JASON. 148 JASSY. to Tyre for the festival of Hercules. In B.C. 171 he was depo.sed, and Mcnelaus raised to the pontificate. But when Antiochus marched against Egypt, in B.C. 170, .iason seized the opportunity of reinstatinf,' liiniself. and drove ]ienelaus away. The Kin^', however, upon his return from JC{;:y])l punished the city severely for what he deemed rebellious coiului't. Jason was obliged to lice, first to Kf;y))f. then to the l^aeedirmonians. Our knowledi;e of his career depends upon II. Jlaccabees and Joscphus. The accounts difl'cr in many respects, and neither can be used witlu ut frreat caution. Consult: Well- hausen, Israclllische und judiache fleschichte (3d ed., Berlin, 1807); Biichler. ToUaden und Oiiiaden (Vienna, 1899) : Willrich. Jiidoii und Griechen roc dcr makkdlMiisclK n Eriuhury (rjiit- tinmen, 1895) ; id., Judaica ((iJittinsen, 1900) ; Schiirer, Gcschichfe des judischcn Vollces (3d ed., Leipzijr. 1901 ). JASON OF GYRENE, sl-re'nf-. An autli.ir whose liislory in five books is mentioned in 11. Maccabees ii. 23. The orij;inal work is lost, and known to us only in the epitome made by the aii- thor of II. Maccabees. (See Maccabees, Books OF THE. ) There is some evidence that it was used by Gorionides. It was unquestionably written in Greek. Vhether Jason was a Greek or a Hellenistic Jew is not altofrether known. Biich- ler defends the former opinion and ascribes to him those parts of II. Maccabees dealin}; with the Syrian wars under Antiochus IV.. Antiochus v., and Demetrius I. (qq.v. ). But there is reason to believe, as Willrich has shown, that the work comprised the whole history of the Asmonean dynasty, and that only the part of it dealin>; with events that occurred between B.C. 175 and 161 was epitomized. In that case it is more natural to suppose that he was a Jew. He may, however, have had access to written sources not of Jewish origin. This would ac- count for some facts that have recently led Niese to ascribe to II. ilaecabees, and conse- quently to Jason, a hipiher age and a greater credibility than to I. Maccabees. It is not likely that this view will prevail. But even if pref- erence is given to I. Maccabees, this may not affect Jason fo much as the aiithor of II. lIac- cabecs. The latter has confessedly exercised much freedom. Not only has he abridged, but also added to, and probably altered .lason's work. Kostcrs and Kamphausen have gone so far as to declare .Tason a fictitioiis personage behind whose name the author indulged in polemics against I. ^Maccabees. There is no convincing evidence, however, of acquaintance with I. Mac- cabees, and such a fiction seems to most scholars wholly improbable. If .Jason's work included the whole dynasty, Willrich is probably right in assuming that he wrote in the reign of Claudius. Others maintain that he lived in the second cen- tiry B.C. The 'lio-wc /cupiiraios discovered on a temple wall in Egi'pt (Ilcrtie des rfiidcs grecques. 1894, p. 297), seems to belong to the third century B.C. Consult: Geiger. tlrschrift und T'cbcrselziingrn dcr Bihel (Breslau. 19.57) : Wellhausen, Pharisuer und faddnnicr (Greifs- wa.ld. 1874) : Kosters, in Throlofihrh Tijdschrift (Leyden. 1878: pp. 491 sqq.) ; Trieber. Zur Kritik des Gorionides (Gottingen. 189.5) : Kamp- hausen, in Kantzsch's Apokniphen (Tubingen, 1900) ; Willrich, Judaica (Gottingen, 1900) ; Schiirer, Geschichtc des jUdischcn Volkes (3d ed., Leipzig. 1901) ; BiichUr, Tobiaden und Oniu- dcii (Vienna, 1899) ; Niese, Kritih dcr beiden Makkahiierbiicker (Berlin, 1900); Torrey, arti- cle ■"Maccabees," in Encyclopwdid Ilihlica (Lon- don, 1902). JASPER (OF. jaspre, jaspr, Vr. jaspe, It. jaspidr, from Lat. juspis, Gk, laffirts ; |)robably of Semitic origin, cf. Ilcb. t/fisliplnh. .r. yiish,yashb, ytixf, jasper). A cryplo-cryslalline varicily of (piartz distinguished by its ojiacity, which is due to the presence of clay and oilier substances. Jasper was known to the ancients, by whom it was called iiispis, and by whom it was used for ornamental jiurposes, owing to the high polish which it is capable of taking. It is still used for rings and seals, and to a certain extent for pillars, mantels, and table-tojis. The colors of the difl'crent varieties of jasper are reddisli brown, dark grceii. grayish lilue, anil lirownish black, according to the inipiirilics present. When the colors appear in hiycrs, the mineral is known as striped or ribbon jaxper ; the brown and yel- low varieties are known as Er/i/plian jasper. JAS'PER, William (c.l7.">0-79 i. .ii Ameri- can soldier, born in Soutli Carolina. ]lv enlisted as a serge;int in the Second Soutli Carolina Kegi- ment in 1775, and at Fort Jloullrie. on .lune 28, 1770, distinguishetl, liimself by recovering, through an act of personal biavery, the American colors which had fallen outside the w'alls. For this Governor Kutlcdge offered him a commission as lieutenant, but Jasper modestly refused because of his lack of education. He was commissioned by General Jloultrie, liowever, to scour the coun- try and harass the British outposts, and he be- came the hero of numberless adventures. At last, during the assault on Savannah, October 9, 1779, he fell mortally wounded, while trying to fasten his regimental colors on the parapet. JASPER WARE. A form of porcelain, the invention of Josiah Wedgwood. After a long series of experiments carried on at his manufac- tory in Bursleni, England, he succeeded in 1773 in producing a compact, hard paste, susceptible of taking a very high polish. Tliis he used in jnoducing articles ornamented with cameo-work reliefs, etc See Pottery. JAS'PILITE. A banded metamorphic sedi- nicntary rock (<i.v. ) made up of alternate layers of iroii-staincd quartz particles (jasper) and iron oxide (hematite). The bright red of the jas|ier and the dark brown or black of the oxide of iron give the outcroppings of this rock a bril- liant appearance. In the Lake Superior region this rock has considerable economic significance, for the reason that it has a constant geological ))osition at the top of the ore-bearing formation. This upper contact of the formation having been one of accommodation, the jaspilite has been much plicated and fractured. It is capped by a bed of quartzite called the Goodrich quartzite. JASSY, ylis'sf. (Bum. lA^l, e-iish'). The former capital of Moldavia, the northern division of Bumania, on the Bachlui. a tributary of the Prutli, a few miles from the Russian frontier, in about "latitude 47° 25' N. (Map: Balkan Penin- sula. F 1). It is irregularly built, and scat- tered over a large area. Among its numerous churches, the most noteworthy are the newly re- stored cathedral, the fifteenth -century Church
