CH. XIX.—The Wickedness of Jason—The Saçrilegeof Antiochus. FOR he dared to construct a gymnasium under the very tower of the temple, and to place all the best of the youths in brothels, and to entitle those who were at Jerusalem Antiochians. But the divine vengeance overtook the nefarious and unheardof wickedness of this impious Jason, who was no priest at all. For to act impiously with respect to divine laws does not usually escape unpunished. And at the end of three years, Jason, who had violated the laws of God, and made his own brother prisoner, was, by the command of king Antiochus, banished to the district of Ammonitis, and a man of the name of Menelaus, of the tribe of Benjamin, obtained the priesthood. But by the contrivance of this Menelaus, Onias, who was a pious priest, was treacherously slain by the agency of a certain prefect of the king, named Andronicus. And not long afterwards, Menelaus was removed from the priesthood, and his brother Lysimachus succeeded him But as even then he would not desist from his malpractices, he at length came to a miserable end, being precipitated from a tower fifty cubits high. Lysimachus too, after he had carried off a great quantity of gold from the temple, was stoned by a concourse of the people close to the treasury, and so died. After these events, Antiochus, the king, who has been mentioned before, went up to Jerusalem, and entered the sanctuary with great arrogance, and carried off the golden altar, and the candelabrum, and the table of the shewbread, and the veil, and the other ornaments of the temple, and returned to Antioch. And after this, he proclaimed to all the nations of his dominions, that they should be all one nation, and he forbade burntofferings or sacrifices to be offered in the temple of the Lord ; and he ordered the Jews to be polluted by being made to eat unclean meats, in order that they might transgress the commands of God. CH. XX.—The Cruelties of Antiochus towards the Jews. IK these days, a certain man named Eleazar, a very old man, was endeavoured to be compelled to eat swine's flesh ; but he said, " It is not worthy for Eleazar, who is ninety years old, to go over to the fashion of foreigners.*' And preferring a glorious death to an odious life, he died, worn out by many punishments, leav- VOL. I. H