Hasmonean Judea, also known in part of its history as the Hasmonean kingdom, was an independent Jewish state in Judea and its surrounding regions, during the Hellenistic era of the Second Temple period. The Hasmonean state emerged from the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid rule. It was ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty, who descended from the Maccabees, and combined the offices of high priest and ethnarch, later assuming the title of kings. Initially, Judea remained semi-autonomous under the Seleucid Empire, but as Seleucid authority declined, the Hasmoneans gained full independence and expanded their territory into neighboring regions, including Perea, Samaria, Idumea, 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 successionwar 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.[4] Initially, the Seleucids treated the Jews favorably: Antiochus III the Great granted them autonomy and the right to live according to their ancestral laws.[5] 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.[6]
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 the priest Mattathias the Hasmonean killed both a Hellenized Jew and a royal official who ordered him to sacrifice to the Greek gods.[7] Mattathias and his sons—the Maccabean brothers—then fled to the wilderness, rallying others to resist both the Seleucid authorities and their local collaborators.[8]
After Mattathias's death, leadership passed to his son Judah Maccabeus.[9] Judah proved an exceptional commander, winning victories over Seleucid forces at Beth Horon, Emmaus, and other sites between 166 and 164 BCE.[10] These successes enabled the rebels to retake Jerusalem and purify the Second Temple, which had been defiled by pagan worship. The rededication, on the 25th of Kislev 164 BCE–three years to the day after its desecration–is commemorated to this day on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.[11] 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.[11]
In subsequent years, Judah faced renewed Seleucid attacks. At Beth Zechariah, his brother Eleazar died heroically fighting war elephants.[12] When the Seleucid general Lysias temporarily besieged Jerusalem, political turmoil in the Seleucid capital, Antioch, forced him to withdraw.[12] The Seleucid commander Nicanor initially negotiated with Judah but later fought against him, culminating in Nicanor's defeat and death at Adasa.[13] 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.[14] In 160 BCE, Judah was killed during the Battle of Elasa, where he fought the army of Seleucid general Bacchides.[15] His death marked a setback for the revolt.[16]
After Bacchides' renewed suppression of the Hasmonean party, Jonathan assumed leadership of the survivors. 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 JordanRiver, and gradually rebuilt the movement's strength.[17][18] 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.[19] After suffering heavy losses, Bacchides made peace with Jonathan, who settled in Michmas.[20]
A decisive change came in 153 BCE when a civil war broke out in Syria between Demetrius I and the pretender Alexander Balas.[21] 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.[20] Jonathan rebuilt Jerusalem's walls and also those of the Temple Mount.[20] 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.[21]
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.[22][21] 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.[23] 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.[24] Jonathan defeated his general Apollonius near Ashdod,[25] stationed a garrison in the port city of Jaffa, and burned the temple of Dagon in Ashdod.[26] Balas granted him the city of Ekron and its territories,[27] which now made Judea the ruler of the entire ancient region of Philistia.[21] After Balas was defeated and killed, Demetrius II became sole ruler of the Seleucid kingdom.[27]
Jonathan maintained a firm stance toward Demetrius II and even besieged the Akra.[26] Meeting with the king at Acre, he secured exemption of Judea from taxation and annexation of three toparchies inhabited by Jews—Ephraim, Lod, and Ramathaim—that were previously part of Samaria, in return for lifting the siege and paying 300 talents.[28] He also sent Jewish troops to assist Demetrius in suppressing a revolt in Antioch.[28]
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.[28] Tryphon confirmed Jonathan's authority and appointed his brother Simon commander of the coastal region from Tyre to the Egyptian border.[29] 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).[30] Simon captured Beth-Zur, replacing the Syrian garrison with a Jewish one; He also stationed Jewish troops in Joppa, and fortified Hadid in the Shephelah. Jonathan, returning from the north, strengthened Judea's defenses and tightened the siege of the Akra.[30] Jonathan also renewed Judea's alliance with Rome and reportedly corresponded with the city-state of Sparta.[31]
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.[28] Simon immediately assumed leadership;[28] 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.[32] 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.[28][32] He eventually withdrew to Gilead 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 brothers and parents.[28][32]
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 Hasmonean rulers.[33] According to 1 Maccabees, in that year "the yoke of the Gentiles was lifted from Israel."[34][35] Simon conquered Gazara, expelled its Gentile inhabitants, and settled Jews there. He also cultivated diplomatic relations with the Roman Republic and Sparta.[36]
In 142/1 BCE Simon achieved the principal goal of his predecessors by capturing the Akra in Jerusalem;[37][38] its inhabitants were expelled.[38] Both 1 Maccabees and Megillat Ta'anit note that the day of its capture was declared a festival.[39][37] Josephus reports that Simon ordered the hill on which the Akra stood to be leveled so it would no longer overlook the Temple.[40] However, 1 Maccabees states that he fortified the site and settled Jews there.[41][42]
In September 140 BCE, a public assembly ratified a decree formalizing Simon's rule.[43] It praised the achievements of his brothers and his own deeds, proclaiming him High Priest, national leader, and military commander, with hereditary succession in his family.[38] It forbade repealing the decree or convening assemblies without his consent. The only limitation was "until a true prophet should arise," a clause perhaps reflecting acknowledgment that Hasmonean rule did not fulfill messianic hopes or serving as a compromise with groups uneasy about their legitimacy.
