Friendship With Rome and Sparta
As Demetrius II did not keep his promise, Jonathan thought it better to support the new king when Diodotus Tryphon and Antiochus VI seized the capital, especially as the latter confirmed all his rights and appointed his brother Simeon strategos of the seacoast, from the "Ladder of Tyre" to the frontier of Egypt.
Jonathan and Simeon were now entitled to make conquests; Ashkelon submitted voluntarily while Gaza was forcibly taken. Jonathan vanquished even the strategi of Demetrius II far to the north, in the plain of Hazar, while Simeon at the same time took the strong fortress of Beth-zur on the pretext that it harbored supporters of Demetrius.
Like Judah in former years, Jonathan sought alliances with foreign peoples. He renewed the treaty with the Roman Republic, and exchanged friendly messages with Sparta and other places. However one should note that the documents referring to those diplomatic events are questionable in authenticity.
Read more about this topic: Jonathan Apphus
Famous quotes containing the words friendship with, friendship and/or rome:
“Chinese do not repay friendship with death.”
—Joseph O’Donnell, and Clifford Sanforth. Ah Ling, Murder by Television, when he is accused of Perry’s murder (1935)
“The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
And such a twain can do ‘t, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)