Antigonus the Hasmoneans

Antigonus (Hebrew name Mattatias , also Antigonos Mattatias ; † 37 BC in Antioch ), second son of Aristobuls II , was the last ruler of the Hasmonean dynasty , which emerged from the Maccabees revolt and from the middle of the 2nd century AD . Century BC Ruled Judea and neighboring areas for about 100 years .

Judea between the great powers

The Romans had already 63 BC. BC under Pompey conquered the Levant and made Judea a client state , in which they ultimately determined the political system and government. The Romans supported John Hyrcanus II , the brother of Aristobulus , who was both high priest and king.

Antigonus, with the Hebrew name Mattatias like the progenitor of the Hasmoneans , continued the policy of his father Aristobulus, the great rival of Hyrcanus, and his older brother Alexander , which aimed at the greatest possible independence of Judea in an independent position between the great powers . His father Aristobulus was 49 BC. Was poisoned in Rome on the orders of the Roman general Pompey, his brother Alexander was beheaded in Antioch in the same year (also on the orders of Pompey). His uncle Hyrcanus, against whom he rebelled, was on the advice of his Idumea governor Antipater , the father of Herod , ready to accept the supremacy of the Romans. Antigonus tried to implement his anti-Roman, national-Jewish policy with the help of the Parthian great power. When this around 40 BC BC used the phase of the Roman civil war to conquer the Roman province of Syria , he thought the hour had come.

High priest and king

Coin from the Hasmonean period, around 140 BC BC, which shows a seven-armed candlestick (menorah).

In the winter of 41/40 BC The Parthians invaded Syria and Asia Minor under their crown prince Pakoros I with the support of the Roman general and republican Quintus Labienus and advanced to the Mediterranean coast. Subsequently, they also conquered Judea and its capital Jerusalem. With their help, Antigonus succeeded in asserting himself against his uncle Hyrcanus and the Herod and Phasael appointed tetrarchs . He declared himself king and high priest. The Parthians did not let their ally stop them from plundering the capital Jerusalem to celebrate their victory. Antigonus minted coins in Jerusalem that for the first time in the history of Jewish coinage showed religious symbols, namely the menorah and the showbread table .

Antigonus had the ears of his uncle John Hyrcanus II, who had been captured by the Parthians and shortly thereafter deported to Mesopotamia, cut off so that he would never be able to claim the office of high priest again, which is a prerequisite for physical flawlessness was. Phasael committed suicide while in captivity, and Herod and his entire family had to flee from Jerusalem to the Masada fortress .

Rome reacts: Herod becomes king

Shortly after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Parthians, Herod fled from Masada to Rome, where he himself - somewhat surprisingly - 40 BC. Was proclaimed by the Senate through the intercession of the triumvir Marcus Antonius as the new King of Judea ( Latin Rex socius et amicus populi Romani , allied king and friend of the Roman people).

To enforce the office conferred on him by the Senate in Rome, the tetrarch Herod continued the armed struggle against Antigonus. In 39 BC He returned from Rome and landed in Ptolemais and began his campaign with the help of recruited mercenary troops from the region and with Roman support. After lengthy fighting he besieged Gaius Sosius together with the Roman governor in Syria and Cilicia in the spring of 37 BC. BC Jerusalem. After 40 days he took the first wall, 15 days later the second, and shortly afterwards also the upper town and the temple.

The end of a dynasty's rule

Antigonus had to surrender, give up all his hopes and beg the victors for mercy. But in vain: the Roman general Gaius Sosius reviled him for his soulful appearance as " Antigone " and had him carried away to Antioch . There he was on the orders of Mark Antony (and possibly urgent requests of Herod) in the autumn of 37 BC. Executed with the ax . This ended the power of the Hasmoneans in Judea, and the rule of the Idumean Herod, later called "the Great", began.

swell

• Cassius Dio , Roman History 49, 22
• Flavius ​​Josephus , Antiquitates Iudaicae 13, 37-491
• Flavius ​​Josephus, De bello Judaico 1,274-375

literature

• Ulrich Wilcken : Antigonos 9 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2419 f.
• Linda-Marie Günther : Herod the Great . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-15420-7
• Gerhard Prause : Herod the Great. The correction of a legend . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-421-06558-6
• Peter Richardson: Herod. King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans . T&T Clark Publisher, Edinburgh, 1999, ISBN 0-8006-3164-1
• Louis Ginzberg :  Antigonus Mattathias. In: Isidore Singer (Ed.): Jewish Encyclopedia . Funk and Wagnalls, New York 1901-1906.
• Walter Otto : Herod 14 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplement volume II, Stuttgart 1913, Col. 1–158.

Web links

• Doris Lambers-Petry:  Hasmoneans. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific biblical dictionary on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff., Accessed on September 9, 2018.
• Mahlon H. Smith: Antigonus , entry in the Historical Sourcebook (English)

Remarks

1. ^ Y. Meshorer: A Treasury of Jewish Coins. Jerusalem 2001; U. Hübner: Tradition and Innovation. The coinage of the Hasmoneans of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC As mass media . In: Christian Frevel (Ed.): Media in ancient Palestine. Tübingen 2005, pp. 171-187.
2. ↑ Abraham Schalit: King Herod: the man and his work . Walter de Gruyter, 2001, ISBN 978-3-11-017036-8 , p. 146–.
3. ↑ Ernst Baltrusch: Herodes: King in the Holy Land . CHBeck, 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63739-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed June 25, 2018]).

predecessor	Office	successor
John Hyrcanus II	King of Judea 40–37 BC Chr.	Herod