05.01 - HELIODORUS.

1. HELIODORUS. The Second Book of Maccabees has a wonderful story to tell of how King Seleucus IV. Philopator made an unsuccessful attempt to plunder the temple-treasury in Jerusalem. A certain Simon, who had occasion to revenge himself upon Onias the high-priest, had gone hurriedly to Apollonius, the Syrian governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, and had contrived to impress him with the most marvellous ideas of the temple property in Jerusalem. The king, having been informed of the sacred store, thought it well to send his minister Heliodorus to Jerusalem, with orders to bring back the gold with him. Heliodorus was the very man for such a mission. Having reached Jerusalem, neither the expostulations of the high priest nor the lamentations of the people were able to dissuade him. In the extremity of their distress recourse was had to prayer. And just as the heartless official and his minions were actually preparing to pillage the treasury, “there appeared unto them a horse with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very fair covering, and he ran fiercely, and smote at Heliodorus with his fore-feet; and it seemed that he that sat upon the horse had complete harness of gold. Moreover, two other young men appeared before him, notable in strength, excellent in beauty, and comely in apparel; who stood by him on either side, and scourged him continually, and gave him many sore stripes. And Heliodorus fell suddenly to the ground and was compassed with great darkness; but they that were with him took him up, and put him into a litter and carried him forth.” A sacrifice offered by the high-piest saved the half-dead man, and then the two young men, apparelled as before, appeared to him again, and told him that he owed his life to Onias. Then Heliodorus, being asked by the king after his return, who might be the proper person to send on the same errand to Jerusalem, replied: “If thou hast any enemy or adversary to thy government, send him thither, and thou shalt receive him well scourged, if he escape with his life: for in that place without doubt there is an especial power of God”. The historical foundations of this tale in 2Ma 3:1-40, which is certainly better known to-day through Raphael’s picture than through its original narrator, are not so obvious as its pious aim. Grimm¹⁰⁰⁵ is inclined to allow it a kernel of history; up to 2Ma 3:23 the story does not contain a single feature which might not have been literally true. Owing to the financial difficulties occasioned by the conclusion of peace with Rome, temple-robbings seem to have become, to some extent, the order of the day with the Seleucidae. Grimm therefore accepts the historicity of the attempt to plunder the temple, but leaves undecided the actual nature of the event, thus ornamented by tradition, by which the project of Heliodorus was baffled. The author is not in a position to decide this question, though, indeed, the answer given by Grimm seems to him to be in the main correct.¹⁰⁰⁶ But in any case the observation of Schurer,¹⁰⁰⁷viz., that the book as a whole (or its source, Jason of Cyrene) is not seldom very well-informed in the matter of details, is confirmed in the present passage. The book undoubtedly says what is correct of the hero of the story, Heliodorus,¹⁰⁰⁸ in describing him as first minister of the Syrian king. It is indeed true that this assertion is not vouched for in ancient literature; for Appian, Syr., p. 45 (Mendelssohn, i., p. 416) makes mention of only one Heliodorus as τινὸςτῶνπερὶτὴναὐλήν of Seleucus. But even if this note makes it more than “probable”¹⁰⁰⁹ that it refers to the same man as is alluded to in the Second Book of Maccabees, yet, if there were no further proof of the identity, it would be necessary to reckon seriously with the possibility that the author of that book, in accordance with his general purpose, transformed some mere court-official into the first minister of the king of Syria, in order to make still more impressive the miracle of his punishment and his repentance. But this very detail, suspicious in itself, can be corroborated by two Inscriptions from Delos, made known by Th. Homolle, which may be given here:— I.¹⁰¹⁰ἩλιόδωρονΑἰσχύλουἈντ[ιοχέα]

τὸνσύντροφον¹⁰¹¹τοῦβασιλεύωςΣ[ελεύκου]

Φιλοπάτοροςκαὶἐπὶτῶνπρα[γμάτων]

τεταγμένονοἱἐνΛα[οκικείᾳ ?]

τῇἐνΦοινίκῃἐγδοχεῖςκαὶνα[ύκληροι?]

