “in battles confuse men and horses by the size of their bodies, the horror of their trumpeting, and the novelty of their form itself. First king Pyrrhus led these out against the Roman army in Lucania. Afterwards Hannibal in Africa, king Antiochus in the East, Jugurtha in Numidia, had them in great numbers; against whom various kinds of arms were devised:” to these add, first, the stench, which in elephants is so heavy that the enemy’s horses, not able to bear it, run away, unless they have first become accustomed to it; second, that the elephant above other animals is docile, so that it comes nearest to the docility, prudence and sagacity of men, as Pliny teaches, book 8, chap. 1, Aristotle, book 9 of the History of Animals chap. 46. It is therefore taught to fight, and how to conduct itself in battle, and what duties it must discharge. Aelian recounts these, book 12 and 22; third, elephants as well as bulls are irritated by the sight of blood, made fierce and excited, so as to rush on the enemy, as Valesius teaches, Sacred Philosophy chap. 82.
On the other hand our Sanchez thinks that the blood-coloured juice of the grape and mulberry was shown to the elephants that they might remember they had been cured of wounds with this juice, and that again, if wounded in battle, they would be cured. For Aelian, book 11, chap. 18, Arrian and Strabo relate that the wounds and diseases of elephants are cured by their keepers with black wine. This agrees aptly with the tropological sense. For if the blood of the grape inflames the elephant, so that, mindful of the benefit and cure received through it from its master, it fights for him and rushes upon swords and spears, what ought we to do, who look upon Christ, who for us poured out all his blood and life on the cross? Aelian adds, book 3 On Animals, that wine is given to elephants to drink, that inflamed by it, as if drunk, they may rush upon swords and arms. The same was done among the Jews, as 3 Machab. chap. 5 teaches: “Hermon,” he says, “the master of the elephants, commanded that on the next day frankincense in large handfuls with a great quantity of strong wine should be given as drink to all the elephants, in number five hundred, that, drink being plentifully supplied, they might be brought in maddened to bring death to the Jews.” For frankincense mixed with wine dulls the senses, and sends a stupor on them. So wine drunk by bulls and other animals makes them spirited and bold, indeed fierce and furious, so that they rush upon all they meet.
35. AND BY EVERY ELEPHANT STOOD A THOUSAND MEN IN COATS OF MAIL,—which namely like a net, were joined together with rings or little hooks, whence they were called hooked and chain-mail, such as Goliath was clad in when fighting a duel with David,
36. THESE WERE READY WHEREVER THE BEAST WAS;—as if to say: These thousand men, since they could not equal in speed the swiftness of the great elephants, ran on ahead of the elephant; wherefore before the time at which the beast arrived at a certain place, they were already there before it: for when they saw the beast making for a certain place, they ran there by shorter and straighter paths, and got ahead of the beast.
37. AND UPON THE BEASTS THERE WERE STRONG WOODEN TOWERS,—having their ramparts and breastworks, by which they “covered” both the soldiers themselves and their engines.
AND UPON EVERY ONE (of the towers) THIRTY-TWO STRONG MEN (that is, strenuous and very brave), WHO FOUGHT FROM ABOVE (against the enemies beneath; whence they easily laid them low): AND AN INDIAN TO RULE THE BEAST,—whence it is clear that these elephants were Indian, which are much larger and stronger than the African; for these scarcely carry six or seven armed men. So from Livy, Pliny, Solinus and others, Gesner and Aldrovandus on the elephant.