HOW DEMETRIUS EUCERUS OVERCAME ALEXANDER AND YET IN A LITTLE TIME RETIRED OUT OF THE COUNTRY FOR FEAR; AS ALSO HOW ALEXANDER SLEW MANY OF THE JEWS AND THEREBY GOT CLEAR OF HIS TROUBLES. CONCERNING THE DEATH OF DEMETRIUS. FJAJ 13.93
1. SO Demetrius came with an army, and took those that invited him,
and pitched his camp near the city Shechem; upon which Alexander, with
his six thousand two hundred mercenaries, and about twenty thousand Jews,
who were of his party, went against Demetrius, who had three thousand horsemen,
and forty thousand footmen
Now there were great endeavors used on both
sides, - Demetrius trying to bring off the mercenaries that were with Alexander,
because they were Greeks, and Alexander trying to bring off the Jews that
were with Demetrius
However, when neither of them could persuade them
so to do, they came to a battle, and Demetrius was the conqueror; in which
all Alexander's mercenaries were killed, when they had given demonstration
of their fidelity and courage
A great number of Demetrius's soldiers were
slain also. FJAJ 13.94
2. Now as Alexander fled to the mountains, six thousand of the Jews
hereupon came together [from Demetrius] to him out of pity at the change
of his fortune; upon which Demetrius was afraid, and retired out of the
country; after which the Jews fought against Alexander, and being beaten,
were slain in great numbers in the several battles which they had; and
when he had shut up the most powerful of them in the city Bethome, he besieged
them therein; and when he had taken the city, and gotten the men into his
power, he brought them to Jerusalem, and did one of the most barbarous
actions in the world to them; for as he was feasting with his concubines,
in the sight of all the city, he ordered about eight hundred of them to
be crucified; and while they were living, he ordered the throats of their
children and wives to be cut before their eyes
This was indeed by way
of revenge for the injuries they had done him; which punishment yet was
of an inhuman nature, though we suppose that he had been never so much
distressed, as indeed he had been, by his wars with them, for he had by
their means come to the last degree of hazard, both of his life and of
his kingdom, while they were not satisfied by themselves only to fight
against him, but introduced foreigners also for the same purpose; nay,
at length they reduced him to that degree of necessity, that he was forced
to deliver back to the king of Arabia the land of Moab and Gilead, which
he had subdued, and the places that were in them, that they might not join
with them in the war against him, as they had done ten thousand other things
that tended to affront and reproach him
However, this barbarity seems
to have been without any necessity, on which account he bare the name of
a Thracian among the Jews (40)
This name Thracida, which the Jews gave Alexander, must, by the coherence,
denote as barbarous as a Thracian, or somewhat like it; but what it properly
signifies is not known.
whereupon the soldiers that had fought against him, being about eight thousand
in number, ran away by night, and continued fugitives all the time that
Alexander lived; who being now freed from any further disturbance from
them, reigned the rest of his time in the utmost tranquillity. FJAJ 13.95
3. But when Demetrius was departed out of Judea, he went to Berea, and
besieged his brother Philip, having with him ten thousand footmen, and
a thousand horsemen
However Strato, the tyrant of Berea, the confederate
of Philip, called in Zizon, the ruler of the Arabian tribes, and Mithridates
Sinax, the ruler of the Parthians, who coming with a great number of forces,
and besieging Demetrius in his encampment, into which they had driven them
with their arrows, they compelled those that were with him by thirst to
deliver up themselves
So they took a great many spoils out of that country,
and Demetrius himself, whom they sent to Mithridates, who was then king
of Parthis; but as to those whom they took captives of the people of Antioch,
they restored them to the Antiochinus without any reward
Now Mithridates,
the king of Parthis, had Demetrius in great honor, till Demetrius ended
his life by sickness
So Philip, presently after the fight was over, came
to Antioch, and took it, and reigned over Syria. FJAJ 13.96