wever, the last ruler who was able to revive the
waning power of the Persian Empire. At his accession he slew all the
members of the royal family, and throughout his reign (358-337 B.C.) he
trusted chiefly to the unsheathed sword to maintain his authority. In 346
B.C. he finally succeeded in collecting a huge army with which he invaded
Syria and besieged Sidon. Its king betrayed his city into the hands of the
Persians, only to be murdered by the treacherous Ochus. The citizens of
Sidon, recognizing that they would receive no mercy from the hands of
Their conqueror, shut themselves up in their homes and then burned them
Over their heads. According to the Greek historians forty thousand
Phoenicians perished in this revolt.

VI. The Date of the Samaritan Schism. Josephus has given an unusually
full and detailed account of the final schism between the Jews and
Samaritans. He dates it under the high priesthood of Jaddua, who died
shortly after the close of the Persian period. He implies, therefore, that
the schism took place not long before 332 B.C., when Alexander the Great
conquered Palestine. This is also in keeping with the fact that the
Elephantine letter written in 411 B.C. knows nothing of a division
between Jew and Gentile. The fact that at the time of the division the
defecting priests took from Jerusalem the Pentateuch in its final form
strongly confirms the conclusion (as Professor Torrey has pointed out
in his _Ezra Studies_, pp. 324-330) that the Sanballat who ruled over the
Samaritan community was not the contemporary of Nehemiah, but his
grandson, who as an old man was ruling in Samaria at the time when
Alexander conquered the East.

VII. The Nature and Consequences of the Schism. The schism between Jew
and Samaritan was but a revival of the ancient rivalry which dated from
the days when the Israelites had first settled in Canaan. The destruction
of Samaria in 722 and the strong policy of Josiah had apparently led the
Samaritans to look to the temple at Jerusalem as the chief sanctuary of
the land. Shechem, however, and Mount Gerizim, which rises abruptly on the
south, enjoyed traditions which dated from the earliest days of Israel's
history. The sacred oak and altar at Shechem figured even in the
patriarchal period. At the temple of Baal-berith in Shechem apparently
both Canaanites and Israelites worshipped during the days of the
settlement. According to the Samaritan version of Deuteronomy 24:4, Mount
Geriz