NEWS of these occurrences filled the Jews with the deepest sorrow and the utmost consternation. For 17 years their late leader had conducted the affairs of the country with prudence, vigour and success. Now all their fair hopes seemed destined to be crushed, if the perfidious Tryphon should succeed in following up the success he had already gained. In this emergency the eyes of all were turned towards Simon surnamed _Thassi_, the elder and only surviving brother of Jonathan, whom the aged Mattathias on his death-bed had commended for his prudence in council. He therefore assumed the command of the patriot forces, and was acknowledged as their leader. His first step was to finish the walls and fortifications of Jerusalem and to place the country in a complete posture of defence (1 Macc. xiii. 10, 11). He then went forth to meet Tryphon, who taking Jonathan with him, had moved up from Ptolemais with a large force, and encamped at Adida or Adithaim (Joshua xv. 36), a town on an eminence overlooking the low country of Judæa. No sooner however did he find a Jewish army ready to oppose him, than he once more had recourse to treachery, and representing that Jonathan was merely held in custody on account of a debt of 100 talents, offered to deliver him up on condition of receiving the money and two of his children as hostages. Though he was certain this was nothing more than an artifice, Simon determined that it never should be said he had left any means untried for the release of his brother (1 Macc. xiii. 17–19), and accordingly sent the money and the hostages. But, as he had expected, Tryphon failed to fulfil his word, and began to ravage the neighbouring country. Meanwhile the Syrian garrison in Jerusalem, suffering severely from the long-continued blockade, sent messengers begging Tryphon to come to their aid. Thereupon the other ordered his cavalry to press forward instantly to their relief, but a heavy fall of snow rendered the roads impassable, and Tryphon finding it impossible to render the required assistance, retired across the Jordan into the land of Gilead. Here he put the heroic Jonathan to death at the city of Bascama, and hurrying into Syria, murdered the young king Antiochus, and seized the supreme power, which he exercised with cruelty and violence (1 Macc. xiii. 23). As soon as he retired Simon sent to Bascama, and brought thence the body of his brother to Modin, where he laid it with great pomp in the ancestral tomb, and erected over it a magnificent monument, consisting of seven pillars, and adorned with the beaks of ships, a conspicuous sea-mark for all the vessels which sailed along the coast (1 Macc. xiii. 27–30).