The Hammer: A Story of the Maccabean Times

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER IV.

  AT ANTIOCH.

  Antioch more than deserved the praise of "a very pretty place," whichMenelaues had bestowed upon it. In fact, it was one of the finest cities ofthe world. The old town which the first Antiochus(6) had found had beenimproved away by him and his successors. All that could be done by adespotic power that made very short work with the wishes and even therights of private owners of property, and by a lavish expenditure ofmoney, had been done by five generations of rulers, and the result wasmagnificent. Broad streets ran from side to side; and those who grumbledthat the narrow alleys of the old town gave at least a shelter from thesun were consoled by the rows of planes and limes, planted alternately,which shaded both sides of each thoroughfare. Rows of houses, which lookedmore like palaces than private dwellings, occupied the best quarter of thecity, and even the poorest regions had nothing of the squalor of poverty.Even the filth so common in the East was conspicuously absent fromAntioch, for every gutter ran with an unceasing stream of water, drawnfrom a higher point of the Orontes and carrying into that river at a lowerpoint all the defilement of the streets. Temples, in which a wholepantheon of gods was worshipped, were to be seen on every hand. The pureand harmonious outlines of Greek architecture could be seen side by sidewith the _bizarre_ conceptions of Oriental art. If the kings and theirGreek subjects worshipped Zeus and Apollo, and, above all, Aphrodite, whohad here her famous grove of Daphne, so the Syrian population werefaithful to Baal and Ashtaroth. A magnificent amphitheatre, capable ofholding at least thirty thousand spectators, rose, a striking mass ofwhite marble, on the north side of the city; a colonnade ran round thefour sides of the market-place, gorgeous with the lavish colours of theEast, for here the art of Greece had been superseded for once by the moreornate native taste. But the river, rushing down between its nobleembankments of stone, was the chief ornament of the place. The Orontes hadnot gathered round it the splendid associations that clustered about theTiber, but its broad, clear stream was in everything else more than amatch for its Italian rival.

  Menelaues and his companion, who, it may be guessed, had reasons of his ownfor regarding with anxiety the summons that brought him to the capital,were not a little relieved to find that the King had been called away byurgent affairs.

  Tarsus, one of the most important cities in his dominions, had rebelled.Its antiquity, its wealth, and its fame as a seat of culture, a characterin which it claimed to be a rival of Athens itself, had combined to givethe Tarsians a high opinion of themselves. Successive rulers, beginningwith the Assyrian kings, its first founders, had allowed the city acertain independence; and its pride was grievously wounded when the youngKing, with the reckless levity that distinguished him, handed it over as aprivate possession to his mistress. The citizens pitched the lady'scollectors into the Cydnus, shut their gates, and defied their sovereign;Mallos, another Cilician city which had suffered the same indignity,following their example. The King had marched to reduce the rebels--a task,it was probable, of no little difficulty--leaving a certain Andronicus toact as his deputy, and specially to dispose of the charge on whichMenelaues and Sostratus had been summoned.

  This charge was one of a very formidable kind. Menelaues's dealings withthe treasures of the Temple had not been so secret as he had hoped. Suchthings cannot be done without a certain number of confederates, and suchconfederates are very apt to give a finishing touch to their villainy bybetraying their chief. In this instance one of the journeymen employed hadconsidered himself insufficiently paid, rightly thinking, perhaps, that ifsacrilege can be recompensed at all, it ought to be recompensedhandsomely. Personally he was too insignificant to venture an attack on sogreat a potentate as the high priest, but he knew whither to carry hisinformation. He told what he knew to a priest, who, besides being a devoutJew, was a member of the family to which the high priesthood properlybelonged. The priest, after satisfying himself that the story was true, atonce set about bringing the offender to justice.

  His course was plain. Menelaues, we have seen, had supplanted Jason, andJason had himself purchased the dignity. But Oniah, the rightful highpriest, who had been displaced by Jason, was still alive. Antiochus,naturally fearing his influence with his countrymen, had kept him at hiscapital, treating him, strange to say, with remarkable consideration. ButOniah was one of those men who extort veneration even from the mostreckless of profligates. His venerable figure, his face beaming withbenevolence, his blameless life, and the charities which he dispensed upto and even beyond the limit of his means, had won for him the regard ofall Antioch. Even the heathen would stop him in the streets and beg hisblessing. Oniah was a power in Antioch for which even the reckless youngprofligate on the throne had an unfeigned respect.