ἐυνοίαςἕνεκενκαὶφιλοστρο[ργίας]

[τ]ῆςεἰςτὸνβασιλέακαὶεὐεργ[εσίας] τῆςεἰςαὑτοὺς

Ἀπόλλωνι The Inscription stands upon the base of a statue no longer extant: its purport is that some Phoenician ship-masters dedicated the statue of Heliodorus, out of gratitude for his kindness, and on account of his being well-affected towards the king, to the Delian Apollo. II.¹⁰¹²ἩλιόδωρονΑἰσχύλουτὸνσ[ύντροφονβασιλέως]

Σελεύκουτεταγμένονδὲκ[αὶἐπὶτῶνπραγμάτων]

καὶτὴνσυγγένειαναὐτο[ῦ] . . . . . .

Ἀρτεμίδωορς Ἡρακλείδουτῶν . . . . . .

ἀρετῆςἕνεκενκαὶδικα[ιοσύνης. . . .ἧς ἔχων]

διατελεῖεἴςτετὸνβασιλέακ[αὶ] . . . . .

φιλίαςδὲκαὶεὐεργεσίαςτ[ῆςεἰςἑαυτὸνἀνέθηκεν]

ἈπόλλωνιἈ[ρτέμιδιΛητοῖ]. This Inscription also is found on the base of a statue; its contents quite resemble those of No. 1; in line 3 συγγένειαν, with some supplementary participle, will signify the same title which is already known to us as συγγενής.¹⁰¹³ Homolle’s conjecture that this Heliodorus is identical with the one mentioned in 2 Maccabees, and by Appian, seems to us to be fully established;¹⁰¹⁴ note how accurately 2Ma 3:7 also introduces him as Ἡλιόδωρον τὸνἐπὶτῶνπραγμάτων. This title, which is current elsewhere in the Books of Maccabees (1Ma 3:32, 2Ma 10:11, 2Ma 13:2, 2Ma 13:23, 3Ma. 7:1) is proved by other writings to have belonged to Syria, ¹⁰¹⁵ as also to Pergamus. ¹⁰¹⁶ In Polybius and Josephus it is applied to the viceroy, the representative of the absent king, similarly in 1Ma 3:32, 2Ma 13:23; in 3Ma. 7:1 it has the further meaning of chancellor of the kingdom, first minister, ¹⁰¹⁷ similarly 2Ma 10:11, 2Ma 13:2, 3Ma. 7:1. The first Inscription, moreover, confirms the reading πραγμάτων which is given by most MSS. in 2Ma 3:7. Codices 19, 44, 71, etc., which substitute χρημάτων for πραγμάτων in this passage,¹⁰¹⁷ have obviously been so influenced by the contents of the narrative as to turn the chancellor into a chancellor of the exchequer; for such must have been the sense of the title given by them, viz., τὸνἐπὶτῶνχρημάτων. As for Syncellus (8th cent. A.D.), Chronogr., p. 529 7 (Bonn edition), who likewise describes Heliodorus as ὁἐπὶτῶνχρημάτων, he is probably dependent on these codices.¹⁰¹⁸ Evidence from the Inscriptions has extended our knowledge thus far: Heliodorus came originally from Antioch,¹⁰¹⁹ and was the son of a certain Aischylos. In the lofty position of first minister of King Seleucus IV. Philopator, to whose familiar circle (σύντροφοι) he had certainly belonged previously, he earned good repute in connection with the shipping trade, and was in consequence the recipient of frequent honours. The marble statue of Heliodorus was prepared for Phoenician merchants by the ancient sculptors, and the pious gift was dedicated to the Delian Apollo; some narrator of late pre-Christian times, full of faith in the written word, made him the central figure of a richly-coloured picture, and the fate of the temple-robber became a theme for edification, not unmixed with pious horror; fifteen hundred years afterwards Raphael’s Stanza d’Eliodoro transformed this naive exultation in the penalty paid by the godless man into the lofty though unhistorical idea that the Church of the Vatican is ever triumphant.