The Phoenicians in return served zealously on board the Syro-Macedonian fleet, and showed their masters all due respect and honour.[14454] They were not afraid, however, of asserting an independence of thought and judgment, even in matters where the kings were personally concerned.  On one occasion, when Antiochus Epiphanes was holding his court at Tyre, a cause of the greatest importance was brought before him for decision by the authorities at Jerusalem.  The high-priest of the time, Menelaus, who had bought the office from the Syrian king, was accused of having plundered the Temple of a number of its holy vessels, and of having sold them for his own private advantage.  The Sanhedrim, who prosecuted Menelaus, sent three representatives to Tyre, to conduct the case, and press the charges against him.  The evidence was so clear that the High Priest saw no chance of an acquittal, except by private interest.  He therefore bribed an influential courtier, named Ptolemy, the son of a certain Dorymenes, to intercede with Antiochus on his behalf, and, if possible, obtain his acquittal.  The affair was not one of much difficulty.  Justice was commonly bought and sold at the Syro-Macedonian Court, and Antiochus readily came into the views of Ptolemy, and pronounced the High Priest innocent.  He thought, however, that in so grave a matter some one must be punished, and, as he had acquitted Menelaus, he could only condemn his accusers.  These unfortunates suffered death at his hands, whereon the Tyrians, compassionating their fate, and to mark their sense of the iniquity of the sentence, decreed to give them an honourable burial.  The historian who relates the circumstance evidently feels that it was a bold and courageous act, very creditable to the Tyrian people.[14455]

It is not always, however, that we can justly praise the conduct of the Phoenicians at this period.  Within six years of the time when the Tyrians showed themselves at once so courageous and so compassionate, the nation generally was guilty of complicity in a most unjust and iniquitous design.  Epiphanes, having driven the Jews into rebellion by a most cruel religious persecution, and having more than once suffered defeat at their hands, resolved to revenge himself by utterly destroying the people which had provoked his resentment.[14456] Called away to the eastern provinces by a pressing need, he left instructions with his general, Lysias, to invade Judaea with an overwhelming force, and, after crushing all resistance, to sell the surviving population—­men, women, and children—­for slaves.  Lysias, in B.C. 165, marched into Judaea, accompanied by a large army, with the full intention of carrying out to the letter his master’s commands.  In order to attract purchasers for the multitude whom he would have to sell, he made proclamation that the rate of sale should be a talent for ninety, or less than 3l. a head,[14457] while at the same he invited the attendance of the merchants from all “the cities of the