upon the land of Gilead, he slew Jonathan there; and when he
had given order for his burial, he returned himself to Antioch. However,
Simon sent some to the city Basca to bring away his brother's bones,
and buried them in their own city Modin; and all the people made great
lamentation over him. Simon also erected a very large monument for his
father and his brethren, of white and polished stone, and raised it a
great height, and so as to be seen a long way off, and made cloisters
about it, and set up pillars, which were of one stone apiece; a work
it was wonderful to see. Moreover, he built seven pyramids also for his
parents and his brethren, one for each of them, which were made very
surprising, both for their largeness and beauty, and which have been
preserved to this day; and we know that it was Simon who bestowed
so much zeal about the burial of Jonathan, and the building of these
monuments for his relations. Now Jonathan died when he had been high
priest four years [13] and had been also the governor of his nation. And
these were the circumstances that concerned his death.

7. But Simon, who was made high priest by the multitude, on the very
first year of his high priesthood set his people free from their slavery
under the Macedonians, and permitted them to pay tribute to them no
longer; which liberty and freedom from tribute they obtained after a
hundred and seventy years [14] of the kingdom of the Assyrians, which
was after Seleucus, who was called Nicator, got the dominion over Syria.
Now the affection of the multitude towards Simon was so great, that
in their contracts one with another, and in their public records, they
wrote, "in the first year of Simon the benefactor and ethnarch of the
Jews;" for under him they were very happy, and overcame the enemies that
were round about them; for Simon overthrew the city Gazara, and Joppa,
and Jamhis. He also took the citadel of Jerusalem by siege, and cast it
down to the ground, that it might not be any more a place of refuge to
their enemies when they took it, to do them a mischief, as it had been
till now. And when he had done this, he thought it their best way, and
most for their advantage, to level the very mountain itself upon which
the citadel happened to stand, that so the temple might be higher than
it. And indeed, when he had called the multitude to an assembly, he
persuaded them to have it so demolished, and this by putting them in
mind what miseries they had