the Great, king of Syria, easily persuaded the Jews to place themselves under his rule, and in return for their confidence in him he conferred such favors upon Jerusalem as he knew were best calculated to win the hearts of the people. 5. Antiochus Epiph' anes, the successor of Antiochus the Great, having invaded Egypt, a false rumor of his death was brought to Jerusalem, whereupon a civil war broke out between two factions of the Jews who had long been quarrelling about the office of the highpriesthood. The tumult was quelled by the return of Antiochus, who, exasperated on learning that the Jews had made public rejoicings at his supposed death, marched against Jerusalem, which he plundered, as if he had taken it by storm from an enemy. (169 B. C.) He even despoiled the temple of its holy vessels, and carried off the treasures of the nation collected there. Two years later he attempted to carry out the plan of reducing the various religious systems of his empire to one single profession, that of the Grecian polytheism. He polluted the altar of the temple-put a stop to the daily sacrificeto the great festivals to the rite of circumcision-burned the copies of the law-and commanded that the temple itself should be converted into an edifice sacred to the Olympian Júpiter. 6. These acts, and the insolent cruelties with which they were accompanied, met with a fierce and desperate resistance from the brave family of the Mac' cabees,a or Asmonéans, who, under their heroic leader Judas, first fled to the wilderness, and the caves of the mountians, where they were joined by numerous bands of their exasperated countrymen, who, ere long, began to look upon Judas as an instrument appointed by heaven for their deliverance. Thoroughly acquainted with every impregnable cliff and defile of his mountainland, Judas was successful in every encounter in which he chose to engage with the Syrians:-by rapid assaults he made himself master of many fortified places, and within three years after the pollution of the temple he had driven out of Judea four generals at the head of large and regular armies. He then went up to Jerusalem, and although a fortress in the lower city was still held by a Syrian garri son, he restored the walls and doors of the temple, caused the daily sacrifice to be renewed, and proclaimed a solemn festival of eight days on the joyful occasion. a. The appellation of Mac' cabees was given them from the initial letters of the text displayed on their standard, which was, Mi Chamoka Baalim, Jahoh! "Who is like unto thee among the gods, O Lord !"—from Exod. xv. 11. 7 The war with Syria continued during the brief reign of the you.hful son of Antiochus Epiph' anes, and was extended into the subsequent reign of Demétrius Sóter, (B. C. 162,) who sent two powerful armies into Judea, the first of which was defeated in the defile of Bethóron,' and its general slain. Another army was more successful, and Judas himself fell, after having destroyed a multitude of his enemies; but his body was recovered, and he was buried in the tomb of his fathers. "And all Israel mourned him with a great mourning, and sorrowed many days, and said, How is the mighty fallen that saved Israel.” 8. After the death of Judas a time of great tribulation followed; the Syrians became masters of the country, and Jonathan, the brother of Judas, the new leader of the patriotic band, was obliged to retire to the mountains, where he maintained himself two years, while the cities were occupied by Syrian garrisons. Eventually, during the changing revolutions in the Syrian empire itself, Jonathan was enabled to establish himself in the priesthood, and under his administration Judea again became a flourishing State. Being at length treacherously murdered by one of the Syrian kings, (B. C. 143,) his brother Simon succeeded to the priesthood, and during the seven years in which he judged Israel, general prosperity prevailed throughout the land. "The husbandmen tilled the field in peace, and the earth gave forth her crops, and the trees of the plain their fruits. The old men sat in the streets; all talked together of their blessings, and the young men put on the glory and the harness of war." 9. The remaining history of the Jews, from the time of Simon down to the formation of Judea into a Roman province, is mostly occupied with domestic commotions, whose details would possess little interest for the general reader. The circumstances which placed Judea under the sway of the Romans will be found detailed in their connection with Roman history. 