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John Hyrcanus I (Yehohanan) King of Judaea 134-104 B.C.E
John Hyrcanus I with Antiochus VII
Bronze 14mm (2.30 grams) Jerusalem mint 132-131 B.C.
Reference: Hendin 1131 (5th Edition)
BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ ANTIOXOY EYEPΓΕΤΟΥ (of King Antiochos, benefactor); inverted anchor, below anchor AΠP (Seleukid Era 182 = 132/131 B.C.)
Lily.
The lily, or shoshan in Hebrew, was considered by the Hebrews as a very special flour. It’s fragilit ability to bloom rapidly linked it to associations with fertility. The lily flower was used as an ornamental flower in the Jerusalem Temple. It was the lily, along with 200 pomegranates that graced the capitals of the two main pillars, Boaz and Yachin at the entrance of the Temple. The lily was a symbol of Jerusalem itself. The symbol of the anchor was a symbol of maritime power, and later was adopted by the Jewish rulers including Alexander Jannaeus.
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Antiochus VII Euergetes, nicknamed Sidetes (from Side), ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, reigned from 138 to 129 BC. He was the last Seleucid king of any stature.
He was one of the sons of Demetrius I Soter, the brother of Demetrius II Nicator and his mother may have been Laodice V. Antiochus was elevated after Demetrius’ capture by the Parthians. He married Cleopatra Thea, who had been the wife of Demetrius. Their offspring was Antiochus IX, who thus became both half-brother and cousin to Seleucus V and Antiochus VIII.
Sidetes defeated the usurper Tryphon at Dora and laid siege to Jerusalem in 132. During the siege he allowed a seven day truce for the Jews to celebrate a religious festival, impressing the Jewish leadership. According to Josephus the Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus opened King David’s sepulchre and removed three thousand talents, which he then paid Antiochus to spare the city. Nevertheless, King Antiochus’ respectful treatment of the Jews, and respect for their religion, earned him their gratitude and added name, Euergetes (“the Benefactor”). With no Jewish sources of that time (the Book of Maccabees ends few years before his time) it is unclear if the siege on Jerusalem ended with a decisive Seleucid victory or simply a peace treaty. Furthermore, the fact is that Jewish forces later assisted Sidetes in his wars, and that for nearly 20 years after his death, John Hyrcanus refrained of attacking areas under Seleucid control. All in all it indicates a renewal of the friendly relations from the time of Demetrius II.
Antiochus spent the final years of his life attempting to reclaim the lost eastern territories, overrun by the Parthians under their “Great King”, Mithridates I. Marching east, with what would prove to be the last great Seleucid royal army (including a unit of Judean troops under John Hyrcanus), he defeated Mithridates in two battles, killing the aged Parthian king in the last of these. He restored Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Media to the Seleucid empire, before dispersing his army into winter quarters.
The Seleucid king and army spent the winter feasting, hunting, and drinking (the Seleucids maintained the Macedonian tradition of heavy drinking). As with any time an army is quartered upon a population, tensions soon grew between the locals and the Seleukian troops.
The new Parthian ruler, Phraates II, had not been idle; raising a new army while stirring up rebellion in the Seleucid occupied towns of Media. Hoping to further sew dissension amongst his foe, Phraates also released his long-held prisoner, Demetrius II, Antiochus’ older brother, to return to Seleukia and reclaim the throne.
That winter (130–129 BCE), several Median towns rose in rebellion and attacked their Seleucid garrisons. Antiochus marched to support one such isolated garrison with only a small force (likely only his Royal Guards). In a barren valley, he was ambushed and killed by Phraates II and a large force of Parthians, which had entered the country without being detected. The last great Seleucid king died in battle, a fitting end for the heir of Seleucus I Nicator (the Victor). (One disputed account has Antiochus take his own life, after the battle is lost, to avoid capture by the Parthians.)
After Antiochus VII Sidetes, the Parthians regained the territory briefly lost, and the Seleucid realm was now restricted to Seleukia.
 John Hyrcanus (Hebrew: יוחנן הורקנוס Yohanan Hurqanos; Greek: Ἰωάννης Ὑρκανός Iōánnēs Hurkānós) was a Hasmonean (Maccabeean) leader and Jewish High Priest of the 2nd century BCE (born 164 BCE, reigned from 134 BCE until his death in 104 BCE). In rabbinic literature he is often referred to by the epithet, Yoḥanan Cohen Gadol (Hebrew: יוחנן כהן גדול).Name
Josephus explains in The Jewish War that John was also known as “Hyrcanus”, but does not explain the reason behind this name. The only other primary source, the Books of the Maccabees, never used this name with respect to John, with the single reference to Hyrcanus in 2 Maccabees 3:11 referring to a man to whom some of the money in the Temple belonged during the c. 178 BCE visit of Heliodorus.
The reason for the name is disputed amongst biblical scholars, with a variety of reasons proposed:
- Familial origin in the region of Hyrcania on the Caspian Sea
- A Greek regnal name, which would have represented closer ties with the Hellenistic culture against which the Maccabees had revolted under Seleucid rule. However, the region of Hyrcania had been conquered by Mithridates I of Parthia in 141-139 BCE
- Given the name by the Seleucids after he fought in the region alongside Antiochus VII Sidetes against Phraates II of Parthia in 130-129 BCE, a campaign which resulted in the release of Antiochus’ brother Demetrius II Nicator from captivity in Hyrcania
He was the son of Simon Maccabaeus and hence the nephew of Judas Maccabaeus, Jonathan Maccabaeus and their siblings, whose story is told in the deuterocanonical books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, in the Talmud, and in Josephus. John was not present at a banquet at which his father and his two brothers were murdered, purportedly by his brother-in-law, Ptolemy, son of Abubus. He attained to his father’s former offices, that of high priest and national leader (but not king). Josephus said that John Hyrcanus had five sons but named only four in his histories: Judah Aristobulus I, Antigonus I, Alexander Jannai, and Absalom.
During the first year of Hyrcanus’ reign, he faced a serious challenge to independent Judean rule from the Seleucid Empire. Antiochus VII Sidetes marched into Judea, pillaged the countryside and laid a year-long siege on Jerusalem. The prolonged siege caused Hyrcanus to remove any Judean from the city who could not assist with the defense effort (Antiquities 13.240). These refugees were not allowed to pass through Antiochus’ lines, becoming trapped in the middle of a chaotic siege. With a humanitarian crisis on his hands, Hyrcanus re-admitted his estranged Jerusalemites when the festival of Sukkot arrived. Afterwards, due to food shortages in Jerusalem, Hyrcanus negotiated a truce with Antiochus.
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