granted him a seat in his own chariot, together with the queen and Athenion. His cleverness won for him the monarch's friendship; and by his offer of 16,000 talents against the 8,000 bid by his opponents he secured the contract for farming the taxes, the king and queen becoming his sureties, since he did not have sufficient ready money. He left Alexandria with 500 talents and 2,000 soldiers, and by punishing all who opposed him in Ashkelon and Scythopolis and confiscating their estates, he made himself feared through all the cities of Syria and Phoenicia, while the great fortune which his extortions won was held secure by his continual presents to the king, queen, and courtiers, so that he retained his office of tax-farmer until his death, twenty-two years later. By his first wife Joseph had seven sons. At Alexandria he became infatuated with a dancer, for whom his brother Solymius, who lived in the city, substituted his own daughter, the child of this union being Hyrcanus, who was his father's favorite son and consequently the object of his brothers' enmity. Josephus describes Joseph as "a good man, and of great magnanimity" who "brought the Jews out of a state of poverty and meanness to one that was more splendid. He retained the farming of the taxes of Syria, and Phenicia, and Samaria twenty-two years." On the birth of a prince, Joseph feeling too old to visit Alexandria and his other sons likewise declining to go, sent Hyrcanus to bear his congratulations to the court. Arion, Joseph's representative in Alexandria, however, refused to allow Hyrcanus money, and the latter accordingly put him in chains, not only escaping punishment from the king, but even winning both his favor and that of the courtiers, whose aid his brothers had secretly invoked against him. The king sent letters recommending him warmly to his father. When Hyrcanus returned to Judaea, his older brothers met him with armed resistance. Hyrcanus won the battle and killed two of his half-brothers but as the city of Jerusalem refused to admit him, he settled beyond the Jordan. Shortly afterwards, Seleucus IV Philopator (187-175 BC) become king of the Seleucid kingdom. Hyrcanus's father Joseph and his uncle, Onias II, also died. The high-priesthood passed to Simon II (219–199 BC). Hyrcanus continued his warfare against the Arabs beyond the Jordan and, in the vicinity of Heshbon, built the castle of