Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
(who was already held captive by Arsaces; but the Romans either had not yet heard that he was captured, as Serarius will have it, or thought that he would shortly be freed by a peace made with Arsaces), AND TO ATTALUS, (who was the son of Eumenes and king of Pergamus, and dying wrote the Roman people his heir), AND TO ARIARATHES. (This was king of Cappadocia, brother of Orophernes, father of Demetrius, as Polybius, Justin and Appian testify), AND TO ARSACES.—This was the king of the Parthians, who held Demetrius captive.
LAMPSACUS, AND THE SPARTANS, AND TO DELUS.—Nineteen are here named, partly islands, partly cities and regions, to which the Romans gave the same letters for the Jews, that they should not be troublesome to them but benevolent, because some of them were to be visited by the messengers carrying letters to the kings already named in the very course of the voyage; others were much attached to the Romans, others could greatly harm or serve the Jews. With all, moreover, the name of the Romans was venerable and formidable. These letters of the Romans show their power, but did not profit the Jews; indeed they gained them the hatred of the nations, and roused greater anger in Antiochus, as is clear in ver. 27.
25. BUT ANTIOCHUS (Sidetes) THE KING MOVED HIS CAMP TO DORA THE SECOND TIME, (because on account of winter or a like cause he had raised the first siege; in spring therefore he returned, and the second time besieged Tryphon in Dora, says Lyranus. But what follows is against this,) ASSAULTING IT CONTINUALLY,—that is, continually pressing the siege, and pressing Tryphon. Others from the Greek render on the second, namely day, as if to say: On the second day after the camp was pitched Antiochus began to assault Dora. Salianus, however, says “the second time,” because, one part of the city being occupied, Antiochus encircled the other part with a new and as it were second siege. More plainly you may say that this is called the second siege, because Antiochus with new effort, new strength and forces, new engines besieged and battered Dora from near, closely and pressingly, so that this siege of his seemed to be new and second.
namely to go out from Dora; it is clear from the Greek.
…(the soldiers and gifts sent by Simon the Pontiff) TO RECEIVE.—Josephus therefore errs, who says that Antiochus received them, and on account of them held Simon among his intimate friends; BUT HE BROKE ALL THE AGREEMENTS HE HAD MADE WITH HIM: because he saw himself furnished with so many forces by land and sea, that he had reduced Tryphon to extremities, and did not need Simon’s aid; and because he wished to join Judea, as a part of Syria, to his kingdom of Asia and Syria; for he was indignant that one corner of Judea should wish to withdraw itself from his wide empire of Asia and Syria.
28. YOU HOLD JOPPE AND GAZARA,—that is, Gaza, the city of the Philistines; for this Simon stormed, though Gaza did not belong to Judea and Simon, and therefore Antiochus here demands it back from Simon.
31. AND FOR THE HAVOC THAT YOU HAVE MADE, AND THE TRIBUTES OF THE CITIES OTHER FIVE HUNDRED TALENTS,—as if to say: For the damages and slaughters you have inflicted on places subject to me, and for the tributes you have snatched from me, pay other 500 talents.
32. AND SAW THE GLORY OF SIMON.—The interpreter seems to have read doxa, glory; others now read kylikeion, that is, a sideboard, in which are laid dishes, cups and other vessels of gold and silver.
AND HIS GREAT EQUIPAGE,—of servants, of arms, of soldiers, of furniture.
33. AND SIMON ANSWERED HIM—wisely and bravely, namely that he occupied not other men’s things but his own: Joppe and Gaza, however, though other men’s, he had occupied by right of war, because they had first harassed the Jews.
34. BUT WE HAVING OPPORTUNITY,—that is, having found a convenient occasion.
35. AND AS TO JOPPE AND GAZARA WHICH THOU DEMANDEST, THEY DID GREAT HARM TO THE PEOPLE—for the men of Joppe had drowned two hundred Jews in the sea, as is clear book II, chap. xii. The Gazarenes, that is, Gazites, as Philistines, were the bitterest enemies of the Jews from old. Hence it is clear that by Gazara is not understood Gezer, which was in the tribe of Ephraim, and so belonged to the Jews, but Gaza; for this belonged to the Philistines, not to the Jews, and therefore as hostile to the Jews was stormed by Simon, and occupied by right of war.
FOR THESE WE WILL GIVE A HUNDRED TALENTS,—as if to say: Although by right of war I justly occupy Gazara, yet to redeem the annoyance, and that I may take nothing from the kings of Syria, but amply satisfy for this and Joppe, I offer them a hundred talents, that is, 190 thousand gold pieces.
36. BUT RETURNING (Athenobius) IN A RAGE TO THE KING, namely to Antiochus Sidetes, because Simon had refused what he demanded, and instead of the million gold pieces which the king had asked, Simon offered only about a tenth part, namely 190 thousand gold pieces. The king was the more angry, taking it ill that he was slighted by Simon and resisted by him.
Hence Cendebeus was aptly called, which word is the same as zeal, or possession of grief, says Pagninus in the Hebrew Names.
Orthosias, as Ptolemy testifies, book V, chap. xv, is a city of Phoenicia on the promontory which is nearest to Cyprus; it is therefore a maritime city. Wherefore it is not Antaradus, as some think, because that is inland; much less is it Apamea, as Josephus will have it. Hear Adrichomius in the Description of the Holy Land, part 1, num. 20: Orthosia and Orthosias, today called Tortosa, is a maritime city of Phoenicia, situated between Tripoli and Arca: which after the times of Christ was famous as an episcopal see. To this city Tryphon, slipping out of Dora (in which he was besieged by Antiochus king of Syria), fled by ship, I Mach. xv, Tyrinus, XIII of the Holy War, ix and XIV of the Holy War, xiii, Ptolemy.
Moreover Sidetes took Orthosias, and slew the captured Tryphon, as Strabo, book XIV, Justin, Appian, Josephus and others testify. Josephus says that Tryphon reigned for three years, but Salianus seven, for he was killed in the year of the principate of Simon the seventh. See here the just judgment of God on the murderer and tyrant. For Tryphon, who had killed Jonathan and the king Antiochus, a ward entrusted to him, in the third or seventh year after this slaughter was killed in like manner by Sidetes, a just penalty of retaliation indeed.
38. AND THE KING APPOINTED CENDEBEUS CAPTAIN OF THE SEA COAST,—that is, prefect of the fleet, or archithalassus. [Gedor] was a city at the entrance of Judea. Hear Adrichomius in the tribe of Dan, num. 28: Gedor, which is also Gador, a city of the tribe of Juda in the lot of Dan, situated to the east of the valley in a pasture land, and most fertile. This in the time of king Ezechias the Simeonites occupied, some Chanaanites having been driven out, because the land was most suited to flocks, in which the Simeonites abounded. Afterwards this city was called Cedro, which Cendebeus, general of Antiochus, fortified with buildings against the Jews, near which he was also defeated by the Maccabees.
AND TO STOP UP.—In Greek ochyroun, that is, to fortify the gates, that Gedor might be for himself and his men in place of a citadel and stronghold, to which, pressed by the Jews, they might retreat when weary. Sidetes sent him to invade Judea, into which [fortress] they might bring the plunder and spoils of the Jews.
39. AND COMMANDED HIM TO BUILD UP GEDOR,—In Greek