A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

JASON. JASON. 555
him in getting himself chosen Tagus. Soon after 36; Suid. s. a. Tool uexvaoeL'aeTa ia! AevKas.
this, probably in B. c. 374, Jason was elected to K6pats.) Jason, having made all his preparations,
the office in question, and proceeded to settle the had one day reviewed his cavalry, and was sitting
contingent of cavalry and heavy-armed troops in public to give audience to all comers, when he
which each Thessalian city was to furnish, and the was murdered by seven youths, according to Xenoamount of tribute to be paid by the wrepoleKOi, or phon and Ephoruns, who drew near under pretence
subject people. He also entered into an alliance of laying a private dispute before him. Two of
with Amyntas II., king of Macedonia. (Xen. the assassins were slain by the body guard, the
Hell. vi. 1. ~~ 2-19; Diod. xv. 60; Plut. Pol. rest escaped, and were received with honour in all
Praec. 24, Reg. et Imp. Apoph. Epam. 13.). In the Grecian cities to which they came-a sufficient
B. C. 373 Jason and Alcetas I., king of Epeirus, proof of the general fear which the ambitious decame to Athens, with which they were both in signs of Jason had excited. The fact, however,
alliance at the time, to intercede on behalf of Ti- that his dynasty continued after his death shows
MOTHEUS, who was acquitted, on his trial, in a how fully he had consolidated his power in Thesgreat measure through their influence. (Dem. c. saly. (Xen. Hell. vi. 4. ~~ 28-32.) It does not
Tim. pp. 1187, 1190; Corn. Nep. Tim. 4; comp. clearly appear what motive his murderers had for
Rehdantz, Fit. Iphicr., Chabr., Tim. p. 91.) In the deed. Ephorus (ap. Diod. xv. 60) ascribed it
B. C. 371, after the battle of Leuctra, the Thebans to the desire of distinction, which seems to point
sent intelligence of it to Jason, as their ally, re- to a strong political feeling against his rule; and
questing his aid. Accordingly, he manned some this is confirmed by the anecdote of a former
triremes, as if he meant to go to the help of the attempt to assassinate him, which accidentally
Thebans by sea; and having thus thrown the saved his life by opening an impostume from which
Phocians off their guard, marched repidly through he was suffering, and on which his physicians had
their country, and arrived safely at Leuctra. Here tried their skill in vain. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii.
the Thebans were anxious that he should join them 28; Val. Max. i. 8. Ext. 6; comp. Xen. Hell. vi.
in pressing their victory over the enemy; but 1. ~ 14; Diod. xv. 57.) Valerius Maximus (ix,
Jason (who had no wish to see Thebes any more 10, Ext. 2) tells us that the youths who murdered
than Sparta in a commanding position) dissuaded him were excited by revenge because they had
them, by setting forth the danger of driving the been punished with blows for an assault on one
Lacedaemonians to despair. The latter. he per- Taxillus, a gymnasiarch. According to Diodorus
suaded to accept a truce, which would enable them (xv. 60), some accounts mentioned Jason's own
to secure their safety by a retreat, representing brother and successor, Polydorus, as his murderer.
himself as actuated by a kindly feeling towards An insatiable appetite for power-to use his own
them, as his father had been on terms of friendship metaphor-was Jason's rulin passion (Arist. Pol.
with their state, and. he himself still stood to them iii. 4, ed. Bekk. e'?7 lrelyviy orre i) rvpavpo7); and
in the relation of proxenus. Such is the account to gratify this, he worked perseveringly and withof Xenophon. (Hell. vi. 4. ~ 20, &c.) According out the incumbrance of moral scruples, by any and
to that of Diodorus, Jason arrived before the battle, every means. With the chief men in the several
and prevailed on both parties to agree to a truce, states of Greece, as e. g. with Timotheus and Peloin consequence of which the Spartan king, Cleom- pidas (Plut. Pelop. 28), he cultivated friendly relabrotus, drew off his army; but Archidamus had tions; and the story told by Plutarch and Aelian
been sent to his aid with a strong reinforcement, of the rejection of his presents by Epaminondas,
and the two commanders, having united their shows that he was ready to resort to corruption, if
forces, returned to Boeotia, in defiance of the com- he saw or thought he saw-an opportunity. (Plut.
pact, and were then defeated at Leuctra. (Diod. de Gen. Soc. 14, Apoph. Reg. et Imp. Epam. 13;
xv. 54.) This statement, however, cannot be de- Ael. V. H. xi. 9.) We find also on record a
pended on. (See Wess. ad Diod. 1. c.; Thirlwall's maxim of his, that a little wrong is justifiable for
Greece, vol. v. p. 78, note; comp. Schneid. ad Xen. the sake of a great good. (Arist. Rhet. i. 12. ~ 31;
Hell. vi. 4. ~ 5.) On his return through Phocis, Plut. Pol. Praec. 24.) He is represented as having
Jason took Hyampolis and ravaged its land, leaving all the qualifications of a great general and diplothe rest of the country undisturbed. He also de- matist —as active, temperate, prudent, capable of
molished the fortifications of the Lacedaemonian enduring much fatigue, and no less skilful than Thecolony of Heracleia in Trachinia, which commanded mistocles in concealing his own designs and penethe passage from Thessaly into southern Greece, trating those of his enemies. (Xen. Hell. vi. i.
evidently (says Xenophon) entertaining no fear of ~ 6; Diod. xv. 60; Cic. de Off i. 30.) Pausanias
an attack on his own country, but wishing to tells us that he was an admirer of the rhetoric of
keep open a way for himself should he find it ex- Gorgias; and among his friends he reckoned Isopedient to march to the south. (Xen. Hell. vi. 4. crates, whose cherished vision of Greece united
~27; comp. Diod. xv. 57, who refers the demoli- against Persia made him afterwards the' dupe of
tion of Heracleia to B. c. 370.) Jason was now in Philip. (Paus. vi. 17; Isocr. Ep. ad Jas. Fit.
a position which held out to him every prospect of p. 418.) [E. E.]
becoming master of Greece. The Pythian games JASON ('Iadcv), literary. 1. Of Cyrene, an
were approaching, and he proposed to march to Hellenist Jew, wrote the history of the Maccabees,
Delphi.at the head of a body of Thessalian troops, and of the wars of. the Jews against Antiochus
and to preside at the festival. Magnificent pre- Epiphanes and his son Eupator, in five books. He
parations were made for this, and much alarm and must therefore have written after B. C. 162. The
suspicion appear to have -been excited throughout second book of Maccabees, in the Apocrypha, with
Greece.,. The, Delphians, fearing for the safety of the exception of the two spurious epistles at the
the sacred treasures, consulted the oracle on the beginning, is an abridgement of the work of Jason.
subject, and received for answer that the god him- (2 Maccab. ii. 21-24; Prideaux, Connection, vol.
self would take care of them. (Comp. Herod. viii. iii. pp. 264, 265, ed. 1] 729.)