lethargic_man | Antiquities of the Jews, fit the eighteenth

XII.2.97 describes how Grace Before Meals was said in the third century BCE (at least in the presence of a king, which may not indicate anything about how it was normally said):

[King Ptolemy] bid Dorotheus to minister to all those that were come to him from Judaea, after the manner they used to be ministered to; for which cause he sent away their sacred heralds, and those that slew the sacrifices, and the rest that used to say grace; but called to one of those that were come to him, whose name was Eleazar, who was priest, and desired him to say grace; who then stood in the midst of them, and prayed, that all prosperity might attend the king, and those that were his subjects. Upon which an acclamation was made by the whole company, with joy and a great noise; and when that was over, they fell to eating their supper, and to the enjoyment of what was set before them.

XII.4.225:

"Areus, king of the Lacedaemonians, to Onias, sendeth greeting. We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Jews and the Lacedaemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is but just therefore that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concerns as you please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours. Demoteles, who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us. This letter is four-square; and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon in his claws."

The Jews and the Spartans of the same stock!? Sadly, neither Josephus nor Areus cites what the evidence for this is supposed to be.

On to the Chanukah story, where the narrative fleshes out again, as Josephus is using 1 Maccabees as his source. There's a good summary of the Second Temple history leading to this point in a previous set of Limmud notes of mine.. XII.5.246:

King Antiochus returning out of Egypt for fear of the Romans, made an expedition against the city Jerusalem; and when he was there, in the hundred and forty-third year of the kingdom of the Seleucids, he took the city without fighting, those of his own party opening the gates to him. And when he had gotten possession of Jerusalem, he slew many of the opposite party; and when he had plundered it of a great deal of money, he returned to Antioch.

I wasn't expecting to see the Romans appearing in the narrative so early (167 BCE); they don't appear on the scene directly until over a hundred years later. But even this year apparently the fear of interfering with Roman protectorates had the nations of the Levant quaking in their boots.

Wikipedia informs me:

In 168 BC Antiochus led a second attack on Egypt and also sent a fleet to capture Cyprus. Before reaching Alexandria, his path was blocked by a single, old Roman ambassador named Gaius Popillius Laenas, who delivered a message from the Roman Senate directing Antiochus to withdraw his armies from Egypt and Cyprus, or consider themselves in a state of war with the Roman Republic. Antiochus said he would discuss it with his council, whereupon the Roman envoy drew a line in the sand around him and said, "Before you cross this circle I want you to give me a reply for the Roman Senate" – implying that Rome would declare war if the King stepped out of the circle without committing to leave Egypt immediately. Weighing his options, Antiochus decided to withdraw. Only then did Popillius agree to shake hands with him.

This is, apparently, where the expression "line in the sand" comes from. It further seems Antiochus' father, Antiochus III, got thrashed by the Romans at Thermopylae in 191 BCE, and had to sign a treaty with the Romans giving away lots of power.

We learn in Jewish education about Antiochus ransacking the Temple and sacrificing pigs on the altar; and forbidding study of the Torah, circumcision and observance of Jewish law. Turns out that wasn't all (XII.5.251):

And when he had pillaged the whole city, some of the inhabitants he slew, and some he carried captive, together with their wives and children, so that the multitude of those captives that were taken alive amounted to about ten thousand.

Ten thousand!

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Josephus notes