  It may, then, be easily imagined that no little sensation was producedwhen this venerable personage appeared before Antiochus, and, in thepresence of the Court, accused Menelaues, whom he had steadfastly refusedto acknowledge as high priest, of having embezzled much of the treasure ofthe Temple at Jerusalem. That Oniah, whose veracity and good faith werebeyond all question, should make such a charge was _prima facie_ evidenceof its truth. As he was known to have many friends in Jerusalem, it wasmore than probable that evidence would be forthcoming. The King did nothesitate a moment in acting upon this probability. Of course, he did notlook at the matter in at all the same light as that in which it wasregarded by the devout Oniah. To the dispossessed high priest the robberyof the sacred vessels was a monstrous sacrilege, an offence of the deepestdye, not only against his country but against his God. Antiochus felt thatit was he who had been wronged. The treasures of the Jerusalem Temple were_his_ treasures. He might be content to leave them, at all events for thepresent, where they were; but they must be ready to his hand whenever theoccasion should arise, and any one who presumed to appropriate them was atraitor and a villain. Hence the urgent summons to Menelaues and toSostratus, who, as Governor, could hardly fail, thought Antiochus, to havebeen cognizant of the whole proceeding.

  Almost immediately after the despatch of the summons came the trouble withTarsus. The King started to chastise in person his rebellious subjects,and left, as we have said, Andronicus in general charge of affairs, andwith a special commission to hear the accusation which Oniah was bringingagainst Menelaues. The choice was an unlucky one. Antiochus was sincerelyanxious that justice should be done in the matter; but to get justice donein any particular case when it is not the rule of the administration isexceedingly difficult. Andronicus, to put the facts quite simply, was anunprincipled villain, ready to sell his decisions, when he could do sowith impunity, to the highest bidder. He was an old acquaintance andconfederate of Sostratus, and Menelaues, who had established friendlyrelations with the Governor during their journey from Jerusalem toAntioch, soon received a hint as to how he should proceed. The hearing ofthe case had been appointed for the sixth day after his arrival. Beforethat date one of the sacred vessels which he had taken the precaution ofbringing with him, had been exchanged for five hundred gold pieces, andthe gold pieces had found their way into the pocket of Andronicus.

  On the day appointed Oniah, supported by the principal Jewish inhabitantsof Antioch and by not a few of the most respectable Greeks, appeared tosubstantiate his charges against the usurper Menelaues. The evidenceappeared to be overwhelming. The artizan who had been employed tofabricate the worthless imitations of the precious vessels told the wholestory of the fraud with a fulness of detail which seemed to bear all thestamp of truth. Another witness related how he had carried one of theoriginal articles to a goldsmith at Sidon, and actually produced a roughmemorandum of its weight, which had been made upon the spot, to beafterwards embodied in the formal receipt.

  The line of defence adopted was bold, not to say impudent. The wholeaffair, according to Menelaues, was a conspiracy on the part of theirreconcilable Jews to overthrow a loyal subject of the King. Thewitnesses, he declared, had been suborned, the documents had been f
orged.He then went on to bring a counter-charge against his accuser. And here hefound a certain advantage in the transparent honesty of Oniah.

  "Do you acknowledge," he asked the ex-high priest, "the validity of theappointments which our most noble lord Antiochus has made to the office ofhigh priest?"

  Oniah frankly confessed that he did not.

  "Do you consider yourself to be still, according to the Law, in rightfulpossession of that office?"

  "I do."

  "And bound to assert that right?"

  "By lawful means."

  "And you hold all means to be lawful that are enjoined in the Law ofMoses?"

  "I do."

  "And among such means you would count the banishment from the precincts ofthe Holy City of all such as do not worship the Lord God of Israel?"

  Oniah felt that he was becoming entangled in this artful web of questions,and made an effort to break loose. "I appeal," he cried, "most excellentAndronicus, to all who, in this city of Antioch, for these four years pasthave known my manner of life. You see sundry of them, nor of my own nationonly, in the court this day. Ask them whether I have not lived in allpeace and quietness, not seeking to disturb, either by word or deed, thedominions of my lord the King."

