'God forbid that I should do this thing,' he said, 'and flee away from
them. If our time be come, let us die manfully for our brethren, and let
us not stain our honor.'

Sore was the battle, as sore as that waged by the 800 at Thermopylae,
and the end was the same. Judas and his 800 were not driven from the
field, but lay dead upon it. But their work was done. What is called the
moral effect of such a defeat goes further than many a victory. Those
lives, sold so dearly, were the price of freedom for Judea.

Judas's brothers Jonathan and Simon laid him in his father's tomb, and
then ended the work that he had begun; and when Simon died, the Jews,
once so trodden on, were the most prosperous race in the East. The
Temple was raised from its ruins, and the exploits of the Maccabees had
nerved the whole people to do or die in defense of the holy faith of
their fathers.




THE CHIEF OF THE ARVERNI

B.C. 52



We have seen the Gauls in the heart of Rome, we have now to see them
showing the last courage of despair, defending their native lands
against the greatest of all the conquerors that Rome ever sent forth.