Agatharchides

But of Hecataeus's testimonies we have said enough, for as to such as desire to know more of them, they may easily obtain them from his book itself.

However, I shall not think it too much for me to name Agatharchides as having made mention of us Jews, though in way of derision at our simplicity, as he supposes it to be.

For when he was discoursing of the affairs of Stratonike, how she came out of Macedonia into Syria and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleucus would not marry her as she expected, but during the time of his raising an army at Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch.

And how, after that, the king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleucia, and had it in her power to sail away immediately.

On the other hand, there are some people joining up to the country of the Macrobi, who never live beyond their fortieth year, and there is never more than one child in a family.

This circumstance is also mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that they live on locusts, and are very swift of foot.

Clitarchus and Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandai, and enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to them.

Their women marry in the seventh year of their age, and become old at forty.

For as to such as desire to know more of them, they may easily obtain them from his book itself.

However, I shall not think it too much for me to name Agatharchides as having made mention of us Jews, though in way of derision at our simplicity, as he supposes it to be.

For when he was discoursing of the affairs of Stratonike, how she came out of Macedonia into Syria and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleucus would not marry her as she expected, but during the time of his raising an army at Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch, and how, after that, the king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleucia, and had it in her power to sail away immediately, yet did she comply with a dream which forbade her to do so, and so was caught and put to death.

When Agatharchides had premised the story, and had jested upon Stratonike for her superstition, he gives a like example of what was reported concerning us, and writes thus, There are a people called Jews, and dwell in a city of the strongest of all other cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day on which times they make no use of their arms, nor meddle with husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread out their hands in their holy places, and pray till the evening.

Now it came to pass, that when Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, came into this city with his army, that these men, in observing the mad custom of theirs, instead of guarding the city, suffered their country to submit itself to a bitter lord, and their law was openly proved to have commanded a foolish practice.

This accident taught all other men but the Jews to disregard such dreams as these were, and not to follow the like idle suggestions delivered as a law, when in such uncertainty of human reasonings they are at a loss what they should do.

Now this our procedure seems a ridiculous thing to Agatharchides, but will appear to such as consider it without prejudice a great thing, and what deserved a great many encomiums.

I mean when certain men constantly prefer the observation of their laws and their religion towards God before the preservation of themselves and their country.

For as to such as desire to know more of them, they may easily obtain them from his book itself.

However, I shall not think it too much for me to name Agatharchides as having made mention of us Jews, though in way of derision at our simplicity, as he supposes it to be.

For when he was discoursing of the affairs of Stratonike, how she came out of Macedonia into Syria and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleucus would not marry her as she expected, but during the time of his raising an army at Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch.

And how, after that, the king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleucia, and had it in her power to sail away immediately.

Yet did she comply with a dream which forbade her to do so, and so was caught and put to death.

When Agatharchides had premised the story, and had jested upon Stratonike for her superstition, he gives a like example of what was reported concerning us, and writes thus.

There are a people called Jews, and dwell in a city of the strongest of all other cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day on which times they make no use of their arms, nor meddle with husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread out their hands in their holy places, and pray till the evening.

Now it came to pass, that when Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, came into this city with his army, that these men, in observing the mad custom of theirs, instead of guarding the city, suffered their country to submit itself to a bitter lord, and their law was openly proved to have commanded a foolish practice.

Royal charters assign various agents to the widespread investigation and exploitation of these lands, providing a wealth of knowledge for Greek scholars to draw upon for their own writings.

The most important author of the Hellenistic period pertaining to this region is Agatharchides of Nidus.

Writing during the mid-2nd century BC, Agatharchides spent his career as a secretary for the Alexandrian government during the reign of Ptolemy VI, before being compelled to abandon the city during the disturbances of the kingship of Ptolemy VIII.

His major work, On the Erythraean Sea, was an attempt to provide a historical and ethnographic account of the regions of the Red Sea, East Africa, and Arabia from the time of the first Ptolemies until his own day.

The man himself probably did not visit most of these regions personally.

Instead, he seems to have relied on the official reports of Ptolemaic agents, explorers, generals, hunters, all who surveyed the regions on the order of the kings.

Supplementing this were the treatises of geographers, whose texts would have been readily available in the Library of Alexandria.

Agatharchides' work does not survive in its entirety, though we can detect its use by later writers like Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and others.

For as to such as desire to know more of them, they may easily obtain them from his book itself.

However, I shall not think it too much for me to name Agatharchides as having made mention of us Jews, though in way of derision at our simplicity, as he supposes it to be.

For when he was discoursing of the affairs of Stratonike, how she came out of Macedonia into Syria and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleucus would not marry her as she expected, but during the time of his raising an army at Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch, and how, after that, the king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleucia, and had it in her power to sail away immediately.

Yet did she comply with a dream which forbade her to do so, and so was caught and put to death.

When Agatharchides had premised the story, and had jested upon Stratonike for her superstition, he gives a like example of what was reported concerning us, and writes thus, There are a people called Jews, and dwell in a city of the strongest of all other cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day on which times they make no use of their arms, nor meddle with husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread out their hands in their holy places, and pray till the evening.

Now it came to pass, that when Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, came into this city with his army, that these men, in observing the mad custom of theirs, instead of guarding the city, suffered their country to submit itself to a bitter lord, and their law was openly proved to have commanded a foolish practice.

This accident taught all other men but the Jews to disregard such dreams as these were, and not to follow the like idle suggestions delivered as a law, when in such uncertainty of human reasonings they are at a loss what they should do.

Now this our procedure seems a ridiculous thing to Agatharchides, but will appear to such as consider it without prejudice a great thing, and what deserved a great many encomiums.

But of Hecataeus' testimonies we have said enough, for as to such as desire to know more of them, they may easily obtain them from his book itself.

However, I shall not think it too much for me to name Agatharchides as having made mention of us Jews, though in way of derision at our simplicity, as he supposes it to be.

For when he was discoursing of the affairs of Stratonike, how she came out of Macedonia into Syria and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleucus would not marry her as she expected, but during the time of his raising an army at Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch, and how, after that, the king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleucia, and had it in her power to sail away immediately, yet did she comply with a dream which forbade her to do so, and so was caught and put to death.

When Agatharchides had premised the story, and had jested upon Stratonike for her superstition, he gives a like example of what was reported concerning us, and writes thus, There are a people called Jews, and dwell in a city of the strongest of all other cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day on which times they make no use of their arms, nor meddle with husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread out their hands in their holy places, and pray till the evening.

Now it came to pass, that when Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, came into this city with his army, that these men in observing the mad custom of theirs, instead of guarding the city, suffered their country to submit itself to a bitter lord, and their law was openly proved to have commanded a foolish practice.

This accident taught all other men but the Jews to disregard such dreams as these were.