the victory rather inclined to Ptolemy. But when this Ptolemy was pursued
by his mother, Cleopatra, and retired into Egypt, Alexander besieged and
took Gadara and Amathus, which was the strongest of all the fortresses
that were beyond the Jordan, and the most valued of all the possessions of
Theodorus, the son of Zeno, were therein. Thereupon Theodorus marched
suddenly against him and took what belonged to himself, and slew ten
thousand of the Jews. Alexander, however, recovered from this blow and
turned his force toward the maritime districts and took Gaza, Raphia, and
Anthedon.

[Sidenote: Jos. War, I, 4:3]
But when he had enslaved all these cities, the Jews made an insurrection
against him at a festival and it looked as though he would not have been
able to escape the plot they had laid for him, had not his foreign
auxiliaries come to his aid. And when he had slain more than six thousand
of the rebels, he invaded Arabia, and when he had conquered the Gileadites
and Moabites, he commanded them to pay him tribute and returned to Amathus
and took the fortress and demolished it.

[Sidenote: Jos. War, I, 4:4, 5]
However, when he fought with Obedas, king of the Arabians, who had laid an
ambush for him near Golan, he lost his entire army, which was crowded
together in a deep valley and trampled to pieces by the multitude of
camels. And fleeing to Jerusalem because of the greatness of the calamity
that had overtaken him, he provoked the multitude, which had hated him
before, to make an insurrection against him. He was, however, too strong
for them in the various battles that were fought between them and he slew
no fewer than fifty thousand of the Jews in the interval of six years. Yet
he had no reason to rejoice in these victories, since he did but consume
his own country, until he at length ceased fighting and desired to come to