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Battle Of Beth Horon (166 BCE)
The Battle of Beth Horon or Battle with Seron was fought at some point between Spring 166 BC to Spring 165 BC during the Maccabean Revolt between Judean rebels led by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and an army of the Seleucid Empire under the command of Seron, a commander of the Syrian army. Beth-Horon, or Bethoron, was a strategic mountain pass leading from the coastal plain to the Judean hill country. Utilizing guerrilla warfare tactics, the Maccabee rebels ambushed the passing Seleucid force from the pass, pursuing the surprised and fleeing remnants into the plain. The Jewish army had earlier won a battle at the ascent of Lebonah against the Seleucid General Apollonius. Another force was soon sent against the Maccabees, which led to the Battle of Emmaus. Primary sources The battle's only contemporaneous record is in the First Book of Maccabees. According to it: The historian Josephus mentions the battle briefly in '' Antiquities of the Jews'', but seems to largel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maccabean Revolt
The Maccabean Revolt ( he, מרד החשמונאים) was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167–160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of Judea, but conflict between the Maccabees, Hellenized Jews, and the Seleucids continued until 134 BCE, with the Maccabees eventually attaining independence. Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes launched a massive campaign of repression against the Jewish religion in 168 BCE. The reason he did so is not entirely clear, but it seems to have been related to the King mistaking an internal conflict among the Jewish priesthood as a full-scale rebellion. Jewish practices were banned, Jerusalem was placed under direct Seleucid control, and the Second Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Pagan-Jewish cult. This repression triggered exactly the revolt that Antiochus IV had feared, with a group o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strategos
''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek language, Greek to mean military General officer, general. In the Hellenistic world and the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire the term was also used to describe a military governor. In the modern Hellenic Army, it is the highest officer rank. Etymology ''Strategos'' is a compound of two Greek words: ''stratos'' and ''agos''. ''Stratos'' (στρατός) means "army", literally "that which is spread out", coming from the proto-Indo-European root *stere- "to spread". ''Agos'' (ἀγός) means "leader", from ''agein'' (ἄγειν) "to lead", from the proto-Ιndo-Εuropean root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move”. Classical Greece Athens In its most famous attestation, in Classical Athens, the office of ''strategos'' existed already in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ammon
Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in present-day Jordan. The chief city of the country was ''Rabbah'' or ''Rabbat Ammon'', site of the modern city of Amman, Jordan's capital. Milcom and Molech are named in the Hebrew Bible as the gods of Ammon. The people of this kingdom are called "Children of Ammon" or "Ammonites". History The Ammonites occupied the northern Central Trans-Jordanian Plateau from the latter part of the second millennium BCE to at least the second century CE. Ammon maintained its independence from the Neo-Assyrian Empire (10th to 7th centuries BCE) by paying tribute to the Assyrian kings at a time when that Empire raided or conquered nearby kingdoms. The Kurkh Monolith lists the Ammonite king Baasha ben Ruhubi's army as fighting alongside Ahab of Israel and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samaria
Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first-century historian Josephus set the Mediterranean Sea as its limit to the west, and the Jordan River as its limit to the east. Its territory largely corresponds to the biblical allotments of the tribe of Ephraim and the western half of Manasseh. It includes most of the region of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, which was north of the Kingdom of Judah. The border between Samaria and Judea is set at the latitude of Ramallah. The name "Samaria" is derived from the ancient city of Samaria, capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The name Samaria likely began being used for the entire kingdom not long after the town of Samaria had become Israel's capital, but it is first documented after its conquest by Sargon II of Assyria, who turned the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties. Koine Greek included styles ranging from conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time. As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed further into Medieval Greek, which then turned into Modern Greek. Literary Koine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and the European part of Turkey ( East Thrace). The region's boundaries are based on that of the Roman Province of Thrace; the lands inhabited by the ancient Thracians extended in the north to modern-day Northern Bulgaria and Romania and to the west into the region of Macedonia. Etymology The word ''Thrace'' was first used by the Greeks when referring to the Thracian tribes, from ancient Greek Thrake (Θρᾴκη), descending from ''Thrāix'' (Θρᾷξ). It referred originally to the Thracians, an ancient people inhabiting Southeast Europe. The name ''Europe'' first referred to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maccabee Campaigns Of 163 BC
