204 THE MACCABEES. 



were to purify the town by destroying the shops of the 

 beef-butchers and other institutions, which are an 

 abomination in their eyes. Antiochus Epiphanes was 

 by nature a humane and enlightened prince ; he 

 attempted to Europeanize Jerusalem ; he could do this 

 only by abolishing the Jewish laws ; he could abolish 

 their laws only by destroying their religion ; and thus 

 he was gradually drawn into barbarous and useless 

 crimes of which he afterwards repented, but which have 

 gained him the reputation of a Nero. 



At first, however, it appeared as if he would suc- 

 ceed. The aristocratic party of Jerusalem were won 

 over to the cause. A gymnasium was erected, and 

 Jews, with artificial foreskins, appeared naked in the 

 arena. Riots broke out. Then royal edicts were issued 

 forbidding circumcision, the keeping of the Sabbath, 

 and the use of the law. A pagan altar was set up in 

 the Holy of Holies, and swine were sacrificed upon it 

 to the Olympian Jove. The riots increased. Then a 

 Greek regiment garrisoned the city ; all new born 

 children that were found to be circumcised were hurled 

 with their mothers from the walls ; altar pork was 

 offered as a test of loyalty to the elders of the church ; 

 and those who refused to eat were put to death with 

 tortures too horrible to be described. And now the 

 Jews no longer raised riots : they rebelled. The empire 

 was at that time in a state of weakness and disorder ; 

 and under the gallant Maccabees the independence of 

 Judaea was achieved. Yet it is only in adversity that 

 the Jews can be admired. As soon as they obtained 

 the power of self-government they showed themselves 

 unworthy to possess it, and in the midst of a civil war 

 they were enveloped by the Roman power, which had 

 extended them its protection in the period of the Mac- 



