For the Jewish race is widely dispersed among the inhabitants of all the
world; and especially was it intermingled with the population of Syria,
because of the nearness of that country. Above all, in Antioch, because of
the size of the city, it had great numbers. There the kings who followed
Antiochus gave the Jews a place where they might live in the most
undisturbed security; for although Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes,
laid waste Jerusalem and plundered the temple, the kings who succeeded him
restored all the gifts of brass that had been made to the Jews of Antioch,
and dedicated them to their synagogue.

[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, VII, 3:3b]
The succeeding kings also treated them in the same way, so that they
became very numerous, and adorned their temple with ornaments and at
great expense with those things which had been given them. They also
continued to attract a great many of the Greeks to their services, making
them in a sense part of themselves.

[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, VII, 10:2d-3e]
Now Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish high priests, fled from
Antiochus [Epiphanes] the king of Syria, when he made war with the Jews,
and came to Alexandria. And after Ptolemy [Philometor] received him very
kindly on account of his hatred to Antiochus, Onias assured him that if he
would comply with his proposal, he would bring all the Jews to his
assistance. Now when the king agreed to do whatever he was able, Onias
desired him to give him permission to build a temple somewhere in Egypt
and to worship God according to the customs of his own nation. So Ptolemy
complied with his proposals and gave them a place about twenty miles
distant from Memphis. That province was called the province of Heliopolis.
There Onias built a fortress and a temple like that at Jerusalem except
that it resembled a tower. He built it of large stones to the height of