10. Before the beginning of the "authentic period" of Grecian history, various circumstances, such as the desire of adventure, com II. GRECIAN mercial interests, and, not unfrequently, civil dissensions COLONIES. at home, led to the planting of Grecian colonies on many distant coasts of the Mediterranean. Those of Thrace, Mac' edon, and Asia-Minor, were ever intimately connected with Greece proper, in whose general history theirs is embraced; but the Greek cities 1. Bethbron was a village about ten miles north-west from Jerusalem. removed from the drama 'gean to be more than of Italy, Sicily, and Cyrenáica, were too far that was enacting around the shores of the occasionally and temporarily affected by the changing fortunes of the parent States. Nevertheless, a brief notice of those distant settlements that eventually rivalled even Athens and Sparta in power and resources, cannot be uninteresting, and it will serve to give the reader more accurate views, than he would otherwise possess, of the extent and importance of the field of Grecian history. 11. At an early period the shores of southern Italy and Sicily were peopled by Greeks; and so numerous and powerful did the Grecian cities in those countries become, that the whole were comprised by Strabo and others under the appellation Magna III. MAGNA Græcia or "Great Greece"-an appropriate name for a GRECIA region containing many cities far superior in size and population to any in Greece itself. The earliest of these distant Grecian settlements appear to have been made at Cúmæ,' and Neap' olis,' on the western coast of Italy, about the middle of the eleventh century Nax'os,' on the eastern coast of Sicily, was founded about the year 735 B. C.; and in the following year some Corinthians laid the foundation of Syracuse. Géla, on the western coast of the island, and Messana' on the strait between Italy and Sicily, were founded 1. Cume, a city of Campania, on the western coast of Italy, a short distance north-west from Neapolis, and about a hundred and ten miles south-east from Rome, is supposed to have been founded by a Grecian colony from Eubœe' a about the year 1050 B. C. Cuma was built on a rocky hill washed by the sea; and the same name is still applied to the ruins that lie scattered around its base. Some of the most splendid fictions of Virgil relate to the Cumæan Sibyl, whose cave, hewn out of solid rock, actually existed on the top of the hill of Cuma. (Map No. VIII.) 2. Neap' olis, (a Greek word meaning the new city,) now called Naples, was founded by a colony from Cumæ. It is situated on the north side of the Bay of Naples, in the immediate vicinity of Mount Vesuvius, one hundred and eighteen miles south-east from Rome. (Map No. VIIL) 3. Naz' os was north-east from Mount Etna, and about equi-distant from Messana and Cat' ana. Nax' os was twice destroyed; first by Dionysius the Elder, and afterwards by the Siculi; after which Tauromenium was built on its site. The modern Taormina occupies the site of the ancient city. (Map No. VIII.) 4. Gela was on the southern coast of Sicily, a short distance from the sea, on a river of the same name, and about sixty miles west from Syracuse. On the site of the ancient city stands the modern Terra Nova. (Map No. VIII) 5. Messana, still a city of considerable extent under the name of Messina, was situated at the north-eastern extremity of the island of Sicily, on the trait of its own name. It was regarded by the Greeks as the key of the island, but the circumstance of its commanding position always made it a tempting prize to the ambitious and powerful neighboring princes. It underwent a great variety of changes, under the power of the Syracusans, Carthaginians, and Romans. It was treacherously seized by the Mamertini, (see p. 152) who slew the inales, and took the wives and children as their property, and called the city Mamertina. Firslly, a portion of the inhabitants called in the aid of the Romans, and thus began the first Punic war. (265 B. C.) soon after. Agrigen' tum,' on the south-western coast, was founded about a century later. 12. In the meantime the Greek cities Syb' aris, Crotóna,' and Taren'tum, had been planted, and had rapidly grown to power and opulence, on the south-eastern coast of Italy. The territorial dominions of Syb' aris and Crotóna extended across the peninsula from sea to sea. The former possessed twenty-five dependent towns, and ruled over four distinct tribes or nations. The territories of Crotóna were still more extensive. These two Grecian States were at the maximum of their power about the year 560 B. C.-the time of the accession of Pisis' tratus at Athens; but they quarrelled with each other, and the result of the fatal contest was the ruin of Syb' aris, 510 B. C. At the time of the invasion of Italy by Pyr' rhus, (see p. 149.) Crotóna was still a considerable city, extending on both sides of the Æsárus, and its walls embracing a circumference of twelve miles. Taren'tum was formed by a colony from Sparta about the year 707,-soon after the first Messénian war. No details of its history during the first two hundred and thirty years of its existence "The modern city has a most imposing appearance from the sea, forming a fine circular sweep about two miles in length on the west shore of its magnificent harbor, from which it rises in the form of an amphitheatre; and being built of white stone, it