Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Founding
Founding of Hasmonean Judea
Jewish monarchy in Judea and surrounding regions during the Second Temple period (140–37 BCE)
- 140 BCE
- Jerusalem
- Middle East
Founding
Jewish monarchy in Judea and surrounding regions during the Second Temple period (140–37 BCE)
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Hasmonean Judea, also known in part of its history as the Hasmonean kingdom, was a Jewish state in Judea and its surrounding regions during the later part of the Hellenistic and early Roman eras of the Second Temple period. The Hasmonean state emerged from the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It was ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty, which was founded by Simon Thassi, one of the Maccabee brothers, and his descendants. Its rulers initially combined the offices of high priest and ethnarch, though later leaders eventually assumed the title of king. Initially, Judea remained semi-autonomous under Seleucid hegemony, but as Seleucid authority declined, the Hasmoneans gained full independence and expanded their territory into neighboring regions, including Perea, Samaria, Idumaea, Galilee, and Iturea.
The Maccabees launched their revolt against the Seleucids in the 160s BCE, with Judas Maccabeus's victories and the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple following its desecration by the Seleucids. After Judas's death in battle, his brother Jonathan revived the movement, secured Seleucid recognition, and was appointed High Priest. Following Jonathan's execution, their brother Simon took command, expelled the Seleucid garrison from Jerusalem, and achieved independence, marking the foundation of the Hasmonean state. Simon was later assassinated by his son-in-law.
Simon was succeeded by his son John Hyrcanus, who at first accepted Seleucid suzerainty but soon asserted independence and expanded Jewish control into Samaria and Idumaea. His son Judah Aristobulus conquered Galilee. Under his successor, Alexander Jannaeus, the Hasmonean kingdom reached its greatest territorial extent—Israel's largest since the biblical monarchy—but was torn by civil war. After his death, power passed to his wife, Salome Alexandra, whose reign brought stability and prosperity. Her death, however, triggered a succession war between their two sons, leading to Roman intervention under Pompey in 63 BCE and the end of Judea's independence. Hyrcanus II was installed as a client ruler, though his authority was contested by his younger brother Aristobulus II. Later, Aristobulus's son, Mattathias Antigonus, briefly re-established Hasmonean independence as the dynasty's last monarch before the Romans installed the Herodian dynasty as rulers of Judea in 37 BCE.
The Hasmonean kingdom was the first independent Jewish polity since the fall of the Kingdom of Judah in 587/6 BCE, and a rare example of indigenous rule in an age dominated by great empires. When Judea came under Roman rule, Jews continued to look back to the Hasmonean period as a golden age of independence; the idea that Judea could be free again fueled aspirations for freedom and inspired the Jewish–Roman wars.
In 332 BCE, Judea was conquered by Alexander the Great, and after his death it became a contested territory among the Hellenistic successor states. For over a century Ptolemaic Egypt ruled the southern Levant, until c. 200 BCE, when the Seleucid Empire, based in Syria, gained control of the region. Initially, the Seleucids treated the Jews favorably: Antiochus III the Great granted them autonomy and the right to live according to their ancestral laws. The situation deteriorated under his successor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who sold the high priesthood to the highest bidder, transformed Jerusalem into a Hellenized polis, and deepened divisions between pro-Hellenists and traditionalists loyal to the Torah.
When Antiochus, humiliated after a failed Egyptian campaign, issued decrees banning Jewish practices and desecrated the Jerusalem Temple in 167 BCE, rebellion erupted. According to 1 Maccabees, the uprising began in the town of Modi'in, where Mattathias, a priest of the Hasmonean family, killed both a Hellenized Jew and a royal official who ordered him to sacrifice to the Greek gods. Mattathias and his sons—the Maccabean brothers—then fled to the wilderness, rallying others to resist both the Seleucid authorities and their local collaborators.
After Mattathias's death, leadership passed to his son Judas Maccabeus. He proved an exceptional commander, winning victories over Seleucid forces at Beth Horon, Emmaus, and other sites between 166 and 164 BCE. These successes allowed the rebels to retake Jerusalem and purify the Second Temple, which had been defiled by pagan worship. The rededication, on the 25th of Kislev (November/December) 164 BCE–three years to the day after its desecration–is commemorated to this day on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Although the new Seleucid regime under Antiochus V revoked the religious decrees and again recognized the Jews as an ethnos, the Hasmonean struggle for independence continued.