During the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, there were a series of campaigns in 163 BC in regions outlying Judea - Ammon, Gilead, Galilee, Idumea, and Judea's coastal plain, a wider region usually referred to as either Palestine or Eretz Israel. The Maccabee rebels fought multiple enemies: Seleucid garrisons and hired mercenaries under a commander named Timothy of Ammon, non-Jewish inhabitants hostile to the Maccabees and their Jewish neighbors, and possibly the Tobiad Jews, a clan that generally favored the ruling Seleucid government. During 163 BC, the main Seleucid armies composed of Greeks were elsewhere, so the Maccabees were free to expand their influence against their neighbors. The Maccabees did not in general hold the territory they fought in during this period, but rather engaged in raids on opposing power centers and retributive attacks on anti-Jewish populations. The book 1 Maccabees describes a vicious campaign of extermination on both sides: the Gent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregorian Calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years differently so as to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long, more closely approximating the 365.2422-day 'tropical' or 'solar' year that is determined by the Earth's revolution around the Sun. The rule for leap years is: There were two reasons to establish the Gregorian calendar. First, the Julian calendar assumed incorrectly that the average solar year is exactly 365.25 days long, an overestimate of a little under one day per century, and thus has a leap year every four years without exception. The Gregorian reform shortened the average (calendar) year by 0.0075 days to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes.See Wikisource English translation of the (Latin) 1582 papal bull '' Inter gravissimas''. Second, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Macedonian Calendar
The Ancient Macedonian calendar is a lunisolar calendar that was in use in ancient Macedon in the It consisted of 12 synodic lunar months (i.e. 354 days per year), which needed intercalary months to stay in step with the seasons. By the time the calendar was being used across the Hellenistic world, seven total ''embolimoi'' (intercalary months) were being added in each 19 year Metonic cycle. The names of the ancient Macedonian Calendar remained in use in Syria even into the Christian era. Names The names of the Macedonian months, just like most of the names of Greek months, are derived from feasts and related celebrations in honor of the Greek gods. Most of them combine a Macedonian dialectal form with a clear Greek etymology (e.g Δῐός from Zeus; Περίτιος from Heracles Peritas (“Guardian”) ; Ξανδικός/Ξανθικός from Xanthos, “the blond” (probably a reference to Heracles); Άρτεμίσιος from Artemis etc.) with the possible ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mattathias
Mattathias ben Johanan ( he, מַתִּתְיָהוּ הַכֹּהֵן בֶּן יוֹחָנָן, ''Mattīṯyāhū haKōhēn ben Yōḥānān''; died 166–165 BCE) was a Kohen (Jewish priest) who helped spark the Maccabean Revolt against the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. Mattathias's story is related in the deuterocanonical book of 1 Maccabees. Mattathias is accorded a central role in the story of Hanukkah and, as a result, is named in the Al HaNissim prayer Jews add to the Birkat Hamazon (grace after meals) and the Amidah during the festival's eight days. History Mattathias was from a rural priestly family from Modi'in. He was a son of John (Johanan) and grandson of Simeon the Hasmonite or son of Hasmon and hence known as the Hasmonean. Further back, he was the great-grandson of Asmon or Hasmonaeus, a Kohen of the lineage of Joarib known for being the fifth grandson of Idaiah, son of Joarib and grandson of Jachin, in turn a descendant of Phinehas, third High Priest o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paralia (Seleucid Eparchy)
The Paralia ( el, Παραλία - ''beach''), also known as Medinat HaYam ( he, מדינת הים - ''country by the sea'') was a coastal eparchy in Palestine during Hellenistic and Roman times, ruled by the Seleucid Empire between 197 and 99 BCE, as part of the Coele-Syria province. According to Josephus, the inhabitants of the region were primarily Greek city-dwellers. The name appears in the 6th-century Madaba Map, appended to the town of Ashdod-Yam, as ''Azotos Paralos'' ( gr, Αζωτοσπαραλς), ca. 3 kilometers south of Modern Ashdod. The region was originally set up by the Seleucids, along with the eparchies of Idumea and Galaaditis and neighbouring the eparchy of Samaria. Josephus wrote that the Paralia was outside Jewish jurisdiction throughout the Second Temple Period, except for a short period under the Hasmoneans and during the reign of Herod the Great and the Agrippas. Etymology The region was described as the ''Coastal Country'' in 1 Maccabees (; ) and 2 M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
