JASON. 
Antiochus Epimanes, my Lord!

ANTIOCHUS. 
Antiochus the Mad!  Ay, that is it. 
And who hath said it?  Who hath set in motion
That sorry jest?

JASON. 
The Seven Sons insane
Of a weird woman, like themselves insane.

ANTIOCHUS. 
I like their courage, but it shall not save them. 
They shall be made to eat the flesh of swine,
Or they shall die.  Where are they?

JASON. 
In the dungeons
Beneath this tower.

ANTIOCHUS. 
There let them stay and starve,
Till I am ready to make Greeks of them,
After my fashion.

JASON. 
They shall stay and starve.—­
My Lord, the Ambassadors of Samaria
Await thy pleasure.

ANTIOCHUS. 
Why not my displeasure? 
Ambassadors are tedious.  They are men
Who work for their own ends, and not for mine
There is no furtherance in them.  Let them go
To Apollonius, my governor
There in Samaria, and not trouble me. 
What do they want?

JASON. 
Only the royal sanction
To give a name unto a nameless temple
Upon Mount Gerizim.

ANTIOCHUS. 
Then bid them enter. 
This pleases me, and furthers my designs. 
The occasion is auspicious.  Bid them enter.

SCENE II. —­ ANTIOCHUS; JASON; THE SAMARITAN AMBASSADORS.

ANTIOCHUS. 
Approach.  Come forward; stand not at the door
Wagging your long beards, but demean yourselves
As doth become Ambassadors.  What seek ye?

AN AMBASSADOR. 
An audience from the King.

ANTIOCHUS. 
Speak, and be brief. 
Waste not the time in useless rhetoric. 
Words are not things.

AMBASSADOR (reading).  “To King Antiochus,
The God, Epiphanes; a Memorial
From the Sidonians, who live at Sichem.”

ANTIOCHUS. 
Sidonians?

AMBASSADOR. 
Ay, my Lord.

ANTIOCHUS. 
Go on, go on! 
And do not tire thyself and me with bowing!

AMBASSADOR (reading). 
“We are a colony of Medes and Persians.”

ANTIOCHUS. 
No, ye are Jews from one of the Ten Tribes;
Whether Sidonians or Samaritans
Or Jews of Jewry, matters not to me;
Ye are all Israelites, ye are all Jews. 
When the Jews prosper, ye claim kindred with them;
When the Jews suffer, ye are Medes and Persians: 
I know that in the days of Alexander
Ye claimed exemption from the annual tribute
In the Sabbatic Year, because, ye said,
Your fields had not been planted in that year.

AMBASSADOR (reading). 
“Our fathers, upon certain frequent plagues,
And following an ancient superstition,
Were long accustomed to observe that day
Which by the Israelites is called the Sabbath,
And in a temple on Mount Gerizim
Without a name, they offered sacrifice. 
Now we, who are Sidonians, beseech thee,
Who art our benefactor and our savior,
Not to confound us with these wicked Jews,
But to give royal order and injunction
To Apollonius in Samaria. 
Thy governor, and likewise to Nicanor,
Thy procurator, no more to molest us;
And let our nameless temple now be named
The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius.”