and that he and his sons be our confederates; and that besides this,
everyone of them be reckoned among our particular friends. I also ordain
that he and his children retain whatsoever privileges belong to the
office of high priest, or whatsoever favors have been hitherto granted
them; and if at any time hereafter there arise any questions about the
Jewish customs, I will that he determine the same. And I think it not
proper that they should be obliged to find us winter quarters, or that
any money should be required of them."

3. "The decrees of Caius Caesar, consul, containing what hath been
granted and determined, are as follows: That Hyrcanus and his children
bear rule over the nation of the Jews, and have the profits of the
places to them bequeathed; and that he, as himself the high priest
and ethnarch of the Jews, defend those that are injured; and that
ambassadors be sent to Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest
of the Jews, that may discourse with him about a league of friendship
and mutual assistance; and that a table of brass, containing the
premises, be openly proposed in the capitol, and at Sidon, and Tyre, and
Askelon, and in the temple, engraven in Roman and Greek letters: that
this decree may also be communicated to the quaestors and praetors
of the several cities, and to the friends of the Jews; and that the
ambassadors may have presents made them; and that these decrees be sent
every where."

4. "Caius Caesar, imperator, dictator, consul, hath granted, That out
of regard to the honor, and virtue, and kindness of the man, and for the
advantage of the senate, and of the people of Rome, Hyrcanus, the son
of Alexander, both he and his children, be high priests and priests of
Jerusalem, and of the Jewish nation, by the same right, and according to
the same laws, by which their progenitors have held the priesthood."

5. "Caius Caesar, consul the fifth time, hath decreed, That the Jews
shall possess Jerusalem, and may encompass that city with walls; and
that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the
Jews, retain it in the manner he himself pleases; and that the Jews be
allowed to deduct out of their tribute, every second year the land is
let [in the Sabbatic period], a corus of that tribute; and that the
tribute they pay be not let to farm, nor that they pay always the same
tribute."

6. "Caius Caesar, imperator the second time, hath ordained, That all the
country of the