  Menelaues, of course, had not come unprovided with witnesses. The old manhad, to tell the truth, used language of an imprudent kind. He was apatriot and a believer. As such, he had his beliefs and his hopes, and itwas part of his character to express such beliefs and hopes quite openly.He had talked of a day when the Holy Land should be no more the prey ofthe alien and the heathen, when a king of the House of David should rulein Mount Sion, when the Temple should regain all the sacredness and allthe glory which had ever belonged to it. Such language, construedstrictly, was not consistent with a thorough loyalty to the Syrianmonarch. But no one who knew Oniah, a man of peace who had the good senseto recognize what was and what was not possible, could suppose that anyscheme of revolt against existing authorities had ever entered into hismind. In fact he had not said a word that had not been said before by oneor more of the prophets. Still, words which breathed a spirit ofindependence, when reported by witnesses, and acknowledged by Oniah--whowas, indeed, too honest to deny them--gave Andronicus the occasion forwhich he had been looking. He gave his decision in the following terms:--

  "The charge against Menelaues is postponed for further hearing. Meanwhilethe documents produced and the witnesses will remain in the custody of theCourt. As for Oniah, he must be reserved for the judgment of the King inperson. I should myself have been disposed to release him; but in theabsence of my lord, considering that the peace of the realm is soessentially concerned, I do not venture so far."

  He was proceeding to give orders for the removal of Oniah, when an ominousmurmur from the audience, with which the court was crowded, made himpause. Prisoners who saw the inside of an Antioch dungeon were sometimesnot heard of again. The air had a certain power of developing very rapiddiseases, so rapid that the sufferers were not only dead but buried beforeany tidings of the sickness reached their friends. Antioch was notdisposed to see the man who was probably the most widely respected of allits inhabitants, exposed to such a risk. Andronicus, who could not eventrust the soldiers to act against so venerable a person, drew back. He waswilling, he said, to accept sureties in a sufficient amount for the dueappearance of the accused. The sureties were forthcoming in a moment, insums so great and so absolutely secure that Andronicus had no pretext forrefusing them. He proceeded to adjourn the Court for fourteen days.

  During the interval he took the opportunity of making a change in thegarrison of the capital. Troops recruited from some of the regionsbordering on Judaea, and accordingly among the bitterest enemies of itspeople, replaced some Greek mercenaries. The strangers knew nothing aboutOniah, except that he was a Jew, and, being a Jew, of course hateful. Theycould be relied upon to obey orders, and those who knew Andronicus weresure what orders he would issue.

  Oniah's friends urged him to fly. He was too old and feeble, he replied;it would be better for him to die at his post. Then they implored him totake sanctuary.

  "What!" he cried, "take sanctuary in a heathen temple! There is none otherin the place. I would sooner die a thousand times."

  It was not in a temple, they explained, that he was to find shelter. Itwas in the Gardens of Daphne that they wished him to take refuge. And theyproceeded to unfold an elaborate argument, the gist of which was that theGardens were a civil, and not a religious, sanctuary; that there would beno occasion for him to enter the consecrated enclosure; he would be simplyavailing himself of a custom which forbad the entrance of the Minister ofJustice into a place devoted to the amusement of the people. It isprobable that they strained their argument beyond the limits of the truth.It was with great difficulty that Oniah could be made to yield. When hedid so at last, on the urgent representations of his friends that thehopes of a free Israel were largely dependent on the preservation of hislife, he could not help foreboding that the concession would not profiteither himself or them.

