The account of the embassy of Hyrcanus to Cesar, asking for a renewal of the treaty between them; and of the copy of the treaty which Hyrcanus sent to him.
1 Therefore Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to Cesar, with a letter concerning a renewal of the treaty which was between him and the Romans.
2 And when Hyrcanus’ ambassadors came to Caesar, he ordered them to be seated in his presence; an honour which he had not conferred on any one of the ambassadors of the kings who used to come to him.
3 Moreover he acted kindly to them, by expediting their business, and ordered an answer to be given to Hyrcanus’ letter; to whom also he wrote the treaty, of which the following is a copy.
4 “From Cesar, king of kings, to the princes of the Romans who are at Tyre and Sidon, peace be with you.
5 I give you to know, that a letter of Hyrcanus the son of Alexander, both kings of the Jews, has been brought to me;
6 at the arrival of which I rejoiced, by reason of the continued good-will which both he and his people declare that they have towards me and the Roman nation.
7 And verily the truth of his words I have proved by this; that he formerly sent Antipater a captain of the Jews, and their cavalry, with Mithridates my friend, whom the troops of Egypt attacked;
8 and he saved Mithridates from death, having won for us the country of Egypt, and reduced the Egyptians to obedience to the Romans: he also marched with me into the country of the Persians, serving as a volunteer.
9 And therefore I order that all the inhabitants of the sea-coast, from Gaza as far as Sidon, shall pay all the tributes which they owe us, every year, to the house of the great God which is in Jerusalem;
10 except the citizens of Sidon; and let these pay to it, according to the appointment of their tribute, twenty thousand five hundred and fifty vibe of wheat every year.
11 I also order, that Laodicea and its possessions, and all things which were in the hand of the kings of Judah, even to the bank of the Euphrates;
12 with all those places which the Asmoneans won from the passing over Jordan,— be restored to Hyrcanus the son of Alexander king of Judah.
13 For all these things his fathers had won by their sword, but Pompey had unjustly taken them away in the time of Aristobulus:
14 and from this time and for the future let them belong to Hyrcanus, and to the succeeding kings of Judah.
15 And this treaty is for me, and for every one of the kings of Rome my successors: whoever therefore shall break it or any part of it, may God destroy him by the sword, and may his house and his government be made desolate and be cut down!
16 And when you shall read this my epistle, write it in letters engraved on tables of brass, in the language of the Romans and in their characters, and in the language of the Greeks and in their characters:
17 and place the tables in conspicuous parts of the temples which are at Tyre and_Sidon; that every person may be able to see them, and may understand what I have appointed for “Hyrcanus and the Jews.”