3 Maccabees 5:44-46

Revised Standard Version

⁴⁴ Then the friends and officers departed with great joy, and they confidently posted the armed forces at the places in the city most favorable for keeping guard. ⁴⁵ Now when the beasts had been brought virtually to a state of madness, so to speak, by the very fragrant draughts of wine mixed with frankincense and had been equipped with frightful devices, the elephant keeper ⁴⁶ entered at about dawn into the courtyard—the city now being filled with countless masses of people crowding their way into the hippodrome —and urged the king on to the matter at hand.