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.[44] Around 138 he besieged Tryphon at Dor, likely with Simon's help; Tryphon escaped but died at Apamea in 137 BCE.[45] Antiochus then demanded the return of the Akra, Gezer, and Jaffa, or a payment totaling one thousand talents.[42][44] 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.[46][44] Antiochus sent his general Kendebaios against Judea, but Simon's sons John and Judah defeated him near Kedron and Ashdod.[44][45]
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 region, in an attempt to seize power.[44] 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.[44][45]
After escaping Ptolemy's plot, Hyrcanus fled to Jerusalem, where the citizens refused to admit Ptolemy.[47] He gained power by mobilizing his forces and was accepted as high priest.[47] 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.[47]
Soon afterward, Antiochus VII besieged Hyrcanus in Jerusalem.[47] Antiochus allowed a truce during Sukkot and sent offerings for the Temple.[47] The two eventually agreed that Judea would pay tribute for Joppa and other border towns.[47] 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.[47] Josephus reports that Hyrcanus opened David's Tomb to obtain funds.[48] The money was apparently used to hire mercenaries, marking the first known use of such troops by a Jewish ruler.[48] Relations between Hyrcanus and Antiochus remained positive, and around 130 BCE Hyrcanus joined the king's campaign against the Parthians, commanding a Jewish contingent.[48] 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.[48]
Bronze prutah of John Hyrcanus: Hebrew legend "Yehohanan (John) the High Priest and the Council of the Jews" within a wreath; reverse with double cornucopiae and a pomegranate between the horns
After Antiochus VII's death in 129 BCE, internal conflicts within the Seleucid Empire allowed Hyrcanus to act independently.[49] He stopped paying tribute and began expanding Judea's territory. First, he captured the town of Medaba in Moab, followed by Samoga, which seems to have been located in the same area.[50] He then turned to the region of Samaria, capturing Shechem and Mount Gerizim, where he destroyed the Samaritan temple—archaeological evidence supports this event around 112 BCE.[49] Hyrcanus next conquered Idumaea, capturing the towns of Maresha and Adoraim, annexing the region and requiring the Idumaean population to adopt Judaism.[49][51] While it remains debated whether this conversion was enforced or undertaken voluntarily, it appears to have been effective, as the Idumaeans subsequently became integrated into the Jewish people.[52] Hyrcanus then besieged the city of Samaria, a Macedonian colony, and assigned the operation to his sons Aristobulus and Antigonus.[53] Josephus claims that the people of Samaria had attacked Maresha, though this is doubtful given the distance between them; more likely, Hyrcanus aimed to eliminate a major Seleucid stronghold.[53] After a year-long siege, Samaria fell around 108 BCE despite assistance sent by Antiochus VIII or IX and Ptolemaic allies.[53] With its capture, Hyrcanus extended Judea's control north to Scythopolis and west to Mount Carmel, securing dominance over the country's center.[53]
John Hyrcanus enjoyed great admiration. According to Josephus, God had granted him three exceptional gifts: rule over the nation, the high priesthood, and prophecy.[54] A story found both in Josephus and in the Talmud relates that when his sons defeated the Seleucids in battle, he heard a heavenly voice announcing their victory.[55] Josephus further records that for most of his reign Hyrcanus was close to the Pharisees, beloved by them, and regarded as their disciple; the Mishnah even attributes legislative acts to him.[56] Conversely, another account in Josephus (mistakenly attributed in the Talmud to Alexander Jannaeus) tells of a conflict between Hyrcanus and the Pharisees, when they imposed only a mild penalty on a man who had slandered him.