In subsequent years, Judah faced renewed Seleucid attacks. At Beth Zechariah, his brother Eleazar died heroically fighting war elephants. When the Seleucid general Lysias temporarily besieged Jerusalem, political turmoil in the Seleucid capital, Antioch, forced him to withdraw. The Seleucid commander Nicanor negotiated with Judah but later fought against him, culminating in Nicanor's defeat and death at Adasa. In 161 BCE, the Jews sent two ambassadors to Rome, where they secured a treaty of friendship and alliance between the Jewish people and the Roman Republic. In 160 BCE, Judah was killed during the Battle of Elasa, where he fought the army of Seleucid general Bacchides. His death marked a setback for the revolt.
After Bacchides renewed his suppression of the Hasmonean party, Jonathan Apphus, Judah's brother, assumed leadership of the surviving rebels. He and his followers escaped to the wilderness of Tekoa, established a base in the Judaean Desert at Bor Asphar, fought off Seleucid pursuit across the Jordan River, and gradually rebuilt the movement's strength. Bacchides soon withdrew, and fighting subsided for a time. It resumed in 157 BCE when Jonathan's Hellenist opponents called on the Syrians for aid. Bacchides returned, but Jonathan and his brother Simon fortified themselves at Beth-Basi near Bethlehem and successfully resisted his siege. After suffering heavy losses, Bacchides made peace with Jonathan, who settled in Michmas.
A decisive change came in 153 BCE when a civil war broke out in Syria between Demetrius I and the pretender Alexander Balas. To prevent Jonathan from siding with Balas, Demetrius released the hostages held in the Akra citadel in Jerusalem and allowed Jonathan to raise troops and reside in Jerusalem. Jonathan rebuilt Jerusalem's walls and also those of the Temple Mount. The fortresses Bacchides had built were dismantled as Demetrius needed his troops for the dynastic struggle, leaving only garrisons in the Akra and Beth-zur.
In 152 BCE, Balas sought Jonathan's support by appointing him High Priest and formally recognizing him as the ruler of Judea, also adding him to the order of the "king's friends", one of the honorifics of the Seleucid regime. As a High Priest, Jonathan received permission to wear a purple robe and a golden crown sent by Alexander Balas, and appeared in them at the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Demetrius I was defeated in the summer of 150 BCE, but a few years later, around 147 BCE, his son Demetrius II renewed the Seleucid civil war. Jonathan defeated his general Apollonius near Ashdod, stationed a garrison in the port city of Jaffa, and burned the temple of Dagon in Ashdod. Balas granted him the city of Ekron and its territories, which now made Judea the ruler of the entire ancient region of Philistia. After Balas was defeated and killed, Demetrius II became sole ruler of the Seleucid kingdom.
Jonathan maintained a firm stance toward Demetrius II and even besieged the Akra. Meeting with the king at Acre, he secured exemption of Judea from taxation and annexation of three toparchies (districts) already inhabited by Jews—Ephraim, Lod, and Ramathaim—that were previously part of Samaria, in return for lifting the siege and paying 300 talents. He also sent Jewish troops to assist Demetrius in suppressing a revolt in Antioch.
Relations later deteriorated, as Demetrius refused to evacuate the Akra. Jonathan shifted his allegiance to the Seleucid general Diodotus-Tryphon, tutor of Balas' young son Antiochus VI. Tryphon confirmed Jonathan's authority and appointed his brother Simon commander of the coastal region from Tyre to the Egyptian border. The brothers campaigned against Demetrius' supporters, with Jonathan going as far as Galilee, northern Syria, and the Eleutherus River (today's Nahr al-Kabir, Lebanon). Simon captured Beth-zur, replacing the Syrian garrison with a Jewish one; He also stationed Jewish troops in Jaffa, and fortified Hadid in the Judaean Lowlands. Jonathan, returning from the north, strengthened Judea's defenses and tightened the siege of the Akra. Jonathan also renewed Judea's alliance with Rome and reportedly corresponded with the city-state of Sparta.
