Described by Aristeas and Hecatæus

Described by Aristeas and Hecatæus.

If the letter of Aristeas dates from about 200 B.C., as Schürer and Abrahams hold, it gives a fair description of the appearance of the city and especially of the Temple at that time. The city comprised 40 stadia, and the wall had towers. The narrator expresses his especial astonishment at the many canals that carried off the blood and the water from the Temple, and at the magnificence of the service. A similar description of Jerusalem at this time occurs in the fragments ascribed to Hecatæus of Abdera (cited by Josephus,"Contra Ap." i. 22), who speaks of the city as being 50 stadia in extent, with 120,000 inhabitants; of the wall surrounding the Temple area (150 miles in length, 44 miles wide); and of the altars and priests in the Temple (Reinach, "Textes," p. 232). The "flagrant mistakes" which the letter of Aristeas is supposed to contain (Kautzsch, "Apokryphen," ii. 12, note b) are not apparent. This view rests upon his description (§§ 100-104) of the Acra or citadel, which was the chief defense of the Temple area. That such an Acra existed is evidenced, in spite of Wendland, Willrich, and Wellhausen, by the presence of the Syrian garrison left there by the Egyptian general Scopas (II Macc. iv. 27; "Ant." xii. 3, § 1), which garrison was driven out by Simon Maccabeus (I Macc. xiii. 49). Where the Acra stood is doubtful, as the word is applied by Josephus in a general sense to various citadels. Under the Hasmoneans this defense was finally razed, the hill on which it stood being leveled, in order that the Temple might rise high above all other buildings, and to prevent the occupation of the citadel by an enemy ("Ant." xiii. 6, § 7). The northwestern part of the Temple mount can not be meant, as the rock upon which the Antonia was built still exists. In addition, I Maccabees speaks repeatedly of the Greeks fortifying themselves in the "city of David" (i. 33, ii. 31, vii. 32, xiv. 36), which overlooked the Temple ("Ant." xii. 9, § 3; 10, § 5).

The spread of Hellenism was in many ways fatal to the Jews of Jerusalem. It introduced factions into the life of the people; and the contests between the brothers Jason and Menelaus for the high-priestly office occasioned the presence of Antiochus Epiphanes (170 B.C.), who plundered the Temple of its treasures and killed a large number of the inhabitants (I Macc. i. 20; II Macc. v. 12; "Ant." xii. 5, § 3; "B. J." i. 1, § 1). Two years later his general and farmer of the taxes, Apollonius, attacked Jerusalem with a large army; took the city, also killing a large number; set fire to many of its buildings, razed some of its walls, and carried away many captives. The altar of the Temple was desecrated; and the Temple itself was given over to heathen worship. Apollonius built a strong wall around the Acra, which he evidently enlarged (I Macc. i. 29; II Macc. v. 24), and in which he entrenched the Syrian garrison. Jerusalem must, however, have commenced to take on the appearance of a Hellenic city. There was a gymnasium built on the hill west of the Temple (I Macc. i. 14; "Ant." xii. 5, § 1); probably the Xystus (Colonnade), which was joined to the Temple plateau by a bridge.

Jerusalem