I. Conditions of the Jews in Antioch and Asia Minor. Seleucus Nicanor, who in 311 B.C. founded the city of Antioch, like Alexander, granted many privileges to the Jewish colonies whom he thus sought to attract hither. They not only possessed the rights of citizenship, but lived in their separate quarter. Their synagogue was one of the architectural glories of the city. There they engaged in trade and undoubtedly grew rich, taking on largely the complexion of that opulent Hellenic city. Later the Jewish colony was enlarged by the apostates who fled from Judea when the Maccabean rulers gained the ascendancy. The corrupt and materialistic atmosphere of Antioch doubtless explains why its Jewish citizens apparently contributed little to the development of the thought and faith of later Judaism. Similar colonies were found throughout the great commercial cities of Asia Minor. In many of these cities--for example, Tarsus--they seem to have enjoyed the same privileges as those at Antioch. II. The Jews in Egypt. The chief intellectual and religious center of the Jews of the dispersion, however, was in Alexandria. It is probable that fully a million Jews were to be found in Egypt during the latter part of the Maccabean period. Industry and commerce had made many of them extremely wealthy and had given them the leisure to study not only their own scriptures but also the literature of the Greeks. The prevailingly friendly way in which the Ptolemaic rulers treated the Jews naturally led them to take a more favorable attitude toward Greek culture. Alexandria itself was the scene of an intense intellectual activity. Attracted by the munificence of the Ptolemies and by the opportunities offered by its great library, many of the most famous Greek philosophers and rhetoricians of the age found their home in the Egyptian capital. Public lectures, open discussions, and voluminous literature were only a few of the many forms in which this intellectual life was expressed. Hence it was at Alexandria that Hebrew and Greek thought met on the highest plane and mingled most closely.