In 143 BCE, Tryphon lured Jonathan to Acre under pretense of ceding control on the city; however, Jonathan's bodyguard was massacred and he was taken captive. His brother Simon Thassi immediately assumed leadership; He completed Jerusalem's fortifications, dispatched a Jewish garrison to Jaffa, expelled its Gentile inhabitants, and resettled Jews there. Tryphon advanced against Judea, claiming Jonathan was held only as a hostage for a state debt. Simon paid the demanded ransom and even sent Jonathan's sons as hostages, but Tryphon continued his campaign without freeing him. Simon then forced Tryphon's army onto indirect routes, and heavy snowfall ultimately blocked its advance toward Jerusalem and its effort to relieve the Akra garrison. He eventually withdrew to Gilead in northern Transjordan and executed Jonathan at Baskama. Simon later recovered his brother's body and buried it in a new family mausoleum at Modi'in honoring his parents and brothers.
Simon renewed relations with Demetrius II, receiving gifts, the right to mint coinage, and full tax exemption for Judea. This was regarded by the Jews as the beginning of Judea's independence, and from 143/142 BCE onward, the years were counted according to the reigns of Hasmonean rulers. According to 1 Maccabees, in that year "the yoke of the Gentiles was lifted from Israel, and the people began to write on their records and their contracts, 'in the first year of Simon, the great High Priest, commander and leader of the Jews'." Simon conquered Gazara, expelled its Gentile inhabitants, and settled Jews there. He also cultivated diplomatic relations with the Roman Republic and Sparta.
In 142-1 BCE Simon achieved the principal goal of his predecessors by capturing the Akra in Jerusalem; its inhabitants were expelled. Both 1 Maccabees and Megillat Ta'anit note that the day of its capture was declared a festival. The Hellenist party was never mentioned again. Josephus reports that Simon ordered the hill on which the Akra stood to be leveled so it would no longer overlook the Temple. However, 1 Maccabees states that he fortified the site and settled Jews there.
In September 140 BCE, the assembled people declared Simon their high priest, commander and ethnarch—a position described by Tessa Rajak as 'head of the nation'—"forever, until a trustworthy prophet shall arise".
Meanwhile, conflict in Syria continued. In 139 BCE Demetrius II was captured by the Parthians, and his brother Antiochus VII Sidetes became king. After defeating Tryphon, Antiochus confirmed all Simon's privileges and even granted him the right to mint coinage—though Simon apparently never used it. Around 138 he besieged Tryphon at Dor, likely with Simon's help; Tryphon escaped but died at Apamea in 137 BCE. Antiochus then demanded the return of the Akra, Gezer, and Jaffa, or a payment totaling one thousand talents. Simon rejected the demands, declaring that the Jews had merely regained their ancestral land: "We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property, but only the inheritance of our ancestors, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies", instead offering just a token of 100 talents. Antiochus sent his general Kendebaios against Judea, but Simon's sons John and Judah defeated him near Kedron and Ashdod.
In 134 BCE, Simon was assassinated at a banquet in the fortress of Dok near Jericho by his son-in-law Ptolemy ben Abubus, governor of the plain of Jericho, in an attempt to seize power. Ptolemy also took Simon's wife and two of his sons hostage, but his third son, John Hyrcanus, was warned in advance and escaped, soon succeeding his father as ruler of Judea.
After escaping Ptolemy's plot, Hyrcanus fled to Jerusalem, where the citizens refused to admit Ptolemy. He gained power by mobilizing his forces and was accepted as High Priest. He then besieged Ptolemy in the fortress of Dok, but failed to capture it. Ptolemy then murdered Hyrcanus's mother and brothers before fleeing to Philadelphia.
Soon afterward, Antiochus VII besieged Hyrcanus in Jerusalem. Antiochus allowed a truce during Sukkot and sent offerings for the Temple. The two eventually agreed that Judea would pay tribute for Jaffa and other border towns. Antiochus also ordered Jerusalem's walls demolished and demanded a garrison, which Hyrcanus declined on religious grounds; instead, he sent hostages and additional silver to secure an agreement. Josephus reports that Hyrcanus opened David's Tomb to obtain funds. The money was apparently used to hire mercenaries, marking the first known use of such troops by a Hasmonean ruler. Relations between Hyrcanus and Antiochus remained positive, and around 130 BCE, Hyrcanus joined the king's campaign against the Parthians, commanding a Jewish contingent. Antiochus was killed in battle against the Parthian king Phraates II in about 129 BCE, after which his brother Demetrius II was released and restored to the Seleucid throne.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Hasmonean Judea”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.