  The world scarcely contained a more beautiful place--beautiful both bygrace of nature and diligence of art--than the Gardens of Daphne; andcertainly none that seemed more unlikely to shelter a devout Jew. Itsavenues of cypress and laurels, its delicious depths of shade, itsthousand streams, clear as crystal and untouched by the drought of thelongest, most fiery summer, were but a part of its charms. Of some,perhaps the chief of its attractions, it is best not to speak; but therewere others, less unseemly indeed, but such as must have been absolutelyscandalous to such a man as Oniah. The curious thronged to see thegigantic statue of Apollo, a match both in size and costliness of materialto that of Zeus in the plain of Olympia. (It was sixty feet in height, andwrought of gold and ivory.) To complete the resemblance to the famousmeeting-place of the Greek race, there was a running ground and rings forwrestling and boxing. Finally, Daphne claimed to rival another greatcentre of Greek life in its special characteristic. It was stoutlymaintained that the Apollo who haunted the laurel-groves of Daphne was astrue a prophet as he who spoke through the lips of Pythia at Delphi.Crowds of men and women, eager to learn the secrets of the future, came tothe groves of Antioch. The method by which they saw into the secrets offate seemed singularly simple. The questioner dipped a laurel leaf intothe stream that flowed by the shrine, and lo! the surface appeared writtenover with the intimations of fate. Simple it was, but the priests hadspent a world of pains in acquiring the art of invisible writing, and theydid their best to learn something about the history and prospects of theapplicants.

  Such was Daphne, and no one could be more astonished than were itsinhabitants and visitors at the strange figure whom they saw before them;strange to the place, indeed, rather than to them, for Oniah, as has beensaid, was one of the best-known personages in Antioch. The rumour of hiscoming had gone before him, and a crowd, half curious, half respectful,had gathered to meet him. In not a few, indeed, curiosity and respect weremingled with something of fear. The presence of this austere piety in thishaunt of vicious pleasure, was thought to augur ill for its prosperity.Some of the priests were heard to murmur that one who was the avowed enemyof the gods ought not to be admitted. But they did not venture to deny toany one who sought them the privileges of sanctuary, while their fearswere not of a kind which they could make their followers understand. Theyhad, therefore, to acquiesce, and hope that the unwelcome visitor wouldbring with him no ill-luck.

  A little building, as remote as possible from the central temple, had beensecured for the residence of Oniah. On reaching the gardens he had to makehis way to it through two dense lines of eager spectators. The temple, theshrine of the oracle, the pavilions devoted to pleasure, were for thenonce deserted. The drunkards left their wine-cup, and, stranger still,the dice-players their gaming-tables, to gaze upon the holy man. As hewalked up the narrow avenue that had been left for his passage, some ofthe women whose venal beauty was one of the attractions of the place,threw themselves at his fe
et. Unhappy creatures, they had been brought upfrom childhood to this life of degradation, which indeed had a certainhideous sanction of religious association about it; but they had notaltogether lost the womanly veneration for goodness, and, like theMagdalen of a later time, seemed to forget themselves in its presence. Theold man, unconscious of their character, or perhaps, with the Divine Guestof the Pharisee of Capernaum, ignoring it, stretched out his hands withthe gesture of blessing, and, though it was technically a pollution totouch a heathen, he even laid them on some children who were almost thrustinto his arms. There was hardly a heart that was not touched with thiskindness, and when the priest, as he entered his new abode, turned andbade the multitude farewell, he was answered with shouts of enthusiasm.

  Menelaues and his accomplices were dismayed at the escape of the victim. Awitness who knew so much, and whose word was so implicitly believed, mustbe silenced at any cost. To take him by force from the sanctuary wasimpossible. Any attempt of the kind would certainly end in disaster. Butit might be possible to draw him forth by fraud. Menelaues knew enough ofthe old man's character to be sure that he had gone reluctantly, and wouldgladly seize the opportunity of quitting a scene in which he must havefelt himself so much out of place. Some such fraud it would not bedifficult to contrive with the help of Andronicus. Accordingly another ofthe sacred vessels found its way to the dealer, and another purse of goldinto the pocket of the viceroy, and in a few hours the plot was arranged.As Antiochus was on his way back from the north, there was no time to belost.

  Two days after the arrival of Oniah at the gardens a visitor to him wasannounced. It was the viceroy himself.

  "Venerable sir," he began, "it has grieved me beyond measure to find thatyou were distrustful of my honourable, and I may say friendly, intentionsconcerning you. Whoever accused me of ill-will towards you has wronged memost foully. And let me add that you also have been wronged no less inthat you have been persuaded to come to a place so unworthy of yourdignity. Your safety should be ensured, not by a sanctuary in whichthieves and murderers find refuge, but by the inviolable precincts of theroyal palace itself. Let me offer to you, in the name of the King, thehospitality of his abode. In the meanwhile I am willing to swear by anyoaths that may suffice to satisfy you and your friends, that you shallsuffer no injury from my hands."

