Toynbee "Eliodoro"
Heliodorus, treasurer of Seleucus IV Philopator, king of Syria (187-175 B.C.), by whom he was commissioned (in 176) to remove the treasures from the Temple at Jerusalem; as he was about to lay hands on them:

Apparuit . . . illis quidam equus terribilem habens sessorem, optimis operimentis adornatus. Isque cum impetu Heliodoro priores calces elisit; . . . Alii etiam apparuerunt duo iuvenes virtute decori,. . . qui circumsteterunt eum et es utraque parte flagellabant . . . Subito autem Heliodorus concidit in terram, eumque multa caligine circumfusum rapuerunt.

({II Mach. iii. 25-27.})

Seleucus was succeeded by his brother Antiochus IV Epiphanes whose persecution of the Jews caused the revolt of the Maccabees.

H. is included among the instances of Avarice in Circle V of Purgatory, where this incident is alluded to, [Purg. xx. 113]. [Avari.]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press