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The successes of Judas were uninterrupted, and culminated B.C. 165 in the repulse of Lysias, the general of Antiochus, at Bethzur, where a large Syrian force gathered in the expectation of crushing the patriotic army of Judas.
On his way, Pharsalus, Scotussa, and Pherae were surrendered to him, together with the garrisons placed in them by Antiochus. He asked these men whether any of them chose to remain with him; and one thousand having declared themselves willing, he gave them to Philip; the rest he sent back, unarmed, to Demetrias.
In Achaia, the ambassadors of Antiochus and the Aetolians were admitted to an audience of the council at Aegium, in the presence of Titus Quinctius. The ambassador of Antiochus was heard prior to the Aetolians.
There a more studied address required to be delivered; for a great many of the leading men were disaffected to the Romans, and entirely devoted to the interests of Antiochus and the Aetolians; because, at the time when accounts were received that Philip's son, who was a hostage, would be restored to him, and the tribute imposed on him remitted, among other groundless reports it had been given out, that the Romans also intended to restore Demetrias to him.
It must have been mere child's-play to Lysander to defeat Antiochus, the pilot of Alkibiades, and to outwit Philokles, the Athenian mob-orator, "A knave, whose tongue was sharper than his sword," for they were both of them men whom Mithridates would not have thought a match for one of his grooms, or Marius for one of his lictors.
When, however, he found that Antiochus was not to be deterred by any fears of this kind, but was bent on crossing the desert, he had recourse to the barbaric expedients of filling in, or poisoning, the wells along the line of route-which the Syrian prince was likely to follow. But these steps seem to have been taken too late.
These are the schemes which many do not scruple to impute to him. Whether credited or not by Zenobia, I cannot tell. But were they, I believe she would but smile at the poor lack-brain who entertains them. Intrenched as she is in the impregnable fortress of her people's heart, she might well despise the intrigues of a bolder and worthier spirit than Antiochus.
For several years this friendly intercourse was kept up; it was, in fact, only terminated by the death of the boy; when, as the story goes, the dolphin was so affected at seeing him return no more, that it threw itself on the shore, and died, as was thought, of very grief and sorrow! The Death of Antiochus Revenged.
When Antiochus was overcome, the Romans pressed harder upon Greece, and encompassed the Achaeans with their power; the popular leaders in the several cities yielded before them; and their power speedily, under the divine guidance, advanced to the consummation due to it in the revolutions of fortune.
"But father," replied Arsinoe, her anxiety once more urging her to speak, "it is a bad thing to have a dishonest man in the house." "You know nothing about it child!" answered Keraunus. "To us to live and to be honest are the same thing, but a slave! King Antiochus is said to have declared that the man who wishes to be well served must employ none but rascals."
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