After John Hyrcanus's death, his son Judah Aristobulus came to power.[57] According to Josephus, he was the first of the Hasmonean line to assume the royal title.[57] In contrast, the Greek historian and geographer Strabo, writing in the age of Augustus, attributes this act to Alexander Jannaeus—a view supported by Jannaeus's coins, which are the first to bear the title "king," while Judah's own coins refer to him only as high priest. However, Strabo may have been mistaken, given the limited information available about Judah's brief reign.[57] Josephus reports that Aristobulus imprisoned his mother and brothers, killing one of them, Antigonus, amid court intrigue that may have contributed to his early death.[58] During Aristobulus's reign the entire Galilee, a region already partly inhabited by Jews, was conquered. It is also reported that in the course of this campaign the Itureans, an Arab tribe centered in southern Lebanon, were forced to convert to Judaism.[59] However, this claim is disputed, as no corroborating sources or archaeological evidence confirm such a conversion.[52] Aristobulus's reign was brief; he died after only one year on the throne.[59]
After Judah's death, his widow helped his brother Alexander Jannaeus ascend to the throne.[60] By the time Jannaeus came to power, most of the country's interior was already under Hasmonean control. He therefore turned to securing the country's key strategic points, many held by Hellenistic cities along its borders, as well as confronting neighboring powers with competing interests, especially the Nabataean Kingdom to the south. One of his first campaigns targeted the Greco-Phoenician city of Acre.[61] The inhabitants called on the exiled Egyptian king Ptolemy IX for aid, who arrived from Cyprus with a large army. Jannaeus in turn sought help from Ptolemy's mother, Queen Cleopatra III of Egypt.[61] Ptolemy defeated Jannaeus near the Jordan and invaded Judea, but was eventually driven out by Cleopatra's forces. Her advisers urged her to annex Judea, yet the Jewish commander Ananias, serving in her army, warned her of a Jewish mutiny if she did so. Jannaeus ultimately secured an alliance with Egypt.[61]
Prutah of Alexander Jannaeus with an anchor and the Greek inscription "King Alexander"
Jannaeus then launched a campaign against the Hellenistic cities. He captured Gadara and the fortress of Amathus, and in 96 BCE conquered the southern coastal plain—including Rafah, Anthedon, and Gaza, then a major trade hub allied with the Nabataeans.[62] Gaza fell after a long siege despite Nabataean aid, though with heavy Jewish losses.[62] Jannaeus spared Ashkelon, an ally of the Ptolemies,[62] and had earlier secured control of Strato's Tower (later Caesarea) and Dor.[61] His campaign against the Nabataean king Obodas I in the Transjordan ended in a major defeat, forcing him to retreat.[63]
This defeat triggered a violent civil war between Jannaeus and his Jewish opponents, during which the Seleucid king Demetrius III intervened.[63] One reason for the rebellion against Jannaeus appears to have been his attempt to consolidate absolute power. His alignment with the Sadducees also provoked the Pharisees, especially amid disputes over Temple ritual and Jewish law. According to Josephus, during Sukkot he was pelted with citrons by worshippers who accused him of being unfit for the high priesthood, claiming that he was of captive descent—an episode some scholars associate with a Talmudic account of a Sadducee who was likewise struck with citrons after pouring the water libation on his feet instead of on the altar, in defiance of Pharisaic practice.[64][65][62] The resulting civil war was bitter and prolonged, reportedly lasting six years and claiming around 50,000 lives.[63] Eventually, Demetrius withdrew to face his brother Philip's challenge in Syria, leaving Jannaeus to besiege the remaining rebels. After their defeat, Josephus recounts that Jannaeus had their families killed before their eyes and crucified about 800 of them while he feasted with his concubines.[63] These events prompted some 8,000 to flee Judea for as long as Jannaeus lived.[63]
Jannaeus relinquished his Transjordanian conquests to guard against further Nabataean incursions and was unable to prevail over Antiochus XII Dionysus of Syria, who invaded Judea and breached the newly built defensive line stretching from Chapharsaba to Jaffa.[62] By the late 80s BCE, however, Jannaeus's fortunes improved. With Ptolemy IX dead and the Seleucid capital Antioch under Armenian control, he renewed his eastern campaigns. Between 83 and 76 BCE he conquered Dion, Pella, and Gerasa in the Transjordan, gained control of Gamla, Seleucia, and Gaulana in the Golan Heights, the "Valley of Antiochus", and reclaimed territories in Gilead and Moab that he had previously ceded to the Nabataeans.[66] By the time of his death during a siege of Ragaba,[67] the borders of his kingdom had reached their greatest extent, representing Israel's largest territory since the biblical monarchy.[68]
Salome Alexandra (also Shelamzion) succeeded her husband Alexander Jannaeus and ruled Judea for nine years, a period later remembered by rabbinic tradition as a "golden age" of prosperity.[69][70][71] According to Josephus, she followed her husband's reported deathbed advice to reconcile with the Pharisees, whose influence came to dominate her reign.[72] Pharisaic legal norms were reinstated, and their leaders, such as Simeon ben Shetach, held significant authority in both religious and civic life.[71] While this strengthened popular support, it also alienated parts of the Sadducean faction, some of whose members were purged or sidelined, though as a group the Sadducees generally remained loyal to the Hasmoneans.[71]
Alexandra proved an able administrator.[73] She expanded the army, maintained peace with neighboring powers, and managed foreign affairs prudently; she sent a force to defend allies in Damascus from the Itureans and concluded diplomatic understandings with Tigranes of Armenia who conquered much of Syria and besieged Acre.[74] Her governance preserved internal stability and prosperity, and even hostile sources acknowledge her administrative competence. Tension within the royal family, however, grew toward the end of her life. Her elder son, Hyrcanus II, served as high priest and was regarded as her heir, while the younger Aristobulus II, more ambitious and militarily inclined, gathered supporters opposed to Pharisaic influence.[74] As Alexandra's health declined, Aristobulus seized control of more than twenty fortresses and their treasuries to raise an army, and declared himself king.[74][75] His wife and children were detained by the queen in Jerusalem's Baris fortress.[74] Alexandra died soon afterward at the age of 73, leaving her sons' rivalry to plunge Judea back into civil war.[75]
After Alexandra's death, Aristobulus defeated Hyrcanus near Jericho and seized power in Judea.[76]Antipater the Idumaean warned Hyrcanus he was at risk, prompting him to flee to the Nabataean kingdom and return with Aretas III's army to besiege Aristobulus in Jerusalem.[76] Both brothers then appealed to Aulus Scaurus, one of Pompey's officers; Scaurus backed Aristobulus, ordered the Nabataeans to withdraw, and Aristobulus exploited their retreat to defeat Hyrcanus.[77] When Pompey arrived in Damascus, he met with delegations from Hyrcanus and Aristobulus.[77] Hyrcanus claimed the throne as the lawful heir by primogeniture and charged Aristobulus with fomenting wars and piracy. Aristobulus replied that he had taken the kingship out of necessity, since his elder brother was unfit to hold it. According to Josephus and Diodorus Siculus, a third delegation representing "the Jewish nation" also appeared, demanding the abolition of monarchy and the restoration of priestly rule.[77]
Pompey deferred a final decision and moved to enter the country; Aristobulus, having paid a large bribe, began defensive measures and withdrew to Jerusalem. Pompey advanced as far as Jericho; Aristobulus met him and promised money and entry, but Aristobulus's followers shut the city to the Romans. Aristobulus opponents opened the gates while his supporters seized the Temple Mount.[77] Pompey besieged it for three months and, taking advantage of the Sabbath to advance siege works, captured the sanctuary.[78] Pompey entered the Temple's Holy of Holies without touching its treasures and ordered the Temple cleansed and worship resumed the next day.[79] With the Roman conquest in 63 BCE, Judea ceased to be a sovereign kingdom, and did not regain national independence for nearly two millennia.[79]
Roman client state (63–40 BCE)
Following the Roman conquest, Pompey confirmed Hyrcanus as high priest but not king and took Aristobulus and his sons as captives to Rome.[80] He also reduced Judea's territory, assigning many Hellenistic cities to the province of Syria with polis status, some becoming part of the Decapolis.[81][b] Alexander, son of Aristobulus, escaped captivity, rebelled against his uncle Hyrcanus, and quickly seized large swathes of the country. Aulus Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, came to Hyrcanus's aid and defeated Alexander after he fortified himself at Alexandrium.[82] Gabinius then reorganized the country and rebuilt many damaged cities, while Hyrcanus again served as high priest.[82] Meanwhile Aristobulus escaped Roman captivity, returned to Judea, and raised a new revolt, which Gabinius also suppressed.[83] Alexander rebelled again and was again defeated.[84]
In 54 BCE Marcus Crassus assumed the Syrian governorship and plundered the Temple treasury, which the Romans had hitherto left untouched. Soon after, he was killed fighting the Parthians.[85] His successor Cassius, focused on checking the Parthians after Crassus's defeat, seized Tarichaeae in Galilee and enslaved many Jews, and—at Antipater's instigation—executed the turncoat Peitholaus; these actions may have been connected to suppressing a renewed Aristobulan revolt.[86] In 49 BCE civil war broke out between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Caesar prepared to send Aristobulus, then a captive in Rome, back to Judea to wage the war in his interest, but Aristobulus was poisoned by Caesar's enemies before he could depart; Pompey's supporters also killed his son Alexander in Antioch.[87]
After Pompey's defeat and death in Egypt, Caesar took control of the East.[85] After Pompey’s death in 48 BCE, Antipater backed Caesar and, by securing Arab and Syrian support, persuading the Jews of the Onias district, and commanding in battle alongside Mithridates of Pergamum, helped the Roman forces take Egypt, earning notice for courage and strategy.[87] Caesar kept Hyrcanus in power in Judea (possibly now with the title "ethnarch"), permitted the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls ruined by Pompey.[88] He also granted Antipater Roman citizenship and tax exemption, and entrusted him with Judea's administration as "procurator".[89] Many passages depict Hyrcanus as overshadowed by Antipater, though Josephus is inconsistent and other evidence shows Hyrcanus retained some agency.[90] Around 44 BCE, Antipater's son Phasael became governor of Jerusalem, and his other son, Herod, governor of the Galilee, where he crushed a revolt with extrajudicial killings; when leading Jews pressed charges against Herod, Roman governor Sextus Caesar intervened and the case was dropped.[90]
In 44 BCE Julius Caesar was assassinated and civil war resumed in Rome. Cassius came to the region to raise troops and funds for war against Octavian and Mark Antony, levying 700 talents from Judea. Herod delivered Galilee's quota and gained favor.[91] His father Antipater was then poisoned by Malichus, a Jewish aristocrat; Herod then had Malichus executed.[91] Later he also suppressed a revolt against Phasael.[92] Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, rebelled in the Galilee with Tyrian aid but was defeated by Herod.[92] After these successes Herod was betrothed to Hyrcanus's granddaughter, the Hasmonean princess Mariamne.[92] In 42 BCE, Antony and Octavian defeated Cassius and Brutus at Philippi. When Antony arrived in the East, Jewish envoys accused Herod and Phasael of ruling with Hyrcanus as a puppet; Antony instead confirmed the brothers as tetrarchs, and had troops kill many from one of the delegations.[93]
Antigonus Mattathias (40–37 BCE) and the rise of Herod
In 40 BCE the Parthian Empire seized the Levant from the Romans.[94] The Parthians restored Hasmonean rule by installing Antigonus Mattathias as king of Judea for a large bribe he promised.[95] He and the Parthians besieged Jerusalem, lured Phasael and Hyrcanus into their hands, and captured them.[96] Phasael committed suicide; Hyrcanus was spared but Antigonus cut off his ears to disqualify him from the high priesthood.[96] Meanwhile, Herod escaped Jerusalem by night, reached Idumaea after a pursuit, secured refuge for his family in Masada, and later sailed to Rome.[97] Antigonus became the last Hasmonean king to rule Judea.[98]
In late 40 BCE Herod reached Rome, where Antony and Octavian presented him before the Senate, which declared him king of Judea.[96] Early in 39 BCE Herod landed in Galilee and began his war for the throne. He secured Antony's backing, and the Roman general Sosius brought forces to assist. In Herod’s absence Antigonus won several victories, and Herod's brother Joseph was killed. In 37 BCE Herod, with Sosius, defeated Antigonus’s forces and besieged Jerusalem, which fell that summer.[99] Herod's effective reign over Judea thus began, and the Hasmonean state came to an end.[98]
In the following years many Hasmonean descendants were eliminated. Herod appointed Mariamne's brother Aristobulus III as high priest; when the adolescent became too popular, Herod had him drowned by his servants at his Jericho palace.[100] Hyrcanus, who had been in Babylonia after Parthian captivity, was enticed back by Herod and later executed.[101] In 29–28 BCE, Mariamne was executed amid court intrigues, and her mother Alexandra was put to death after a suspected bid for power during Herod's illness.[102] Lastly, in 7 BCE Herod also executed his two sons by Mariamne, Alexander and Aristobulus IV, after being persuaded that they, too, conspired against him.[102] Much of the former Hasmonean realm was later organized as the Roman province of Judaea in the early first century CE.[103]
Under Hasmonean rule, Judea functioned as a theocratic monarchy centered in Jerusalem. The regime styled the polity with names derived from "Judah."[104] The government combined religious and civil authority: the head of state also served as High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple, holding supreme power over both governance and worship. Initially, the Hasmonean rulers exercised authority as hereditary high priests and national leaders (ethnarchs), but as their sovereignty consolidated, they adopted the title of kings (basileus). This fusion of kingship and priesthood was unprecedented in earlier Jewish tradition; during the biblical Kingdom of Judah, the monarchy belonged to the Davidic line of the tribe of Judah, while the high priesthood remained a separate institution.
