for the Jewish cause, conditions in the Syrian capital made it necessary for Lysias to retire. He accordingly made a treaty with the Jews in which their religious freedom was fully assured on condition that they would recognize the authority of the Syrian kingdom. =Fortunes of Judas's Party.= After securing religious freedom a strong party of the Jews, known as the Hasideans, the forerunners of the later party of the Pharisees, were inclined to accept peace at any cost. The result was that from this time on Judas lost many of his followers. Even the apostate Alcimus, appointed high priest by the Syrian king, was at first accepted by the Hasideans. His deceptions and persecution of the faithful, however, soon drove many back into the ranks of those who, like Judas, were struggling to gain not merely religious freedom, but also complete political independence. In response to the demands of the Syrian party in Judea, a certain Nicanor, formerly master of the elephants in the Syrian army, was sent to check the growing power of Judas and his followers. An engagement was fought at Caphersalama, evidently somewhere near Jerusalem. Many of the Syrian soldiers were slain and the rest fled to the City of David, which had been, from the days of the great Hebrew king, the designation of the hill of Ophel, in the southeastern part of the city. It is exceedingly probable, therefore, that Caphersalama is to be identified with the modern Kefr Silwan,^{(98)} the little village on the eastern side of the Kidron, just across the valley from the City of David. =Victory Over Nicanor.= Alarmed by this victory, Nicanor sent for another Syrian army, which he met at Beth-horon. Thence he took the main road that leads over the pass toward Jerusalem. Judas, with his followers, had taken his position near the village of Adasa, at the point where the Beth-horon road joins the central highway southward to Jerusalem. Nicanor fell in the first charge, and his army was so demoralized by the loss of its leader that they threw away their weapons and fled back along the highway toward Gazara, the ancient Gezer. The Jews in the villages along the way attacked the fleeing Syrians with the result that none of them escaped. Profiting by this signal victory, Judas sent an embassy to Rome. His aim was to secure in his unequal contest with the Syrian kingdom the aid of this power, which already was beginning to dominate the politics of the eastern Mediterranean; but before he could receive a reply from Rome, the Jewish champion fought his last fatal battle.