the Straits of
Gibraltar and threatened for a time completely to engulf the Western
civilization. Familiar modern illustrations are the Mahdist insurrections
that have from time to time taxed the resources of the English in northern
Africa. In the third place the land of Judea, with its narrow western
passes rapidly ascending to the heights above, enabled Judas to choose his
battle-field at a point where only a few of the enemy could be brought
into action and where a handful of valiant men could keep an army at bay.

III. Defeat of Apollonius and Seron. At first Judas wisely confined
himself to guerilla warfare. This enabled him in time to clothe and arm
his followers with the garments and weapons taken from the enemy. The most
important of these smaller engagements took place north of Jerusalem. As
Apollonius, the Syrian governor of Samaria, was advancing into Judea,
Judas suddenly fell upon the Syrians and slew their leader. Henceforth the
sword of the Syrian governor was effectively wielded by Judas in behalf of
religious liberty.

News of the victory soon brought Seron, the governor of Coele-Syria, with
a large army. He advanced from the coast plain by the most direct road to
Jerusalem over the famous pass of the Bethhorons. Within a distance of two
miles the road ascended nearly fifteen hundred feet. At points it was
merely a steep, rocky pass, so that an invading army was forced to march
single file and to pull themselves up over the rocks. Here on the heights
that looked out toward his home at Modein Judas, appealing to the faith
and patriotism of his men, swept down upon the enemy and won his first
great victory.

IV. The Battle of Emmaus. The first great Jewish victory was a severe
blow to the power of Antiochus Epiphanes, for at that time he was
confronted by a depleted treasury. He therefore left his kingdom in charge
of Lysias, one of his nobles, and set out on a campaign into Persia from
which he never returned. Three generals with a large army were sent by
Lysias against the Jews. So confident were they of a Syrian victory that a
horde of slave merchants accompanied the army that they might purchase the
Jewish captives. This time the Syrians avoided the difficult pass of
Bethhoron and chose the Wady Ali, along which the modern carriage road
winds up from the coast to Jerusalem. The main camp was pitched at Emmaus
at the southeastern side of the Plain of Ajalon under the Judean hills.
Meantime Judas had