Proceedings equally tyrannical were enacted in other parts of the land. The Samaritans, on the occasion of the visit of Alexander the Great, had claimed relationship with the Jews. They now wrote to Antiochus, stating that they were Zidonians, and offering to dedicate their temple on Mount Gerizim to Zeus Xenios, _the Defender of Strangers_. With this proposal the Syrian monarch complied, and the temple was dedicated accordingly. Meanwhile all who refused to yield to the orders of the persecutor suffered the most fearful tortures. Two women, who had dared to circumcise their children, were led round the streets of Jerusalem with their babes hanging round their necks, and were cast down the battlements into the deep valley below the city-walls. Eleazar, an aged man, and one of the principal of the scribes, for refusing to eat swine’s flesh was beaten to death, while a mother and her seven sons for the same offence were executed after enduring the most revolting and horrible tortures (1 Macc. i. 61; 2 Macc. vi. vii.). PART III. RISE OF THE ASMONEAN DYNASTY. CHAPTER I. _MATTATHIAS AND JUDAS MACCABÆUS._ B.C. 167–165. NEVER did the fortunes of the Chosen People look so dark and troubled as now; never did the nation itself, never did the religion of Jehovah appear so near to total extermination. But it was at this very time, when the gradual prevalence of Grecian manners, Grecian idolatry, and Grecian corruption threatened to eradicate all real attachment to the Law of Moses, that God interposed in behalf of His people, and through the genius, bravery, and heroic devotion of one noble-minded family, raised them from their prostrate misery to a height of power, which recalled the glory and the splendour even of the reign of David. At Modin[27], a town situated on an eminence on the road between Jerusalem and Joppa, there lived a priest, named MATTATHIAS, of the line of Joiarib, the first of the 24 courses (1 Chron. xxiv. 7). The son of Jochanon, the son of Simon, the son of Asamonæus or Chasmon, from whom the family took its name, he could boast of noble blood. At this time he was advanced in years, but his sons were in the prime of life, and were five in number, Johanan, Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan.