Aristobulus III was the last scion of the Hasmonean royal house, brother of Herod the Great's wife Mariamne, and grandson of Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. He was a favourite of the people on account of his noble descent and handsome presence, and thus became an object of fear to Herod, who at first sought to ignore him entirely by debarring him from the high priesthood. But his mother Alexandra, through intercession with Cleopatra and Mark Antony, compelled Herod to remove Ananelus from the office of high priest and appoint Aristobulus instead.
Herod I or Herod the Great was a Roman Jewish client king of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea. Among these works are the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the expansion of its base—the Western Wall being part of it. Vital details of his life are recorded in the works of the 1st century CE Roman–Jewish historian Josephus.
The Hasmonean dynasty was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during the Hellenistic times of the Second Temple period, from c. 140 BCE to 37 BCE. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire, and from roughly 110 BCE, with the empire disintegrating, Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, and Iturea. The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king") as the kingdom became a regional power for several decades. Forces of the Roman Republic intervened in the Hasmonean Civil War in 63 BCE and made it into a client state, marking the decline of Hasmonean dynasty; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BCE.
Simon Thassi was the second son of Mattathias and thus a member of the Hasmonean family.
Antipater I the Idumaean was the founder of the Herodian Dynasty and father of Herod the Great. According to Josephus, he was the son of Antipas and had formerly held that name.
Salome Alexandra, or Shlomtzion, was one of only three women to rule over Judea, the other two being Athaliah and Deborah. The wife of Aristobulus I, and afterward of Alexander Jannaeus, she was the last regnant queen of Judea, and the last ruler of Judea to die as the sovereign of an independent kingdom.
Aristobulus II was the Jewish High Priest and King of Judea, 66 BCE to 63 BCE, from the Hasmonean dynasty.
John Hyrcanus II, a member of the Hasmonean dynasty, was for a long time the Jewish High Priest in the 1st century BCE. He was also briefly King of Judea 67–66 BCE and then the ethnarch (ruler) of Judea, probably over the period 47–40 BCE.
Aristobulus IV was a prince of Judea from the Herodian dynasty, and was married to his cousin, Berenice, daughter of Costobarus and Salome I. He was the son of Herod the Great and his second wife, Mariamne I, the last of the Hasmoneans, and was thus a descendant of the Hasmonean Dynasty.
Herod of Chalcis, also known as Herod Pollio King of Chalcis, Herod V, and listed by the Jewish Encyclopedia as Herod II, was a son of Aristobulus IV, and the grandson of Herod the Great, Roman client king of Judaea. He was the brother of Herod Agrippa I and Herodias and ruled as the king of Chalcis in 41–48 CE.
Alexandreion (Greek), or Alexandrium (Latin), called Sartaba in the Mishna and Talmud and Qarn Sartaba in Arabic, was an ancient hilltop fortress constructed by the Hasmoneans between Scythopolis and Jerusalem on a pointy barren hill towering over the Jordan Valley from the west. It was likely named after Hasmonean king Alexander Jannæus.
Phasael, was a prince from the Herodian Dynasty of Judea.
Mariamne I, also called Mariamne the Hasmonean, was a Hasmonean princess and the second wife of Herod the Great. Her parents, Alexandra Maccabeus and Alexander of Judaea, were cousins who both descended from Alexander Jannaeus. She was known for her great beauty, as was her brother Aristobulus III. Herod's fear of his Hasmonean rivals led him to execute all of the prominent members of the family, including Mariamne.
Herod II was the son of Herod the Great and Mariamne III, the daughter of Simon Boethus the High Priest. For a brief period he was his father's heir apparent, but Herod I removed him from succession in his will. Some writers call him Herod Philip I(son of Doris).
Hasmonean coinage are the coins minted by the Hasmonean kings. Only bronze coins in various denominations have been found; the smallest being a prutah or a half prutah. Two Roman silver denarii are associated with the Hasmoneans; one has the inscription BACCIVS IVDAEAS; with its exact meaning unclear (short for "BASILEOS IUDAEAS", King Judas?). Both show a man thought to be Yehuda Aristobolus bowing before a camel with a palm branch in his hand.
Alexander II, or Alexander Maccabeus, was the eldest son of Aristobulus II, king of Judaea. He married his cousin Alexandra Maccabeus, daughter of his uncle, Hyrcanus II. Their grandfather was Alexander Jannaeus, the second eldest son of John Hyrcanus. Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander and Alexandra, was Herod the Great's second wife and Hasmonean queen of the Jewish kingdom.
Ananelus was a Jewish High priest in the 1st century BCE.
The Herodian kingdom was a client state of the Roman Republic ruled from 37 to 4 BC by Herod the Great, who was appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate. When Herod died, the kingdom was divided among his sons into the Herodian Tetrarchy.
The Second Temple period in Judaism began with the end of the Babylonian captivity and the Persian conquest of the Near East in 539 BCE. The Second Temple was then built, and finished around 516 BCE. The conquests of Macedonia under Alexander the Great in 332 BCE saw Judea and the Near East placed under Greek influence during the Hellenistic period; Hellenistic Judaism blended both Greek and Jewish traditions. The Maccabean Revolt of 167–142 BCE was fight a first for Judean autonomy against a suppression of traditional Judaism, and later acquired outright independence under the rule of the Hasmonean family in an independent Hasmonean kingdom. The Hasmoneans would rule until 63 BCE, when they were reduced to client king status as Roman puppets; that too would end in 37 BCE, with King Herod the Great taking control, leading to the Herodian dynasty. Herod's death would lead to both the Herodian Tetrarchy where smaller regions ruled by members of his family, as well as direct Roman control by the governors of Roman Judea. The period would come to an end with the First Jewish–Roman War of 66–73 CE. Jerusalem was conquered in 70 CE, and the Second Temple was destroyed.