Society, religion and culture
Urban growth and works in Jerusalem
With the establishment of Hasmonean rule, Jerusalem gained markedly in importance as the royal capital.[105] Magen Broshi estimates a population of 30,000–35,000 for this period.[106] The city expanded onto the Western (southwestern) Hill (roughly today's Mount Zion and the Jewish and Armenian Quarters of the Old City) for the first time since Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 BCE.[107][105] The late–8th-century BCE fortification there, ruined since 587/586, was repaired and rebuilt;[107][105] surviving segments (e.g., at the Tower of David citadel) show late Hellenistic masonry with alternating headers and stretchers and drafted margins with rough bosses, a line many identify with Josephus's "First Wall."[107] The city's entire fortified area—the southeastern hill, the Temple Mount, and the southwestern hill—covered about 650 dunams (≈160 acres), similar to the city's extent on the eve of the Babylonian conquest.[105]
Stone bowl fragment inscribed “Hyrcanus,” found in the Givati Parking Lot, Jerusalem.
Under the Hasmoneans, the Second Temple stood on a smaller platform than the one visible today, which reflects Herod's later expansion; some reconstructions estimate the earlier esplanade at about 500 × 500 cubits. A masonry seam in the Temple Mount's eastern wall marks Herodian work to the south, while stones north of the seam are often dated to the Hellenistic period, possibly Hasmonean.[108] Josephus notes a Hasmonean palace on a high point of the southwestern hill overlooking the city and Temple Mount.[109] To meet growing demand, the Hasmoneans built a c. 21.5 km low-level aqueduct from Solomon's Pools to Jerusalem, feeding large cisterns on the Temple Mount; sections remained in use into the Ottoman and Mandate periods.[107]
Religious developments
The Hasmonean era saw the emergence of several notable Jewish sects—Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes—alongside disputes over authority, purity, calendar and law.[110] Josephus first mentions the Pharisees and Sadducees in connection with the era of Jonathan Maccabee, but—as Lester Grabbe cautions—that mention does not prove they already existed then.[111] In Josephus, their first clear historical activity appears under John Hyrcanus (135–104 BCE), where the two groups appear as political rivals.[111] The Pharisees later attain significant influence under Salome Alexandra.[111] The Essenes are attested from about 100 BCE and are first linked to the reign of Aristobulus I (104–103 BCE).[111]
During the Hasmonean period, observance of biblical purity laws seem to have intensified in public life. From the late 2nd–early 1st century BCE, ritual baths (miqva'ot) appear across Judea (with a dense concentration in and around Jerusalem) indicating wider, more regular purity practice beyond the Temple cult;[112] typical installations are rock-cut or sunken, stepped, plastered and filled with undrawn rain or spring water, and Hasmonean-period examples are attested near the Temple Mount and on the southwestern hill.[112]
Burial
Rock-cut family tombs, common in Iron Age Judah, reappeared under the Hasmoneans as elite presence in Jerusalem increased.[113] Ancient sources describe a now-lost mausoleum built by Simon at Modi'in—a monumental family tomb with seven pyramids—likely inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; this model influenced later mausoleum-style memorials in Judea, and Jerusalem tombs adopted kokhim (burial niches; also known as loculi), Greek-style porches, and pyramidal or other markers that remained standard through the Second Temple period.[113] Later Hasmonean rulers were no longer buried at Modi'in; Josephus indicates that both Hyrcanus and Jannaeus were interred in Jerusalem.[114]
Evidence for Hasmonean-period burial architecture in Jerusalem has also been preserved. One notable discovery is Jason's Tomb, discovered west of ancient Jerusalem in the modern Jerusalemite neighborhood of Rehavia. It is a rock-cut family tomb with a Doric in-antis porch and a pyramid nefesh above; its chambers include some of the earliest Jewish kokim in Jerusalem.[115] Porch graffiti in Aramaic and one in Greek mention "Jason" and depict a stag, five seven-branched menorahs, and three ships (one seemingly pursuing the others). The scale, iconography, and onomastics suggest a high-status, likely priestly family reflecting Hellenistic influence.[115]
Names
Historian and lexicographer Tal Ilan has shown that in Judea, from the Hasmonean period to about 200 CE, Hasmonean dynastic names were the single most common cluster of given names.[116]
Military
The Hasmonean military evolved from guerilla origins into a standing army modeled partially on Hellenistic lines. During the Maccabean revolt, Judah Maccabee's forces were ad hoc bands of rebel fighters; but by the time of Jonathan and Simon, these had coalesced into a more regular force able to face Seleucid armies in the field. The Hasmonean rulers maintained a core Jewish infantry but increasingly supplemented them with foreign mercenaries. Alexander Jannaeus is said to have hired large contingents of Pisidian and Cilician mercenaries to bolster his army.