  One or two of Oniah's friends strongly dissuaded him from trusting himselfto the viceroy. But their caution was overborne by their companions and bythe eagerness of the priest to quit so uncongenial a place. Andronicustook every oath known to Greek or Jew that he would treat the priest withall respect, and Oniah gladly bade farewell to the Gardens. His departurewas made at the dead of night, and unknown to any of the inhabitants ofDaphne. Had they been aware of his intention, it is probable, knowing asthey did the character of Andronicus, that they would have hindered it byforce.

  Almost at the moment of Oniah's arrival at the palace a runner reached itfrom the King announcing his intended arrival on the next day.

  Speedy action was necessary, and Andronicus, though not withoutmisgivings, determined to lose no time. A Court of Justice, so called, washastily held. A creature of his own was called to preside over it.Witnesses whose testimony had been carefully prepared, deposed topreparations for rebellion to which Oniah had been privy, and to which hehad lent his aid. The accused was not allowed to have an advocate, andscarcely even permitted to speak. Two hours sufficed for this mockery of alegal process, and two more for carrying into effect the sentence of deathwhich was of course pronounced. Though the brutal Cilicians who formed thegarrison of the palace were ready to carry out any order which theirofficer might give, it was judged well to avoid anything like a publicexecution. That very night Oniah was poisoned in his prison, and beforedawn the next day his body was hastily consigned to the tomb.

  The punishment for this atrocious act of treachery and cruelty was notlong delayed. One of the first acts of Antiochus, after his return to hiscapital, was to demand the presence of Oniah, and then the story had to betold. Andronicus did his best to put such a colour upon it as woulddeceive his master. The attempt was vain. The King saw in a moment throughthe idle charges which had been brought against the dead man. "What!" hecried, "Oniah rebel against _me_!" His vanity and self-confidence made theaccusation seem the very height of absurdity.

  "Of course," the King went on--"of course he did not acknowledge thepriesthood of Jason or Menelaues; he has told me so himself twenty times.He could not think otherwise, and he was as honest as the day. I only wishthat he had left another as honest behind him. Zeus and all the gods ofheaven and hell confound me if I do not avenge him to the uttermost. Tellme," he cried, turning to the captain of the Cilicians, who stood bydismayed at his master's rage--"tell me where you have buried him."

  The captain described the place.

  "I will see him once more, and these villains shall see him too," he said,pointing to the trembling pair, Andronicus and his creature the judge.

  He went on foot, his royal dress discarded for a mourner's cloak. Hiscourtiers followed him, and a guard of soldiers behind brought with themthe guilty viceroy and judge.

  "Open the grave," he said, when he reached the spot.

  It was soon done, for the murderers had hurried their victim into ashallow tomb. In a few minutes the body of the dead man was exposed toview. Decay had not commenced, and death had given fresh depth and beautyto the serenity which had been their habitual expression in life.Antiochus gazed awhile at the face; then, dropping on his knees, coveredhis head with his mantle, and burst into a passion of tears.

  In a few minutes he rose to his feet. Grief had given place to rage, andhis eyes blazed with fury.

  "Bind that wretch!" he cried, pointing to the wretched Andronicus.

  He was bound, and stood waiting his doom.

  "He is not worth the blow of an honest sword," cried the King; "stranglehim, as if he were a dog. But first make him look at the man whom he hasmurdered."

  Andronicus was forced to the edge of the grave and compelled to look atthe dead. A halter was thrown round his neck, and the next moment he was acorpse. The judge shared his fate. "And you, sir," said the King, turningto the captain who had administered the poison--"you, sir, though you are abarbarian, and know no better, must learn that you cannot rob the world ofone who was worth a thousand such brutes as you. You are captain no more;that is your successor," and he pointed to an officer in his train. "Youcan groom his horses, if you don't want to starve. And think that you arelucky that you keep your head."

  So the good Oniah was avenged.