Now after the death of Alexander of Macedon, and after the said High Priest, Onias ruled the nation, also enjoying the high-priestly office: in whose day Seleucus conquered Babylon and put on the crown of Asia, twelve years after Alexander's death, and the whole period from him to Cyrus is 248 years From that point the Book of Maccabees begins to count the years of the Hellenic Empire. And after Onias, the High Priest Eleazar ruled the Jews, in whose time the Seventy translated the Holy Scriptures and deposited (d) them in the Library of Alexandria. And after him a second Onias, followed by Simon, in whose day flourished Jesus, son of Sirach, who wrote the excellent book called Wisdom. After him a third Onias ruled, in whose time Antiochus besieged the Jews and compelled them to hellenize. After whom Judas, called the Maccabee, was at the head of the State, and cleansed the land of the unholy, being succeeded by his brother Jonathan. And then Simon, to whose death the First Book of Maccabees reckons 177 years from the beginning of the Syrian rule, and ends its history at that date. So that the period from (394) the first year of Cyrus and the Persian Empire up to the end of the record of the Maccabees and the death of Simon is 425 years. And then Jonathan held the high-priesthood, according to Josephus, for twenty-nine years. After him Aristobulus ruled for a year, who was the first to assume the royal diadem besides the high-priesthood after the return from Babylon. Alexander succeeded him, as both king and high priest, and was at the head of the State for twenty-seven years. To whose date is comprised in all, (b) from the first year of the reign of Cyrus and from the return of the Jews from Babylon, 482 years, in which period the high priests ruled, who I believe are called in the prophecy "Christs and governors." After whom, when the last of them the High Priest Alexander died, the State of the Jews was left without king or leader, so that the kingdom came to a woman. And when her two sons, Aristobulus nnd Hyrcanus, were quarrelling with each other, Pompey, the (c) Roman general, attacked Jerusalem, and took the city by siege, denied its holy places, and even entered the Holiest of all. And this came to pass in the first year of the 179th Olympiad, 495 years after the empire of Cyrus, who began to rule in the fifty-fifth Olympiad. And Pompey, then, having taken Jerusalem by force, sent the before-named Aristobulus a prisoner to Rome, bestowing the High-Priesthood on his brother Hyrcanus, and the whole nation was from that date subject to Rome. Then after this, Herod, (d) the son of Antipater, destroyed Hyrcanus, and was entrusted with the Jewish kingdom by the Roman senate, being the first ruler of a foreign stock, and he destroyed the order of the Mosaic High-Priesthood. For the divine Law ordained that the most high high-priest should hold office for life; but Herod preferred to the office men who were not of the priestly tribe nor otherwise suitable, who were alien and strange to the priestly line of succession, and he gave the position not even to them for life, but only for a short and limited time, sometimes to one, sometimes to another; so (395) that the first seven weeks must be reckoned from Cyrus to Darius, and the remaining sixty-two from Darius to Pompey the Roman general.