Letter of Aristeas

1917 printed page 24 / §§12–14

Printed page 24 Original marginal section labels beginning on this page: §12, §13, §14. _(b)_ THE EMANCIPATION OF THE JEWISH SLAVES. And now thought I was the opportunity for introducing a matter about which I had often made request to Sosibius of Tarentum and Andreas, the heads of the body-guard, namely, the liberation of the Jews who had been carried away from Judaea by the king's father. For he, after overrunning the whole of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, assisted by good fortune and his own prowess, transplanted some and made prisoners of others, terrorizing and reducing the whole country to submission. It was on this occasion that he carried away more than a hundred thousand persons from the Jews' country into Egypt, of which number he armed about thirty thousand picked men and settled them in the fortresses in the country. (Many Jews had already before this entered the country along with the Persian,{1} and others had at a still earlier time been sent out as auxiliaries to fight in the army of Psammetichus {2} against the king of the Ethiopians ; but these immigrants were not so large a body as those whom Ptolemy, son of Lagus, introduced.) Well, as we said before, he selected those who were best fitted _for service_ by age and physique, and armed them, but the remaining mass, those who were too old or too young for service, and the women as well, he reduced to bondage, not of his own free will, but rather compelled thereto by the soldiers, _who claimed them_ in return for the services which they had rendered in action. Having, therefore, found some pretext for their release, TRANSLATOR’S NOTES (1917) — printed page 24 {1} Cambyses, who conquered Egypt in 525 B.C. {2} Psammetichus was king of Egypt from about 671 to 617 B.C. ; he was the first king of Egypt to employ _Greek_ mercenaries in foreign campaigns (Hdt. II. 151 ff.). Others think that Psammis or Psammetichus II, as he is sometimes called, is here intended. He became king of Egypt in 601 B.C., and waged war against Ethiopia (Hdt. II. 159-161). TRANSCRIPTION CAUTIONS (2026, editorial) - Section 13 margin marker aligns with "thousand persons ... of"; "of which number" is the candidate clause start, not an independently marked boundary.