610 A SHORT VIEW 6r SCRIPTURE HISTORY. Note, There is a very cruel and barbarous actionattributed to Lathyrus on this occasion : viz. That coming with his army, in the evening after the victory, to take up his quarters in the adjoining villages, and finding them full of women and children, he caused them to be all slaughtered, and their bodies to be cut in pieces, put into chaldrons, over the fire, to be boiled, as if it were for supper; that so he might leave an opinion in that coun- try, that his men -fed upon human flesh, and thereby might cre- ate the greater dread and terror of his army through those parts. After this, Lathyrus ranged at liberty all over the country, ra- vaging, plundering, and destroying it in a very lamentable man- ner : For Alexander, after this battle, was in no condition to resist him. 26. Q. Did Alexander everrecover this defeat ? A. Cle- opatra, queen of Egypt, who, with her younger son, withheld the kingdom from Lathyrus her eldest, did assist and support Alexander Jannwus, lest, if Lathyrus should have become mas- ter of Judea, he might also have recovered Egypt out of her hands : Whereupon Alexander raised his head again, beseiged other places, and took Gadara and Amathus toward Galilee, to- gether with much treasure : But he was surprized by Theodorus, prince of Philadelphia, who had laid up that treasure there, and was overthrown with the slaughter of ten thousand men. Yet, being a man of courage and diligence, again lie recruited his army, took the city of Gaza from the Philistines, and gave tho- rough licence to his soldiers there, to kill, plunder, and destroy as they pleased. He subdued their principal cities, and made them part ofhis dominions ; whereupon several of the Philistines turned Jews: And indeed it was now grown a custom among the Asmonean princes, to impose their religion upon all their conquests leaving them no other choice but to become proselytes or to be banished. 27. Q. How did his own people the Jews, carry it towards him ? A. The Pharisees continued their wrath against him, for rigorously maintaining the decrees of his father, who abolished their constitutions ; and by their powerful influence, they stirred up the people against him so far, that while he was executing the high-priest's office at the altar, they pelted him with citrons, and called him reproachful names. 28. Q. In what manner slid Alexander resent it ? A. He slew si5c thousand of them immediately, and he chose his own guards out of the heathen nations, never daring afterwards to trust himself with the Jews. At last there broke out acivil war between him and his people, which lasted six years, brought great calamity on both, and occasioned the death of above fifty thousandpeople. 29. Q. Howwas this war carried on ? A. Though Alex- ander had many victories over them, yet being wearied out, he
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