University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

—Antiochus; Jason; the Samaritan Ambassadors.
ANTIOCHUS.
Approach. Come forward; stand not at the door
Wagging your long beards, but demean yourselves
As doth become Ambassadors. What seek ye?

AN AMBASSADOR.
An audience from the King.

ANTIOCHUS.
Speak, and be brief.
Waste not the time in useless rhetoric.
Words are not things.

AMBASSADOR
(reading).
“To King Antiochus,
The God, Epiphanes; a Memorial
From the Sidonians, who live at Sichem.”

ANTIOCHUS.
Sidonians?

AMBASSADOR.
Ay, my Lord.

ANTIOCHUS.
Go on, go on!
And do not tire thyself and me with bowing!

AMBASSADOR
(reading).
“We are a colony of Medes and Persians.”

ANTIOCHUS.
No, ye are Jews from one of the Ten Tribes;
Whether Sidonians or Samaritans
Or Jews of Jewry, matters not to me;
Ye are all Israelites, ye are all Jews.
When the Jews prosper, ye claim kindred with them;
When the Jews suffer, ye are Medes and Persians;
I know that in the days of Alexander
Ye claimed exemption from the annual tribute
In the Sabbatic Year, because, ye said,
Your fields had not been planted in that year.

AMBASSADOR
(reading).
“Our fathers, upon certain frequent plagues,
And following an ancient superstition,
Were long accustomed to observe that day
Which by the Israelites is called the Sabbath.
And in a temple on Mount Gerizim
Without a name, they offered sacrifice.
Now we, who are Sidonians, beseech thee,
Who art our benefactor and our savior,
Not to confound us with these wicked Jews,
But to give royal order and injunction
To Apollonius in Samaria,
Thy governor, and likewise to Nicanor,
Thy procurator, no more to molest us;
And let our nameless temple now be named
The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius.”

ANTIOCHUS.
This shall be done. Full well it pleaseth me
Ye are not Jews, or are no longer Jews,
But Greeks; if not by birth, yet Greeks by custom
Your nameless temple shall receive the name
Of Jupiter Hellenius. Ye may go!