It was
an eagle's eyrie by the side of a pen of fowls. It must not be left
defenceless for a single year. Tyre and Gaza had been taken; so no
danger was to be apprehended from the seaboard: but to subdue the
Judean mountaineers, a race whose past sufferings had hardened them in a
dogged fanaticism of courage and endurance, would be a long and
sanguinary task. It was better to make terms with them; to employ them
as friendly warders of their own mountain walls. Their very fanaticism
and isolation made them sure allies. There was no fear of their
fraternising with the Eastern invaders. If the country was left in
their hands, they would hold it against all comers. Terms were made
with them; and for several centuries they fulfilled their trust.
This I apprehend to be the explanation of that conciliatory policy of
Alexander's toward the Jews, which was pursued steadily by the
Ptolemies, by Pompey, and by the Romans, as long as these same Jews
continued to be endurable upon the face of the land. At least, we shall
find the history of Alexandria and that of Judea inextricably united for
more than three hundred years.
So arose, at the command of the great conqueror, a mighty city, around
those two harbours, of which the western one only is now in use.
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