1 Maccabees 8 - New Catholic Bible (NCB)

Chapter 8

The Prestige of Rome.^{[a] 1} Judas heard of the reputation of the Romans—how they were mighty men who favored all who joined themselves to them and made an alliance with all who came to them and were strong and powerful. ² He had also been told of the battles they had fought and of the brave deeds that they had performed against the people of Gaul^[b] as they conquered them and forced them to pay tribute, ³ and what they had done in the province of Spain, seizing the silver and gold mines there ⁴ and by their planning and persistence gaining control of the entire country even though it was considerably distant from their own. They also had subdued kings who had come against them from the ends of the earth,^[c] crushing them and inflicting heavy losses on them, while the rest paid tribute to them every year.

⁵ Philip^[d] and Perseus, the king of the Macedonians, and the others who had engaged in battle against them had been crushed by them and subjugated. ⁶ They had also defeated Antiochus the Great, the king of Asia, who had attacked them with one hundred and twenty elephants, and with cavalry and chariots and a very large army. ^{7 [e]}They had taken him alive and imposed terms of surrender that obligated him and his successors to pay a substantial annual tribute, give hostages, ⁸ and surrender portions of his best provinces—the countries of India, Media, and Lydia—which they took from him and gave to King Eumenes. ⁹ When the Greeks devised a plan to attack and destroy them, ¹⁰ the Romans got wind of it and sent against them a single general.^[f] In the ensuing battle many of the Greeks were wounded and fell, and the Romans took captive their wives and children, tore down their strongholds, and enslaved them, a status that they endure even to the present day. ¹¹ All of the other kingdoms and islands that opposed them they destroyed and subjugated.

¹² However, with their friends and those who depended on them for protection, they maintained strong ties of friendship. They had subdued kings far and near, and all who heard of their reputation were terrified of them. ¹³ Those whom they wished to help ascend to a throne became kings; those whom they wished to depose were overthrown. As a result, they were greatly exalted. ¹⁴ Yet for all this not one of them ever put on a crown or wore purple as an emblem of authority. ¹⁵ They had built a senate house where each day three hundred and twenty senators deliberated on how best to achieve the well-being of the people. ¹⁶ They entrusted one man^[g] each year to rule over them and their dominions; all obeyed this one man without any envy or jealousy.

¹⁷ Alliance with Rome. Therefore, Judas chose Eupolemus, son of John, son of Accos, and Jason, son of Eleazar, and sent them to Rome to make a treaty of friendship and alliance, ¹⁸ in the hope that in this way they would escape the yoke, for they could clearly see that the kingdom of the Greeks was reducing Israel to a state of slavery. ¹⁹ Following a very lengthy journey to Rome, the envoys entered the senate chamber and spoke these words: ²⁰ “Judas Maccabeus and his brothers and the Jewish people have sent us to conclude a treaty of alliance and peace with you and to enroll ourselves as your allies and friends.” ²¹ This proposal pleased the Romans, ²² and this is a copy of their reply, which they inscribed on tablets of bronze^[h] and sent to Jerusalem, where it would remain in the possession of the Jews as a record of peace and alliance:

²³ “May good fortune attend the Romans and the Jewish nation at sea and on land forever. May sword and foe be far from them. ²⁴ But if war should be instigated against Rome or any of her allies throughout her dominions, ²⁵ the Jewish nation shall provide them with their wholehearted support as the occasion shall demand. ²⁶ To the enemy that instigates that war they shall not give or provide grain, arms, money, or ships. Thus have the Romans decreed, and they shall fulfill their obligations without receiving any recompense. ²⁷ In the same way, if war should be instigated against the nation of the Jews, the Romans shall provide them with their wholehearted support as the occasion shall demand. ²⁸ To the enemy that instigates that war they shall not give grain, arms, money, or ships. Thus have the Romans decreed, and they shall fulfill their obligations without any breach of faith. ²⁹ In these terms the Romans have made a treaty with the Jewish people. ³⁰ Subsequently, if both parties should decide to make any addition or deletion, they shall have the authority to do so, and any such addition or deletion that they make shall be deemed valid.

³¹ “Concerning the wrongs that King Demetrius is perpetrating against the Jewish people, we have written to him as follows: ‘Why have you made your yoke heavy upon our friends and allies the Jews? ³² If they have any further complaint to make against you, we shall uphold their rights and make war on you by land and sea.’ ”^[i]

Footnotes

1. 1 Maccabees 8:1 This Book must certainly have been redacted a long time before Jerusalem was captured by Pompey in 63 B.C. for then, Rome became an enemy. The eulogy of Rome in this chapter is given as one of the reasons why 1 Maccabees was not preserved by the Palestinian Jews of the century that followed.
2. 1 Maccabees 8:2 Gaul: the text has Galatia, but it must be read as Cisalpine Gaul, which was defeated in 222 B.C. (the first great expansion of Rome outside the peninsular part of Italy), because, listed in chronological order are the subsequent conquests, beginning with the Iberian one that followed immediately upon the Gallican. However, the Romans also defeated the Galatians in 189 B.C.
3. 1 Maccabees 8:4 Against them from the ends of the earth (that is, from the Straits of Gibraltar) had come Hannibal and then his brother Hasdrubal, Carthaginian leaders, in the Second Punic War: the latter was stopped and slain at Metaurus while the former, after clamorous initial successes, was beaten at Zama.
4. 1 Maccabees 8:5 Philip V and Perseus were the last two kings of Macedonia, defeated respectively at Cynoscephalae in 197 B.C. and at Pydna in 168 B.C.
5. 1 Maccabees 8:7 This is a question of the hard-fought Battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C., which opened Asia to Rome. However, the evident delight of the historian in the defeat suffered by the father of the persecutor of the Jews carries him away: Antiochus was not captured; he was forced to pay 15,000 talents. India and Media seem to be a copyist’s error for Lydia and Mysia. Eumenes II (197–158 B.C.), king of Pergamum, was an ally of Rome who received much of Seleucid Asia Minor.
6. 1 Maccabees 8:10 A single general: Lucius Mummio conquered the Achaean League at Leucopetra, destroyed Corinth and sold the inhabitants into slavery in 146 B.C. Hence, this is an anachronism of the author.
7. 1 Maccabees 8:16 One man: in reality, there were two consuls, but only one went on far-off military expeditions. This may be the origin of the idea that there was only one ruler. In everything else they alternated governing every month. In any case, everything said about the Romans is arrived at by way of reputation.
8. 1 Maccabees 8:22 Important documents were often inscribed on tablets of bronze.
9. 1 Maccabees 8:32 The documentation is in the style of so many pacts concluded by the Romans, in particular very similar to the treaty concluded with the isle of Stampalia in 105 B.C. But verses 31-32 may come from other sources. The safe conduct accorded by the consul C. Fannio to the ambassadors who were returning has been preserved by the historian Flavius Josephus.