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Proceedings equally tyrannical were enacted in other parts of the land. The Samaritans, on the occasion of the visit of Alexander the Great, had claimed relationship with the Jews. They now wrote to Antiochus, stating that they were Zidonians, and offering to dedicate their temple on Mount Gerizim to Zeus Xenios, the Defender of Strangers. With this proposal the Syrian monarch complied, and the temple was dedicated accordingly. Meanwhile all who refused to yield to the orders of the persecutor suffered the most fearful tortures. Two women, who had dared to circumcise their children, were led round the streets of Jerusalem with their babes hanging round their necks, and were cast down the battlements into the deep valley below the city-walls. Eleazar, an aged man, and one of the principal of the scribes, for refusing to eat swine’s flesh was beaten to death, while a mother and her seven sons for the same offence were executed after enduring the most revolting and horrible tortures (1 Macc. i.61; 2 Macc. vi. vii.).