Hasmonean Kingdom

The Hasmoneans (Hebrew: חשמונאים, Hashmonaiym) were the ruling dynasty of the Hasmonean Kingdom (140 BCE–37 BCE), an autonomous Jewish state in ancient Israel. The Hasmonean dynasty was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after his brother Judah the Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabee Revolt in 165 BCE. The Kingdom was the only independent Jewish state to exist in the four centuries after the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed by Babylonia in 586 BCE. It survived for over 100 years before becoming a client Kingdom of the Roman Empire under the Herodian Dynasty, in 37 BCE.

According to historical sources including the books 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees and the first book of The Wars of the Jews by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37–c.100 CE), the Hasmonean Kingdom rose after a successful revolt by Jews against the Seleucid Antiochus IV. After Antiochus' successful invasion of Ptolemaic Egypt was turned back by the intervention of the Roman Republic, he moved instead to assert strict control over Israel, sacking Jerusalem and its Temple, suppressing Jewish religious and cultural observances, and imposing Hellenistic practices.

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