The remains of the Alexandrium (Sartaba) fortress built by Alexander Jannaeus
The Hasmonean army incorporated Hellenistic tactics and siege craft, evidenced by their use of siege engines to capture fortified cities, while also fortifying key positions in their own realm. John Hyrcanus constructed a fortress known as the Baris north of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and he may also have established Hyrcania in the Judean desert—though the latter could have been built or rebuilt by his successors.[57] His successor Alexander Jannaeus built a defense line at the kingdom's eastern borders, including the forts of Alexandrium and Machaerus.[117]
Foreign policy
Relations with Rome
A distinctive feature of Hasmonean diplomacy was the effort to secure formal relations with Rome. This policy appears to have begun under Judah Maccabee, who sent the first embassy to Rome in 161 BCE, seeking an alliance of friendship. His successors Jonathan and Simon renewed these contacts, and John Hyrcanus later confirmed the treaty. Subsequent rulers, however, do not seem to have maintained active relations with Rome.[73] Although Roman support was occasionally cited as benefiting Judea's position, as historian Lester L. Grabbe notes, Rome rarely intervened unless its own interests were involved, offering only letters of goodwill or symbolic gestures. For the Hasmoneans, such alliances served mainly to bolster internal legitimacy rather than deter foreign enemies.[73]
Scholars broadly agree that John Hyrcanus was the first Hasmonean to mint coins, likely beginning after Seleucid authority waned with Antiochus VII's death in 129 BCE.[118][119][120] The Seleucids reportedly granted his father Simon minting rights in the 130s, though he appears not to have used them.[44] All Hasmonean issues are small, low-value bronze prutot; no Hasmonean silver is known. High-value payments continued to use circulating silver such as Tyriantetradrachms, with roughly 672 prutot to one Tyrian tetradrachm.[121] Alexander Jannaeus likely struck millions of bronze prutot, which stayed in circulation into the first century CE.[121]
The coins regularly name the reigning Hasmonean and his title.[122] Legends appear in both Greek and Hebrew; For the Hebrew legends, the Hasmoneans revived the older paleo-Hebrew script, even though the squareHebrew script still in use today was already the dominant form in their time.[123][120] Archaeologist Jodi Magness suggests this choice "likely was an allusion to the revived biblical kingdom of David and Solomon."[123] Over time the titulature broadens: Hyrcanus I uses Hebrew name and Jewish titles (High Priest etc.), while under Jannaeus both Hebrew and Greek names appear and the Greek royal title basileus is added, with inscriptions in paleo-Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.[124]
Many Hasmonean coins follow the Hebrew formula "X the High Priest and the ḥeḇer of the Judeans."[125] The term ḥeḇer, attested in issues from the 120s BCE to 37 BCE and meaning "association," is debated: it may denote a national council (possibly a Sanhedrin precursor) or the Jewish people/community (as the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek ethnos).[125][120] The legends may indicate that "the Judeans" served as the state's internal Hebrew name, in contrast to later First Jewish Revolt and Bar Kokhba coinage that uses "Israel" instead.[125]
Hasmonean issues eschew portraits and other figured images, reflecting a growing trend toward aniconism consistent with stricter readings of the Second Commandment; instead they adopt Hellenistic coin types: diadems for royal authority, wreaths and anchors for victory, and cornucopiae for prosperity. Some coins bear symbols linked to Jerusalem such as the pomegranate and the lily, while anchors possibly allude to naval successes or major ports.[123][124] Under Mattathias Antigonus, coins bearing a seven-branched menorah were struck, symbolizing the Jerusalem Temple and Jewish sovereignty; these are among the earliest surviving menorah depictions, paralleled by contemporary graffiti in Jason's Tomb.[123]
Legacy
Jewish nationalism
