First Book of Maccabees 8

¹ Judas had heard of the reputation of the Romans, their military strength and their benevolence towards all who made common cause with them; they wanted to establish friendly relations with anyone who approached them,

² because of their military strength. He was told of their wars and of their prowess among the Gauls,[*a] whom they had conquered and put under tribute;

³ and of all they had done in the province of Spain to gain possession of the silver and gold mines there,

⁴ making themselves masters of the whole country by their determination and perseverance, despite its great distance from their own; of the kings who came from the ends of the earth to attack them, only to be crushed by them and overwhelmed with disaster, and of others who paid them annual tribute;

⁵ Philip, Perseus king of the Kittim, and others who had dared to make war on them, had been defeated and reduced to subjection,

⁶ while Antiochus the Great, king of Asia, who had advanced to attack them with a hundred and twenty elephants, cavalry, chariots and a very large army, had also suffered defeat at their hands;

⁷ they had taken him alive and imposed on him and his successors the payment of an enormous tribute, the surrender of hostages, and the cession

⁸ of the Indian territory, with Media, Lydia, and some of their best provinces, which they took from him and gave to King Eumenes.

⁹ Judas was also told how, when the Greeks planned an expedition to destroy them,

¹⁰ the Romans got wind of it and sent against them a single general, fought a campaign in which they inflicted heavy casualties, carried off their women and children into captivity, pillaged their goods, subdued their country, tore down their fortresses and reduced them to a slavery lasting to this very day;

¹¹ and how all other kingdoms and islands that had ever resisted them were also destroyed and enslaved.

¹² But where their friends and those who relied on them were concerned, they had always stood by their friendship. They had subdued kings far and near, and all who heard their name went in terror of them.

¹³ One man, if they determined to help him and advance him to a throne, would certainly occupy it, while another, if they so determined, would find himself deposed; their influence was paramount.

¹⁴ In spite of all this not one of them had assumed a crown or put on the purple for his own aggrandisement.

¹⁵ They had set up a senate, where is three hundred and twenty councilors deliberated daily, constantly debating how best to regulate public affairs.

¹⁶ They entrusted their government to one man for a year at a time, with absolute power over their whole empire, and this man was obeyed by all without any envy or jealousy.

¹⁷ Having chosen Eupolemus son of John, of the family of Accos, and Jason son of Eleazar, Judas sent them to Rome to make a treaty of friendship and alliance with these people,

¹⁸ who would surely lift the yoke from their shoulders once they understood that the kingdom of the Greeks was reducing Israel to slavery.

¹⁹ The envoys made the lengthy journey to Rome and presented themselves before the Senate with their formal proposal,

²⁰ ‘Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers, with the Jewish people, have sent us to you to conclude a treaty of alliance and peace with you, and to enrol ourselves as your allies and friends’.

²¹ The proposal met with the approval of the senators,

²² and this is a copy of the rescript which they engraved on bronze tablets and sent to Jerusalem to be kept there by the Jews as a record of peace and alliance:

²³ ‘Good fortune attend the Romans and the Jewish nation by sea and land for ever; may sword or enemy be far from them!

²⁴ If war comes first to Rome or any of her allies throughout her dominions,

²⁵ the Jewish nation is to take action as her ally, as occasion may require, and do it wholeheartedly.

²⁶ They are not to give or supply to the aggressor any grain, arms, money or ships; this is the Roman decision, and they are to honour their obligations without recompense.

²⁷ In the same way, if war comes first to the Jewish nation the Romans are to support them energetically as occasion may offer,

²⁸ and the aggressor shall not be furnished with grain, arms, money or ships; this is the Roman decision, and they will honour these obligations unreservedly.

²⁹ These are the terms laid down by the Romans for the Jewish people.

³⁰ If when they have come into force either party should wish to make any addition or deletion, they shall be free to do so, and any such addition or deletion shall be binding.[*b]

³¹ As regards the wrongs done to them by King Demetrius, we have written to him in these terms: Why have you made your yoke lie heavy on our friends and allies the Jews?

³² If they appeal against you again we will uphold their rightsand make war on you by sea and land.’