As part of Antiochus’ religious ‘reforms’ he decreed that people not only in Jerusalem but all over Judea offer sacrifices as demonstration of their loyalty to him. At Modien, a town northwest of Jerusalem, the priest Mattathias the Hasmonean (r.167-166 BC) refused. He killed a Hellenized Jew about to offer such a sacrifice and then attacked the official implementing the king’s decree. Mattathias and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judea where they were joined by people from all over Judea fleeing from Seleucid persecution.
When Mattathias died the leadership fell to his son Judah Maccabee (r.166-160 BC), or Judas Maccabeus, usually translated as ‘Judas the Hammer’. After defeating several Syrian armies, he drove his foes from Jerusalem, except for the garrison in the Acra. In 164 BC he purified and rededicated the Jerusalem Temple. By entering into an alliance with Rome (161 BC) he gained a powerful protector and the recognition of his movement as representing the Jewish people.
At Judah’s death he was succeeded by his brother Jonathan Apphus (r.160-142 BC) as head of the Jewish forces. By this time the Seleucids had regained Jerusalem, but the Maccabees controlled the countryside. They were unable to make much headway against the Seleucids until Alexander-I Balas (r.150-145 BC) challenged Demetrius-I (35; r.161-150 BC) for the Seleucid throne. Both sides were of approximately equal power and in an effort to induce Jonathan to join his cause Demetrius allowed Jonathan to regain Jerusalem; but when Alexander Balas offered to make Jonathan high priest, Jonathan joined him instead. From 152 until 37 BC, a Hasmonean was the high priest and through this office ruled Judea.
In 145 BC Alexander Balas was finally defeated at the Battle of Antioch. Jonathan appeased Demetrius II (r.145-138, 129-126 BC) with presents. The king confirmed Jonathan’s brother Simon Thassi (r.142-134 BC) as high priest and granted the Jews practical independence. As the Seleucid civil wars continued Jonathan deserted Demetrius and joined the general Tryphon (r.142-138 BC), who was acting on behalf of Alexander Balas’ son Antiochus VI (c.10; r.145-142 BC). Tryphon, probably seeing Jonathan as a dangerously powerful potential opponent, invited him to a conference and killed him.
Simon succeeded his brother and subsequently allied himself with Demetrius II (r.145-138, 129-126 BC). who waived taxes for Judea. Simon conquered the port of Joppa and the fortress of Gezer and expelled the garrison from the Acra in Jerusalem. In 140 BC, he was recognised by an assembly of the priests, leaders and elders as high priest, military commander and ruler of Israel. He renewed the treaty with Rome, and also made treaties with Sparta and other cities in the Mediterranean.
When Antiochus VII (r.138-129 BC) besieged Tryphon in Dora, Simon sent 2000 troops to assist him. The king refused their service and thereby signalling that he regarded the treaty with Simon as void. He demanded the return of Joppa, Gezer and the Acra; and when Simon offered only minimum concessions, he resorted to force. For a while Simon’s sons, Judah and John Hyrcanus-I (r.134-105 BC), who now led the army, seem to have held their ground against the king’s general Cendebaeus. In 134 BC the king invaded Judea.
By then Simon was dead. A few months earlier he and his two sons Judah and Mattathias had been murdered by his son-in-law Ptolemy, who wanted to seize power for himself. Hyrcanus, however, secured his father’s position for himself and drove Ptolemy out of the country. He was soon besieged by the royal army and after a year, famine forced Hyrcanus to ask for terms. The king granted peace with moderate conditions and dismantled the fortifications of the city.
In 129 BC Antiochus VII was killed in the war with the Parthians, and Demetrius II returned to claim his throne. Hyrcanus took advantage of Syria’s weakness and began a series of campaigns aimed at expanding Judea’s borders. In the south he conquered Idumaea; to the north he razed Shechem and added southern Galilee to his holdings. Late in his reign he took the Greek city of Samaria.
Hyrcanus directed that after his death the government of the country was to be placed in the hands of his widow, and Judah Aristobulus-I (r.104-103 BC), his eldest son, was to receive the high priesthood. But Aristobulus with the support of his brother Antigonus (I?) seized the crown and imprisoned his mother and his other three brothers. Aristobulus died of internal bleeding from a disease. The Queen released the younger brothers from prison and placed Alexander Jannaeus (r.103-76 BC), the second son of Hyrcanus, on the throne.
