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[379]
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 1
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.
1 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.
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