Part 629 (2/2)

4:23. Three years afterwards Jason sent Menelaus, brother of the aforesaid Simon, to carry money to the king, and to bring answers from him concerning certain necessary affairs.

4:24. But he being recommended to the king, when he had magnified the appearance of his power, got the high priesthood for himself, by offering more than Jason by three hundred talents of silver.

4:25. So having received the king's mandate, he returned, bringing nothing worthy of the high priesthood: but having the mind of a cruel tyrant, and the rage of a savage beast.

4:26. Then Jason, who had undermined his own brother, being himself undermined, was driven out a fugitive into the country of the Ammonites.

4:27. So Menelaus got the princ.i.p.ality: but as for the money he had promised to the king, he took no care, when Sostratus, the governor of the castle, called for it.

4:28. For to him appertained the gathering of the taxes: wherefore they were both called before the king.

4:29. And Menelaus was removed from the priesthood, Lysimachus, his brother, succeeding: and Sostratus alas made governor of the Cyprians.

4:30. When these things were in doing, it fell out that they of Tharsus, and Mallos, raised a sedition, because they were given for a gift to Antiochus, the king's concubine.

4:31. The king, therefore, went in all haste to appease them, leaving Andronicus, one of his n.o.bles, for his deputy.

4:32. Then Menelaus supposing that he had found a convenient time, having stolen certain vessels of gold out of the temple, gave them to Andronicus, and others he had sold at Tyre, and in the neighbouring cities:

4:33. Which when Onias understood most certainly, he reproved him, keeping himself in a safe place at Antioch, beside Daphne.

4:34. Whereupon Menelaus coming to Andronicus, desired him to kill Onias. And he went to Onias, and gave him his right hand with an oath, and (though he were suspected by him) persuaded him to come forth out of the sanctuary, and immediately slew him, without any regard to justice.

4:35. For which cause not only the Jews, but also the other nations, conceived indignation, and were much grieved for the unjust murder of so great a man.

4:36. And when the king was come back from the places of Cilicia, the Jews that were at Antioch, and also the Greeks, went to him: complaining of the unjust murder of Onias.

4:37. Antiochus, therefore, was grieved in his mind for Onias, and being moved to pity, shed tears, remembering the sobriety and modesty of the deceased.

4:38. And being inflamed to anger, he commanded Andronicus to be stripped of his purple, and to be led about through all the city: and that in the same place wherein he had committed the impiety against Onias, the sacrilegious wretch should be put to death, the Lord repaying him his deserved punishment.

4:39. Now when many sacrileges had been committed by Lysimachus in the temple, by the counsel of Menelaus, and the rumour of it was spread abroad, the mult.i.tude gathered themselves together against Lysimachus, a great quant.i.ty of gold being already carried away.

4:40. Wherefore the mult.i.tude making an insurrection, and their minds being filled with anger, Lysimachus armed about three thousand men, and began to use violence, one Tyrannus being captain, a man far gone both in age and in madness.

4:41. But when they perceived the attempt of Lysimachus, some caught up stones, some strong clubs, and some threw ashes upon Lysimachus.

4:42. And many of them were wounded, and some struck down to the ground, but all were put to flight: and as for the sacrilegious fellow himself, they slew him beside the treasury.

4:43. Now concerning these matters, an accusation was laid against Menelaus.

4:44. And when the king was come to Tyre, three men were sent from the ancients to plead the cause before him.

4:45. But Menelaus being convicted, promised Ptolemee to give him much money to persuade the king to favour him.

Ptolemee... The son of Dorymenus, a favourite of the king.

<script>