Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
2. AND ARSACES KING OF PERSIA AND MEDIA HEARD—Demetrius, excluded from the kingdom of Syria, wandering through the neighbouring regions, THAT (because) DEMETRIUS WAS ENTERED INTO HIS BORDERS.—Justin, Appian and others call this Arsaces king of the Parthians, but the Parthians then ruled Persia and Media. Orosius, book V, chap. iv, calls this Arsaces by his proper name Mithridates, and makes him the sixth from the first Arsaces, founder of the kingdom of the Parthians; for the name Arsaces was common to the kings of the Parthians, as Justin testifies, book XLI, who calls this Arsaces the third by his proper name Pompatius, or Priapatius, whose two sons Mithridates and Phraates both afterwards reigned among the Parthians. Moreover Demetrius, [driven out] by Tryphon, and seeking auxiliaries on every side, was invited by the Greeks and Macedonians dwelling in those places to make war upon Arsaces, promising him great help. Demetrius did this, and engaging with Arsaces conquered him once and again; but at length, conquered and captured, he came alive into the hands of Arsaces. Hear Justin, book XXXVI, at the beginning: “The peoples of the East saw the coming of Demetrius not unwillingly, both on account of the cruelty of Arsaces king of the Parthians, and because the new peoples, accustomed to the old rule of the Macedonians, bore his pride ill. And so, when he was helped also by auxiliaries of the Persians, Elymaeans and Bactrians, he routed the Parthians in many battles. At last, however, deceived by a pretence of peace, he is captured, and led through the mouths of the cities, shown to the peoples who had revolted as a mockery of their favour. Then sent into Hyrcania, he is kindly treated and in accordance with the style of his former fortune.”
Justin adds, book XXXVIII, that Arsaces gave his daughter to Demetrius as wife. Appian, however, in the Syriac near the end says that Demetrius abode in the palace of Phraates and married Rhodogune, sister of the king.
3. AND PUT HIM INTO CUSTODY.—Demetrius being conquered, bound and imprisoned by Arsaces, Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy Philometor and wife of the now captive Demetrius, summoned to Seleucia his brother Antiochus Sidetes, and offered him her husband’s kingdom together with her marriage. But Demetrius, freed from prison, returned with forces into Syria, and despoiled his brother Sidetes of kingdom as well as life, as Josephus, Justin, Appian and others testify; but of Sidetes more will be treated chap. xv.
4. AND ALL THE LAND (of Juda and the neighbouring regions of Syria and Asia) WAS IN REST ALL THE DAYS OF SIMON—on account of his prudent, gentle and strong rule, so that no one dared to attack him. Wherefore wondrous eulogies and deeds of Simon are now recounted.
5. AND WITH ALL HIS GLORY HE TOOK JOPPE FOR A HAVEN,—as if to say: Simon won great glory for himself and all Israel, as well as profit and wealth, when he stormed Joppe and there established a port, from which he sent ships to the neighbouring islands, indeed over the whole sea, to bring in and carry out goods of every kind. For the port of Joppe is the most convenient of all Judea; whence it endures even now, and so all going to Jerusalem first land at Joppe, which is now called Jaffa. Moreover cities become most opulent through a port convenient for merchants and merchandise, as is clear in Antwerp, Venice, Lisbon, etc.
Simon led away many captives of the enemy; but freed from captivity many Jews taken by the enemies.
9. THE YOUNG MEN PUT ON THEM GLORY, (that is, they put on glorious and costly garments as victors and triumphing over their enemies, and so put on) THE ROBES OF WAR,—that is, the more elegant garments which they had acquired in war.
10. AND HE APPOINTED THAT THEY SHOULD BE FURNISHED WITH AMMUNITION,—as if to say: Simon so fortified the cities of Judea with walls and citadels that they were “vessels,” that is, receptacles and ramparts most strongly defended against enemies.
14. AND HE STRENGTHENED ALL THOSE OF HIS PEOPLE THAT WERE BROUGHT LOW,—as if to say: Simon consoled, raised up and strengthened the Jews afflicted, whether by enemies, or by rivals, or by any other cause and manner, either by taking away their affliction, or by lessening it, or by making it easy to bear by means and helps.
20. THE PRINCES OF THE SPARTANS.—Here are recounted the letters of the treaty which the Spartans made with Simon, as they had made with Judas and Jonathan.
22. AND WE REGISTERED WHAT THEY SAID IN THE PUBLIC RECORDS,—namely in the public acts, and books in which the deeds, histories, treaties and all other affairs of our people are written.
24. A GREAT SHIELD OF GOLD OF THE WEIGHT OF A THOUSAND POUNDS,—that is, a hundred thousand gold pieces. For a mina is as it were a pound of gold, which is worth a hundred gold pieces; a thousand minas therefore make a hundred times a thousand gold pieces, that is, a hundred thousand gold pieces.
AND WHEN THE PEOPLE OF ROME HAD HEARD THESE WORDS, THEY SAID:
25. WHAT THANKS SHALL WE GIVE TO SIMON AND HIS SONS?—The word “Roman,” says Salianus, is wanting in all the Greek and Latin copies except the Vulgate; and is disapproved by Vatablus and Serarius, and seems altogether to have crept into the text from the margin, where it had been placed to explain by a man not at all bad. Moreover that the following speech is not of the Romans but of the Jews is clear from this, that the answer of the Romans, in which this gift is treated, is found in the next chapter, ver. 16. Besides, the whole speech is of Hebrew style, and has nothing of the Roman manner. For the Romans, lords of affairs, were not wont to give thanks to the peoples of lesser nations, much less to the Jews. The sense therefore will be, as if to say: When the Jewish people, exulting at the peace of Judea restored by Simon, heard the letters of the Spartans, moved by a spirit of gratitude, it said: “What thanks shall we give to Simon and his sons? For he hath restored his brethren.”