Politically and nationally, the greatest legacy of the Hasmoneans was the creation of sovereign Jewish state – the first independent Jewish polity since the fall of the First Temple in 587/6 BCE, and a rare example of indigenous rule in an age dominated by great empires.[126] Although their kingdom lasted less than a century, its existence had a profound impact on Jewish national consciousness. According to historian Doron Mendels, when Judea came under Roman rule, Jews continued to look back to the Hasmonean period as a golden age of independence.[127] This consciousness contributed to later efforts to revive Jewish sovereignity, which culminated in the major Jewish uprisings against Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.[127]
Ancient sources
The principal historical source for the period from the accession of Antiochus IV Epiphanes to the Seleucid throne to the assassination of Simon (c. 175–134 BCE) is 1 Maccabees,[128][129] generally dated to the reign of John Hyrcanus.[129][130] The book was originally written in Hebrew in Judea, probably in Jerusalem, and follows the style of the historiographic sections of the Hebrew Bible;[131] it draws on the author's reminiscences and on archival sources: letters from the Roman Senate and Seleucid kings to the Maccabean brothers, as well as priestly annals preserved in the Temple; references to official archives and Hellenistic epistolary practice support the authenticity of these documents.[132] The book also shows a marked pro-Hasmonean bias and displays open admiration for Judah Maccabee,[133] leading most scholars to view it as the dynasty’s official version of events.[129][134] Hebrew copies were still in circulation in the third century CE,[135] but the Hebrew original has since been lost; only Greek versions survive.
2 Maccabees is a separate work, not a sequel, composed in Greek. It originated in the Jewish community of Egypt in the late 2nd century BCE,[136] and centers on the exploits of Judah the Maccabee, the author's revered hero.[137] The narrative ends not with Judah's death but with his final victory over Nicanor in 160 BCE.[138] Although shorter than 1 Maccabees and often judged the weaker historical source,[139] its introductory chapters, which recount the events leading to the decrees absent from 1 Maccabees, are essential for understanding the background of the Hasmonean era.[140] The book is an epitome of a five volumes of history by Jason of Cyrene, which the epitomator abridged and edited.[136][137] Lacking the straightforwardness of 1 Maccabees, it abounds in miracle stories and a theological tone,[129] and casts the conflict as Hellenism versus Judaism, with "Judaism" appearing for the first time in extant sources.[141]
Another source for the Hasmonean period is Megillat Taanit ("Scroll of Fasting"), a late Second Temple-era Pharisaic text in Aramaic that lists thirty-five dates on which Jews are forbidden to fast and, on some dates, to eulogize, thereby turning them into minor holidays.[142] It was likely compiled in the decades before 70 CE and is traditionally linked to Shammaite circles (possibly revolutionary ones), though its authorship and exact date are unproven.[143] Many entries commemorate Hasmonean successes, among them the Temple's rededication, the defeat of Nicanor, the capture of the Akra, Antiochus's withdrawal from Jerusalem, adoption of a new official dating formula, the conquests of Samaria and Beth-Shean, the destruction of the Mount Gerizim temple under John Hyrcanus, and the capture of Straton’s Tower under Alexander Jannaeus.[144] Several of these commemorations are already fixated by 1 Maccabees.[145] The appended Scholion, a rabbinic-era commentary in Hebrew, survives in two late redactions that often diverge; the widely printed "Hybrid Version" is a medieval mix of the two.[146]
Lastly, another important source is Josephus (late first century CE), a Jerusalem priest who commanded Jewish resistance in Galilee early in the First Jewish Revolt, later surrendered to the Romans, and wrote in Rome under Flavian patronage. In The Jewish War, while focused on the First Jewish–Roman War, he provides as background a brief, somewhat confused but independent account of the Maccabean revolt and the subsequent Hasmonean (and Herodian) periods that adds some unique details.[147]Antiquities of the Jews offers a longer and more detailed treatment, but much of the added content is rhetorical expansion rather than new information.[147] For the revolt and the years covered in parallel with 1 Maccabees he paraphrases that work, with reworking, inferences, and added notices likely drawn from Nicolaus of Damascus and Strabo; for later periods he relies mainly on Nicolaus (and on Strabo in Antiquities).[147]
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