Josippon

After these events, Hyrcanus sent messengers to Roma to renew the covenant with Julius Caesar.

Now it seems proper for us to relate the love the Roman leaders showed to our fathers because of their strength and valor and their faithfulness, for our fathers were valiant and faithful. For this reason, all the kings of the earth loved to make a treaty with them because of their strength and valor. Also, the kings of Persia and Media sent them offerings and many letters to Jerusalem. Joseph ben Gurion wrote down only a few of their letters, because he did not want to write too many of the letters of the gentiles that were sent to Jerusalem; only the letters of Roma did Joseph ben Gurion write word for word, and I was too lazy to copy all of them, so I wrote only a few of their letters as I found them written in the book of Joseph ben Gurion.

Now these are the words of the letter that Julius Caesar sent to the Roman generals in Tyre and Sidon to protect the land: "Julius Caesar, king of kings, to the generals of the Romans in Tyre and Sidon: Peace. Let it be known to you that I have received the letters of Hyrcanus, son of Alexander, king of Judaea; I have been pleased by his letters and his loyalty, and I send you copies of all the words that were written in Hyrcanus's letters. I send them to you so that you write them in Latin or Greek on copper tablets and put them in the Temple of Iovis in Sidon in a prominent place. Let them be read frequently, lest the words in the letters be forgotten, to inform everyone of the friendship of the nation of Romans and the nation of Judaea. For Hyrcanus, king of Judaea, and his people, the nation of Judaea, were a strength to the nation of Romans: when I fought in Egypt, he sent Antipater, the hero of Judaea, who saved Mithridates from death, smiting the pride of Egypt and opening for us all the entire land of Egypt; the Jews helped us in all our battles as far as the land of India. For this reason, I, Julius Caesar, have commanded all the inhabitants of the seashore from Gaza to Sidon to pay an annual tax for the Temple of the great divinity that is in Jerusalem, except for Sidon; for the Sidonians, according to their custom, give to the Temple of the great divinity in Jerusalem 20,575 measures of wheat every year. All the land of Lydia, which the Roman generals and Pompey the Great gave to the kings of Aram, I have commanded to be taken from the kings of Aram and restored to Hyrcanus, son of Alexander, king of Judaea. And all the land up to the Euphrates and across the Euphrates that the Hasmoneans had taken in war and that Pompey had returned to their owners I, Julius Caesar, have commanded to restore to Hyrcanus, who is in Jerusalem. Their forefathers had taken it by the sword; therefore, let all that they took in war be theirs. Now every king and officer who shall overturn my covenant and who shall maliciously disobey my commands, that king or officer shall die by the sword, and his land shall be made waste, with neither man nor beast living in it."

The envoys whom Hyrcanus sent to Roma sat with Julius Caesar before all the envoys of the nations who came to Julius in those days. All the envoys of nations spoke to him standing; only Hyrcanus's envoys sat with him as equals to watch the horse and chariot races and the wild animal fights that were performed before Julius and the nudi fighters, and everything else that was performed before him to gladden his spirit. These are the names of Hyrcanus's envoys: Lysimachus, son of Pausanius; Alexander, son of Todros (Theodorus); Patroclus, son of Chiriah (Chaereas); and Yonathan, son of Oniyah (Onias).

We did not copy here many similar letters that we found in the book of Joseph ben Gurion, for his book of the year 508 after the destruction of the Temple is full of such letters. Now we have written and translated from the book of Joseph ben Gurion haCohen in the year 885 of the Destruction Era.