Upon this, Bacchides returned to Antioch, and Jonathan re-appearing from his hiding-place, established himself in Judæa, where, for upwards of two years, he was left unmolested by the Syrians, in accordance with orders from Demetrius, who by this time had received the commands of the Roman senate forbidding all hostilities towards their new allies. This condition, however, of tranquillity by no means fell in with the views of the large Hellenizing party in Judæa, and they invited Bacchides to return once more and crush their enemy. Accordingly the Syrian commander re-entered Judæa at the head of a considerable army, and Jonathan retiring as before into the wilderness, maintained a desultory warfare, while his brother Simon occupied the fortress of Beth-basi, in the Jordan valley, not far from Jericho. Though he attacked it with all his forces, Bacchides was utterly unable to reduce this stronghold, and at length, wearying of a campaign which brought little glory and less profit, he turned against those who had advised the expedition, and sought means to secure an honourable retreat. Informed of the altered feelings of his foe, Jonathan thereupon sent envoys, and succeeded in concluding a peace, agreeing to acknowledge Bacchides as governor under the Syrian king, and obtaining a promise from that general that he would not enter the land again. On these terms, hostilities were suspended, and the authority of Jonathan as deputy governor of Judæa was publicly recognised. Establishing himself at Michmash (1 Macc. ix. 73), he ruled the people according to the law of Moses, though Jerusalem and many of the stronger towns were still retained by garrisons of Syrians or apostate Jews. After the lapse, however, of a very few years, a revolution took place in Syria, which produced a surprising change in his fortunes. About the year B.C. 153, Demetrius retired to a new palace he had built at Antioch, and there gave himself up to pleasure, and various luxurious excesses[38]. This, added to other causes, made him extremely unpopular with his subjects, and gave rise to a conspiracy which was fostered by Ariarathes king of Cappadocia, Attalus king of Pergamus, and especially by Ptolemy Philometor king of Egypt, from whom Demetrius had taken the island of Cyprus. By their connivance, a young man named Balas[39] was persuaded to give himself out as the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and to claim the Syrian throne. Through the intrigues of Heraclides, a former treasurer of Epiphanes, his claim was admitted by the Romans, and on his landing at Ptolemais after a visit to Rome, the place was betrayed by the garrison, and his standard was joined by numerous disaffected subjects of Demetrius, B.C. 152.