Mattatayah Mattathias Antiogonus Biblical Jerusalem Ancient Greek Coin i52392

Item: i52392

 

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Mattatayah Antiogonus – King of Judaea: 40-37 B.C.
Bronze Prutah 15mm (2.28 grams) Jerusalem mint, circa 40-37 B.C.
Reference: Hendin 1164 (5th Edition)
Paleo-Hebrew, tretrograde (Mattatayah) within wreath and border of dots.
Double cornucopia adorned with ribbons, ear of barley between horns, border of
dots.

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Authenticity.

Antigonus II Mattathias (Hebrew:
מתתיהו אנטיגונוס השני‎) (known in
Hebrew as Matityahu) (died 37 BCE) was the last
Hasmonean
king of
Judea
. He was the son of King
Aristobulus II
of Judea. Antigonus was handed
over by Herod for execution in 37 BCE, after a reign of three years during which
he led a fierce struggle of the

Jews for independence from the Romans.

Biography

Antigonus the Hasmonean was the second son of Aristobulus II, and together
with his father was carried prisoner to Rome by Pompey in 63 BCE. He escaped and
returned to Judea
in 57 BCE. Despite an unsuccessful
attempt to oppose the Roman forces there, the senate released him but he refused
to surrender his ancestral rights. After the death of his older brother
Alexander, Antigonus claimed that his uncle Hyrcanus was a puppet in the hands
of the Idumean
Antipater
and attempted to overthrow him with
the help and consent of the Romans. He visited Julius Cæsar, who was in Syria in
47, and complained of the usurpation of Antipater and Hyrcanus. In 42, he
attempted to seize the government of Judea by force with the assistance of his
brother-in-law, Ptolemy Mennei but was defeated by Herod.

The excessive taxation wrung from the people to pay for the extravagances of
Antony and Cleopatra had awakened a deep hatred against Rome. Antigonus gained
the adherence of both the aristocratic class in Jerusalem and the leaders of the
Pharisees
. The Parthians, who invaded Syria in
40 BCE, preferred to see an anti-Roman ruler on the throne of Judea. When
Antigonus promised them large sums of gold and five hundred female slaves
besides, they put a troop of five hundred warriors at his disposal. Hyrcanus was
sent to Babylon after suffering the mutilation of his ears, which rendered him
unfit for the office of high priest. Herod fled from Jerusalem. In 40 BCE
Antigonus was officially proclaimed king and high priest by the Parthians. His
three-year reign was a continuous struggle.

Herod succeeded in having himself declared king of Judea by Rome. On Herod’s
return from Rome in 39 BCE he opened a campaign against Antigonus and laid siege
to Jerusalem. In the spring of 38 BCE, Herod wrested control of the province of
Galilee and eventually all of
Judea
as far as Jerusalem. Due to the approach
of winter, Herod postponed his
siege of Jerusalem
, where Antigonus and the
remnants of his army took refuge, until spring. Herod was held off for 3–5
months but the Romans did eventually capture the city; however, the supporters
of Antigonus fought until the Romans reached the inner courtyard of the Temple.
Antigonus was taken to Antioch and executed, ending
Hasmonean
rule.

Josephus
states that Marc Antony beheaded
Antigonus (Antiquities, XV 1:2 (8-9). Roman historian
Dio Cassius
says he was crucified. Cassius
Dio’s Roman History records: “These people [the Jews] Antony entrusted to
a certain Herod to govern; but Antigonus he bound to a cross and scourged, a
punishment no other king had suffered at the hands of the Romans, and so slew
him.” In his Life of Antony,
Plutarch
claims that Antony had Antigonus
beheaded, “the first example of that punishment being inflicted on a king.”

Recent archaeology

In 1971, bulldozers removing earth in Jerusalem for a construction project
uncovered a tomb with an inscription that, according to some scholars, indicates
that this was the tomb of King Antigonus, the last Hasmonean king.

Literary associations

Author Joseph Raymond in his book
Herodian Messiah
attempts to provide a case for
Jesus as the grandson of King Antigonus who could be the father of
Mary the mother of Jesus
, i.e., the maternal
grandfather of Jesus Christ
.