Dieser ungeheuerliche, zugleich wundersame Bericht kam hier noch nicht vor:

For, on the death of his brother Ptolemy Philometor, Ptolemy surnamed Physcon left Cyrene with the intention of dethroning Cleopatra and the deceased king’s sons, and iniquitously usurping the crown himself. That was why, on Cleopatra’s behalf, Onias took arms against him, refusing to abandon at a crisis his allegiance to the throne. Moreover, the justice of his action was signally attested by God.

For Ptolemy Physcon, though [not] daring to face the army of Onias, had arrested all the Jews in the city with their wives and children, and exposed them, naked and in chains, to be trampled to death by elephants, the beast being actually made drunk for the purpose [omnes uero Iudaeos in ciuitate positos cum filiis et uxoribus capiens nudos atque uinctos elephantis subiecisset, ut ab eis conculcati deficerent, et ad hoc etiam bestias ipsas inebriasset]. However, the outcome was the reverse of his intentions. The elephants, without touching the Jews at their feet, rushed at Physcon’s friends, and killed a large number of them.

Afterwards Ptolemy saw a terrible apparition, which forbade him to injure these people. His favourite concubine (some call her Ithaca, others Irene) adding her entreaty to him not to perpetrate such an enormity, he gave way and repented of his past actions and further designs.
That is the origin of the well-known feast which the Jews of Alexandria keep, with got reason, on this day, because of the deliverance so manifestly vouchsafed to them by God.

(Flavious Josephus: Gegen Apion II 51-55)

- Ptolemy Physcon: Ptolemaios VIII. Euergetes II. Physkon
- Cleopatra: Kleopatra II. Philometora Soteira (132 bis 124 v.u.Z.), in Opposition zu Ptolemaios VIII.
- Onias: ein führender Jude Alexandrias