priest, persuaded the king to transfer the high-priest- hood to him, and at the same time bought permission (2 Mace, iv, 9) to carry out his design of habituating the Jews to Greek customs (2 Mace, iv, 7, 20). Three years afterward, Menelaus, of the tribe of Benjamin [see Simon], who was commissioned by Jason to car- ry to Antiochus the price of his office, supplanted Ja- son by offering the king a larger bribe, and was him- self appointed high-priest, while Jason was obliged to take refuge among the Ammonites (2 Mace, iv, 23-2G). From these circumstances, and from the marked honor with which Antiochus was received at Jerusalem very early in his reign (B.C. cir. 173; 2 Mace, iv, 22), it appears that he found no difficulty in regaining the border provinces which had been j^iven as the dower of his sister Cleopatra to Ptol. Epiphanes. He under- took four campaigns against Egypt, in order to pos- sess himself of Ceele-Syria and Phoenicia, which he had claimed since Cleopatra's death (see the Anti- ochus preceding) ; the first B.C. 171, the second B.C. 170 (2 Mace, v, 1 ; 1 Mace, i, 17 sq.), the third B.C. 169, the fourth B.C. 168. On his return from the sec- ond of these campaigns, in the prosecution of which he had overrun the greater part of Egypt, and taken pris- oner the Egyptian king, Ptolemy Philometor (comp. Dan. xi, 26), he indulged in the harshest manner of proceedings in Jerusalem, on occasion of the above shameful quarrel among the priests [see Menelaus], which had been carried on by open force of arms (comp. Joseph. Ant. xii, 5, 1), and vented his rage es- peciallj- on the temple, which he plundered and dese- crated with great bloodshed (1 Mace, i, 20-42 ; 2 Mace, v, 1-23). Being checked by the Romans in his fourth campaign against Egypt, and compelled in a very peremptory manner to retire (Liv. xlv, 12 ; Polyb. xxix, 11; Appian, Syr. GG ; Diod. Sic. Exc. Vatic. xxxi, 2; comp. Dan. xi, 29 sq.), ha detached (B.C. 167) a body of troops to Jerusalem, who took the city by assault, slaughtered a large part of the inhabitants, and gave up the city to a general sack (1 Mace, i, 30 sq. ; 2 Mace, v, 24 sq. ; comp. Dan. xi, 31 sq.). The Jewish worship in the Temple was utterly broken up and abolished (1 Mace, i, 43 sq.). At this time he availed himself of the assistance of the ancestral ene- mies of the Jews (1 Mace, iv, 61 ; v, 3 sq. ; Dan. xi, 41). The decrees then followed which have rendered his name infamous. The Greek religion was forcibly imposed upon the Jews, and there was set up, for the purpose of desecrating (Diod. Sic. Eclog. xxxiv, 1) and defiling the Temple, on the 15th oif Kisleu, the '• abomination of desolation" [q. v.] (Dan. xi, 31; xii, 11 ; 1 Maec. i, 57), i. e. probably a little idolatrous shrine (Joseph. Ant. xii, 5, 4) on the altar of burnt- offerings; the first victim was sacrificed to Jupiter Olympius, on the 25th of the same month. Many timidly submitted to the royal mandate (1 Mace, i, 43), being already inclined to Gentilism (1 Mace, i, 12), and sacrificed to the pagan gods (1 Mace, i, 45); but a band of bold patriots united (comp. Dan. xi, 34) under the Asmonaean Mattathias (q. v.), and, after liis death, which occurred shortly afterward, under his heroic son, Judas MaccabsBUS (q. v.), and, after acting fur a Ions time on the defensive, at length took the open field il Mace, iv), and gained their freedom (comp. Han. i\, 25 sip). Meanwhile Antiochus turn- ed his anus to the East, toward Parthia (Tae. Eist. v, 8) ami Armenia (Appian, Syr. 45; Diod. ap. Miiller, Fragm. ii. 10; comp. Dan. xi,40). Hearing not long afterward of the riches of a temple of Nan«a("the desire of women," Dan. \i, 37) in Klymais (1 Mace, vi, 1 sq. ; see Wernsdorf, Dejide Maccab. p. 58 sq.), bung with the gifts of Alexander, lie resolved to plun- der it. The attempt was defeated ; and, though he did not fall like his father in the art of sacrilege, the event hastened his death. He retired to Babylon, and thence to Tabse in Persia (not in the vicinity of Ecbatana, as in 2 Mace, ix, 3, the traditionary burial*
' place of this king, see Wernsdorf, ut sup. p. 104 sq.}, where he died in the year B.C. 164 (see Hofmann, Weissag. i, 310), in the twelfth year of his reign (Ap- pian, Syr. 66; Polyb. xxi, 11; see Wernsdorf, p. 26 sq., 61 sq. ; comp. Dan. xi, 8 ; viii, 25), the victim of superstition, terror, and remorse (Polyb. xxxi, 2 ; Jo-
| sephus, Ant. xii, 8, 1 sq.), having first heard of the successes of the Maccabees in restoring the temple- worship at Jerusalem (1 Mace, vi, 1-16; comp. 2
j Mace, i, 7-17 ?). " He came to his end, and there was none to help him" (Dan. xi, 45). Comp. Liv. xii, 24-25; xlii, 6; xliv, 19; xlv, 11-13; Josephus, Ant. xii, 5, 8. See Jacob ben-Naphtali, bO'PB&i* Vb^ (Mantua, 1557). Compare Maccabee.
The prominence given to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in the Book of Daniel accords with its rep- resentative character (Dan. vii, 8, 25 ; viii, 11 sq.). The conquest of Alexander had introduced the forces of Greek thought and life into the Jewish nation, which was already prepared for their operation. See Alexander the Great. For more than a century and a half these forces had acted powerfully both upon the faith and upon the habits of the people ; and the