Page 171.—_Era of freedom._] The Jews were long without any proper era for the computation of time, though we find traces of the departure from Egypt, Num. i. 1. 1 Kings vi. 1., the building of Solomon’s temple, 2 Chron. viii. 1., the commencement of the captivity, Ezek. xxxiii. 21., being used as points from which to reckon; but without that uniformity of use which could make any of them properly an era. When they came under the dominion of Syria, they made use of what is called the era of the Contracts, A. M. 3692, B. C. 312, beginning with the establishment of the dynasty of the Seleucidæ in Syria. When Demetrius granted the privileges of an independent sovereign to Simon, the Jewish people “began to write in their instruments and contracts, ‘In the first year of Simon the high-priest, the governor and leader of the Jews.’” Jos. Ant xiii. 6, 7. Mac. xiii. 41. This is remarkably confirmed by the inscription of the coins of Simon. See Eckhel Doct. N. Vet. iii. 468. This era begins in the year B. C. 143, and is called the Asmonean; the era of the Seleucidæ however still continued in use. Wähneri Ant. Hebr. ii. 47. The modern Jews reckon from the creation; the present year 1824 is 5584 of their reckoning. Reland Ant. 428. Page 173.—_Ptolemy Physcon._] He was the seventh king of Egypt, named by his subjects Κακεργέτης. By his cruelties he drove nearly all the men of letters and science from Alexandria, and by that means very much revived literature in Greece and the Grecian islands, (Athen. iv. 83.) in which they took refuge. Page 175.—_The Romans._] The connection between the Jews and the Romans appears to have begun by an embassy from Judas Maccabeus (B. C. 161) to Rome. Nothing could be more acceptable to the Romans than to raise up an independent power within the dominions of the kings of Syria; and they readily granted the Jews their friendship, and commanded Demetrius to abstain from hostilities against them. As they extended their power in the east, they continued carefully to cultivate this alliance, and renewed their treaties with Simon, (B. C. 139) with John Hyrcanus, (B. C. 128.) The weakness of the Syrian monarchy, and the protection of the Romans, are the real causes of the independence which Judæa enjoyed till the year B. C. 63; when Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, sons of Alexander Jannæus, disputing about the succession, appealed to Pompey, who placed Hyrcanus on the throne, but in a state of complete dependence on Rome. BOOK II.