Jannaeus began his reign by trying to take the city of Ptolemais (=Akko). Ptolemy IX Lathyrus (c.69; r.116*80 BC), who was ruler of Cyprus at the time, defeated Jannaeus and invaded Judea. Lathyrus, however, was very unpopular with his mother, Cleopatra III (161-101 BC), who responded by defeating her son and making a treaty with Jannaeus that freed him to continue with his expansionist campaigns. Jannaeus then captured Transjordan and from c.95 BC, he had control of all the coastal plain except Ashkelon.
Jewish tradition records that while officiating at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jannaeus performed the role of high priest in accordance with Sadducean custom, rather than in conformity with the more popular Pharisaic tradition. This enraged the Pharisees and triggered a major riot. Before the riot ended some 6000 people were killed and the Pharisees had become implacable enemies of the regime. Jannaeus’ people again rose up against him after an ill-fated attack on the Nabataean king Obodas-I (r.c.96-c.85 BC); Jannaeus lost his entire army and upon returning to Jerusalem was faced with another civil war. This war lasted six years, during which time ‘no fewer than fifty thousand Jews’ were killed.
During this war Jannaeus’ opponents asked the Syrian king Demetrius III (r.95-87 BC) for help. Demetrius came with an army. Jannaeus was totally defeated and was forced to flee to the mountains. Deciding that being ruled by Jannaeus was perhaps better than being annexed to the Seleucid Empire, more than six thousand Jews deserted Demetrius and joined Jannaeus. Demetrius returned to Syria. In the later years of his reign (83-76 BC), Jannaeus finished master of most of what lay between Seleucia on Lake Merom and Moab, including such places as Gerasa, Gamala and Pella.
Jannaeus was succeeded by his widow Salome Alexandra (r.76-67 BC). Jannaeus is said to have instructed her on his deathbed to make peace with the Pharisees. She nominated her eldest son John Hyrcanus II (r.67-66, 63-40 BC), a supporter of the Pharisees, as high priest; and seems to have reorganised the Gerousia, the old representative body of the nobility and priests, so as to favour the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were not satisfied with merely achieving predominance; they were determined to suppress the Sadducees and eliminate their influence entirely. The Sadducees turned to Jannaeus’ younger son Judah Aristobulus II (r.66-63 BC) for help. Aristobulus persuaded his mother to keep the Sadducee leaders out of direct contact with the Pharisees by entrusting them with guarding the border fortresses of the kingdom.
With Alexandra’s death Hyrcanus assumed the positions of king and high priest. He was soon challenged by Aristobulus and had to surrender the throne. Antipater (d.43 BC), governor of Idumaea, advised Hyrcanus to accept the offer of military assistance by the Nabataean king Aretas III (r.c.84-61 BC) if he returned the twelve cities captured by Jannaeus. Aretas laid siege to Jerusalem in 65 BC.
Meanwhile the Roman army under Pompey (106-48 BC) was moving through Asia Minor after defeating Mithridates of Pontus (c.69; r c.120-63 BC) in 66 BC. Pompey sent his deputy Scaurus (praetor 56 BC) to Syria, who on his arrival heard of the dispute between the two brothers. Both brothers sent emissaries to Scaurus asking for his support. Scaurus sided with Aristobulus and had the siege lifted from Jerusalem, but the fighting continued.
In 63 BC Pompey arrived in Damascus, where he met both brothers and also a delegation that sought to depose both brothers and transfer political control to the priests. Pompey decided not to take immediate action, instructing all sides to keep the peace. Aristobulus then attacked and occupied Alexandrium, a fortress northeast of Jerusalem. Taking this as an act of aggression Pompey marched against him. Aristobulus fled to Jerusalem from where he sent a deputy to Pompey to sue for peace and to offer to open the city to him. Pompey accepted but when his delegate Gabinius (cos. 58 BC) reached Jerusalem the people would not open the gates.
As Pompey approached the city, the party of Hyrcanus inside the city drove Aristobulus’ men from the gates and opened them. Aristobulus was captured but his supporters took refuge on the Temple Mount. The Romans built a ramp and proceeded to destroy the walls and towers that separated the Temple area from the city proper. Aristobulus and his family were exiled to Rome.
Pompey declared huge portions of Judea to be part of the Roman province of Syria, and posted a garrison inside Jerusalem. He allowed Hyrcanus to remain as an ethnarch, a ruler of a specific people – he had authority over the Jews in Judea, but not over any other people there. Antipater was made procurator of Judea, Galilee, Ituraea and Idumaea, giving him in effect more power than Hyrcanus. In 40 BC Antigonus II (r.40-37 BC), with the help of an invading Parthian army, deposed Hyrcanus II, and proclaimed himself king. Three years later Jerusalem was taken by a Roman army and Antipater’s son Herod the Great (c.70; r.37-4 BC) was installed as king. Antigonus was beheaded.
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