22. which they wrote back
again] i.e. as their written reply to the representations made by the
Jewish ambassadors. Josephus (Ant. xii
10. 6) says that the original bronze tablet containing the decree was laid up
in the Capitol, while a copy (which the author may perhaps have seen) was sent
to Judaea. For a similar treaty between Rome and Astypalaea, of date b.c. 105,
see Hicks, Manual of Gk. Hist. Inscr.
pp. 347–349. It concerns the raising of Astypalaea to the rank of a civitas foederata, and in its
phraseology bears a considerable resemblance to the treaty entered into with
the Jews. It was also deposited in the Capitol (line 11). Cf. Marquardt, Röm.
Alt. iv. 347 sqq.
on tables of brass] From time immemorial legal documents in
general, as well as treaties, had been inscribed on such tablets (Julius Pollux
8:128). Polybius mentions (iii. 26) that the treaties between Rome and Carthage
were in his time still similarly preserved in the Capitol. (W.
Fairweather and J. Sutherland Black, The
First Book of Maccabees with Introduction and Notes [The Cambridge Bible
for Schools and Colleges; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1897], 163-64)