strikingly contrasts with the dark fronts that cover the forests in the background." (Map No. VIII.) 1. Agrigen' tum was situated near the southern shore of Sicily, about midway of the island. Next to Syracuse it was not only one of the largest and most famous cities of Sicily, but of the ancient world; and its ruins are still imposingly grand and magnificent. The modern town of Girgenti lies adjacent to the ruins, from which it is separated by the small river Arcagas. (Map No. VIII.) 2. Syb' aris was a city of south-eastern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf. Crotóna was about seventy miles south of it. Pythogoras resided at Crotóna during the latter years of his life; and Milo, the most celebrated athlete of antiquity, was a native of that city. The Sybarites were noted for the excess to which they carried the refinements of luxury and sensuality.The events which led to the destruction of Syb' aris, about 510 B. C., are thus related. A democratical party, having gained the ascendancy at Syb' aris, expelled five hundred of the principal citizens, who sought refuge at Crotóna. The latter refusing, by the advice of Pytbagoras, to give up the fugitives, a war ensued. Milo led out the Crotoniats, ten thousand in number, who were met by three hundred thousand Syb' arites; but the former gained a com plete victory, and then, marching immediately to Syb' aris, totally destroyed the city. (Map No. VIII.) 3. Taren' tum, the emporium of the Greek towns of Italy, was an important commercial city near the head of the gulf of the same name. It stood on what was formerly an isthmus, but which is now an island, separating the gulf from an inner bay fifteen or sixteen miles in circumference. The early Tarentines were noted for their military skill and prowess, and for the cultivation of literature and the arts; but their wealth and abundance so enervated their minds and bodies, and corrupted their morals, that even the neighboring barbarians, who had hated and feared, learned eventually to despise them. The Tarentines fell an easy prey to the Romans, after Pyrrhus had withdrawn from Italy. (See p. 150.) The modern town of Toranto, containing a population of about eighteen thousand inhabitants, occupies the site of the ancient city. (Map No. VIII.) are known to us; but in the fourth century B. C. the Tarentines stand foremost among the Italian Greeks. 13. During the first two centuries after the founding of Nax' os in Sicily, Grecian settlements were extended over the eastern, southern, and western sides of the island, while Him' era' was the only Grecian town on the northern coast. These two hundred years were a period of prosperity among the Sicilian Greeks, who did not yet extend their residences over the island, but dwelt chiefly in fortified towns, and exercised authority over the surrounding native popula tion, which gradually became assimilated in manners, language, and religion, to the higher civilization of the Greeks. During the sixth century before the Christian era, the Greek cities in Sicily and southern Italy were among the most powerful and flourishing that bore the Hellénic name. Géla and Agrigen' tum, on the south side of Sicily, had then become the most prominent of the independent Sicilian governments; and at the beginning of the fifth century we find Gélo, a despot, or self-constituted ruler of the former city, subjecting other towns to his authority, and finally obtaining possession of Syracuse, which he made the seat of his empire, (485 B. C.) leaving Géla to be governed by his brother Híero, the first Sicilian ruler of that name. 14. Gélo strengthened the fortifications and greatly enlarged the limits of Syracuse, while, to occupy the enlarged space, he dismantled many of the surrounding towns, and transported their inhab itants to his new capital, which now became, not only the first city in Sicily, but, according to Herod' otus, superior to any other Hellénic power; for we are told that when, in 481 B. C., the Corinthians solicited aid from Gélo to resist the invasion of Xerxes, the Syracusans could offer twenty thousand heavy armed soldiers, and, in all, an army of thirty thousand men, besides furnishing provisions for the entire Grecian host so long as the war might last; but as Gélo de manded to be constituted commander-in-chief of all the Greeks in the war against the Persians, the terms were not agreed to. 15. During the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, a formidable Carthaginian force under Hamil' car, said to consist of three hundred thousand men, landed at Panor' mus," a Carthaginian sea-port on the 1. Him' era was on the northern coast of Sicily, near the mouth of the river of the same name, one hundred and ten miles north-west from Syracuse. The modern town of Termini, at the mouth of the river Leonard, occupies the site of the ancient city. (Map No. VIII.) 2. Panor' mus, supposed to have been first settled by Phoenicians, was in the north-western |