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Titus was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death.
Herod Agrippa, also known as Herod II or Agrippa I, was a King of Judea from AD 41 to 44 and of Philip's tetrarchy from 39. He was the last ruler with the royal title reigning over Judea and the father of Herod Agrippa II, the last king from the Herodian dynasty. The grandson of Herod the Great and son of Aristobulus IV and Berenice, he is the king named Herod in the Acts of the Apostles 12:1: "Herod (Agrippa)".
Abgar V, called Ukkāmā, was the King of Osroene with his capital at Edessa.
Cyrus the Great figures in the Hebrew Bible as the patron and deliverer of the Jews. He is mentioned 23 times by name and alluded to several times more.
Adiabene was an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, corresponding to the northwestern part of ancient Assyria. The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control of Nineveh, and starting at least with the rule of Monobazos I, Gordyene became an Adiabenian dependency. It reached its zenith under Izates II, who was granted the district of Nisibis by the Parthian king Artabanus II as a reward for helping the Parthian to regain his throne. Adiabene's eastern borders stopped at the Zagros Mountains, adjacent to the region of Media. Arbela served as the capital of Adiabene.
John Hyrcanus was a Hasmonean (Maccabean) leader and Jewish high priest of the 2nd century BCE. In rabbinic literature he is often referred to as Yoḥanan Cohen Gadol, "John the High Priest".
Salome Alexandra or Alexandra of Jerusalem, was one of only two women to rule over Judea. The wife of Aristobulus I, and afterward of Alexander Jannaeus, she was the last queen of Judea, and the last ruler of ancient Judea to die as the ruler of an independent kingdom from 76 to 67 BCE.
The Kitos War was one of the major Jewish–Roman wars (66–136). The rebellions erupted in 115, when most the Roman armies were fighting Trajan's Parthian War on the eastern border of the Roman Empire. Major uprisings by Jews in Cyrenaica, Cyprus and Egypt spiralled out of control, resulting in a widespread slaughter of the remaining Roman garrisons and Roman citizens by Jewish rebels.
Joshua ben Gamla or Joshua the son of Gamala, was a Jewish high priest in about 64-65 CE. He was killed during the First Jewish–Roman War. The Talmud refers to Joshua ben Gamala, while in the earlier Greek works of Josephus Flavius he is called Isous huios Gamala, son of Gamala.
Helena of Adiabene was a queen of Adiabene and Edessa as the sister-wife of Monobaz I, and later the chief wife of Abgar V, King of Osrhoene. With her husband, Monobaz I, she was the mother of Izates II and Monobaz II. Helena became a convert to Judaism about the year 30 CE. According to Josephus, Helena was the daughter of King Izates, and according to both Josephus and Moses of Chorene, she was the chief wife of Abgar V king of Edessa.
Monobaz I was king of the Parthian client state of Adiabene in the 20s and 30s of the 1st century AD. He was the husband of Queen Helena of Adiabene. With Helena he fathered Izates bar Monobaz and Monobaz II. Midrash Genesis Rabbah 46:10 conflates the identity of Monobaz I with King Ptolemy, “‘And circumcise the flesh of your foreskin’ : [The foreskin] hangs on the body like a sore (nomi). It happened that king Munbaz and Zawatus (=Izates), the sons of King Ptolemy, were sitting and reading the book of Genesis. When they came to this verse, ‘and circumcise the flesh of your foreskin,’ one turned his face to the wall and began to cry, and the other turned his face to the wall and [also] began to cry.[21] Then each of them went and had himself circumcised [without the other knowing].”
Izates II was king of the Parthian client kingdom of Adiabene from approximately 30 to 54. He is notable for converting to Judaism. He was the son of Queen Helena of Adiabene and Monobaz I of Adiabene. Queen Helena was also said to be the wife of King Abgarus of Edessa and thus the queen of Edessa too.
Symacho was the daughter of King Abinergaos I of Characene. She was converted to Judaism by Ananias of Adiabene. Symacho married Izates bar Monobaz during the latter's sojourn in Charax as a youth. She presumably went with him when he left to take up his throne in Adiabene.
Ananias of Adiabene was a Jewish merchant and mendicant proselytizer, probably of Hellenistic origin, who, in the opening years of the common era, was prominent at the court of Abinergaos I (Abennerig), king of Characene. He was instrumental in the conversion to Judaism of numerous native and foreign inhabitants of Charax Spasinu. This city, the capital of Characene, was situated at the confluence of the two arms of the Tigris near the Persian Gulf and was at the time a great mercantile center.
Menelaus was High Priest in Jerusalem from about 172 BC to about 161 BC. He was high priest at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt (167-160). He was the successor of Jason, the brother of Onias III.
The Tombs of the Kings are a rock-cut funerary complex in East Jerusalem believed to be the burial site of Queen Helene of Adiabene. The tombs are located 820 meters north of Jerusalem's Old City walls in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood
Jerusalem during the Second Temple period describes the history of the city from the return to Zion under Cyrus the Great to the 70 CE siege of Jerusalem by Titus during the First Jewish–Roman War, which saw both region and city change hands several times. It was the center of religious life for all Jews; even those who lived in the diaspora prayed towards Jerusalem on a daily basis and made pilgrimages during religious festivals. The Pharisees of Second Temple Judaism developed into the Tannaim and Judaism's post-Exilic religious identity as it continues today, and the Hebrew Bible was perhaps canonized, although exactly when this occurred remains disputed. It was also in Jerusalem during the later stages of this period that Christianity was born.
References
- Gottheil, Richard and Isaac Broydé. "Izates". Jewish Encyclopedia . Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906.
