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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.
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
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.
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.
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