The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s3.45

c10.s3.45

Egypt occupied the years 169 and 168; 167 was taken up with the troubles in Judaea. By the end of the year, however, that country seemed secure: the governing party were his friends, Jerusalem was safe, and the worship of Olympian Zeus was established;¹ if next year Judas Maccabaeus and his guerillas began to give trouble, guerillas were not unknown in great empires and were a thing one left to one's provincial governor. For world-history his dealings with the Jews were of great importance owing to their reaction upon Jewish religious conceptions; but for Antiochus, which is all that I am concerned with here, their only importance was lest they might furnish Rome with a pretext for interference. He himself possibly regarded his marriage with Atargatis,² the great goddess of northern Syria, as a much weightier matter. It was not a device to secure a temple treasure; it was a perfectly serious political measure. A god must have a divine consort;³ but his marriage to Atargatis was a guarantee to the native religions of the empire,⁴ always provided that people were willing to accept the over-riding unification of the worship of Olympian Zeus, which was no difficulty to men of any religion but the Jewish. His insistence on his divinity and his marriage to Atargatis may or may not witness to a flaw in his mind;⁵ but I want to stress the fact that the whole thing was political and that he was in earnest.