A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

878 M]ACCABAAI. MACAIABAEr.
provisions, tn B. c. 210, D. Quintios was sent' making a certain though slow progress among theb
with a fleet to convey provisions to the citadel, Jewish nation also. Under the sovereignty of the
but was defeated by the Tarentines; this disaster, early Ptolemies and Seleucidae, who had allowed
however, was counterbalanced by a victory which the Jews liberty of religious worship, an influential
Livius gained at the same time by land. Livius party had adopted the Greek religion and Greek
continued in possession of the citadel till the town' habits; and their example would probably have
was retaken by Q. Fabius Maximus in' B. C. 209. been followed by still greater numbers, had not the
In the following year there was a warm debate in attempts of Antiochus (IV.) Epiphanes to root out
the senate respecting Livius Macatus; some main- entirely by persecution the worship of Jehovah
taining that he ought to be punished for losing the roused the religious patriotism of the great body of
town, others that he deserved to be rewarded for the people, who still remained stedfast to their
having kept the citadel for five years, and a third ancient faith.
party thinking that it was a matter which did not Antiochus IV. had sold the priesthood succesbelong to the senate, and that if punishment was sively to Joshua, who assumed the Greek name of
deserved, it ought to be inflicted by the censorial Jason, and subsequently to Onias, who also changed
nota. The latter view was the one adopted by the his name into that of Menelaus, under the conmajority of the senate. Macatus was warmly dition of their introducing into Jerusalem Greek
supported on this occasion by his relative M. Livius rites and institutions. Onias, in order to obtain
Salinator; and a saying of Q. Fabius Maximus in the money to pay for the priesthood, had purloined
the course of the debate is recorded by several the sacred vessels of the temple, and sold them at.
writers. When the friends of Macatus were Tyre. This act of sacrilege, united with other
maintaining that Maximus was indebted for his circumstances, caused a formidable insurrection at
conquest of the town to Macatus, because he had Jerusalem, for which, however, the inhabitants had
possession of the citadel, Maximus replied, " Certe, to pay dearly. Antiochus was just returning from
nam nisi ille amisisset, ego nunquam recepissem." his Egyptian campaign when he heard of the
(Liv. xxiv. 20, xxv. 9, 1.0, 11, xxvi. 39, xxvii. revolt. He forthwith marched against the city,
25, 34; Appian, Annib. 32;. Polyb. viii. 27, &c., which he easily took (B.c. 170), put to death a
who calls him Caius Livius; Cic. de Senect. 4, de vast number of the inhabitants, pillaged the temple,
Orat. ii. 67, who erroneously calls him Livius and profaned it by offering a sow on the altar of
Salinator; Plut. Fab. 21.) burnt sacrifices. Two years afterwards, when he
- MACCABAET (MacKafaioi), the name gene- was forced by the Romans to retire from Egypt, he
rally given to the descendants of the family of the resolved to root out entirely the Jewish religion,
heroic Judas Maccabi or Maccabaeus, a surname and to put to death every one who still adhered to
which he obtained from his glorious victories. it. He again took possession of Jerusalem, and
(From the Hebrew At J, makkab, "a hammer;" commanded a general massacre of the inhabitants
see Winer, Biblisches Realwsrterbuch, vol. i. p. on the Sabbath; he set fire to the city in many
745.) They were also called Asamonaei ('Aaclw- places, and built a strong fortress in the highest
rafoi), from Asamonaeus, or Chasmon, the great- part of Mount Sion, to command the whole of the'
grandfather of Mattathias, the father of Judas surrounding country. He then published an edict,
Maccabaeus, or, in a shorter form, Asnonalei or which enjoined uniformity of worship throughout
IIasmonaei. This family, which eventually ob- his dominions; and the most frightful cruelties
tained the kingly dignity, first occurs in history in were perpetrated on those who refused obedience.
B. C. 167, when Mattathias raised the standard of The barbarities committed in* every part of
revolt against the Syrian kings. According to Judaea soon produced a reaction. At Modin, a
Josephus (Ant. xiv. 16) the Asmonaean dynasty town not far from Lydda, on the road which leads
lasted for 126 years; and as he places its ter- from Joppa to Jerusalem, lived Mattathias, a man
mination in B. C. 37, the year in which Antigonus, of the priestly line and' of deep religious feeling,
king of Judaea, was put to death by M. Antony, who had five sons in the vigour of their days,
it would have commenced in B. C. 163, when Judas'John, Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan.
Maccabaeus took Jerusalem, and restored the wor- When the officer of the Syrian king visited Modin,
ship of the temple. At the death of Antigonus to enforce obedience to the royal edict, Mattathias
there were only two members of the Asmonaean not only refused to desert the religion of his forerace surviving, namely, Aristobulus and his sister fathers, but with his own hand struck dead the
Mariamne, the former of whom was put to death first renegade who attempted to offer sacrifice on
by Herod in B. c.' 35, and the latter was married the heathen altar. He then put to death the king's
to the murderer of her brother, to whom' she'bore officer, and retired to the mountains with his five
several children. sons (B. C. 167). Their numbers daily increased;
The history of the Maccabees is related at length and as opportunities occurred, they issued from
by Josephus. (xii. 6-xiv. 16), and the war of their mountain fastnesses, cut off detachments of
inidependence against the Syrian kings down to the Syrian army, destroyed heathen altars, and
the time of Simon in the first and second books, of restored in many places the synagogues and the
Maccabees. It is only necessary here to give a open worship of the Jewish religion. Within a
brief account of the founders of'this family, since few months the insurrection at Modin had grown
the various members of it, who obtained the kingly into a war for national independence. But the
dignity, are given under their proper names. A toils of such a war were too much for the aged
genealogical table of the whole family will be found frame of Mattathias, who died in the first year of
in Vol. II. p. 543. the: revolt, leaving the conduct of it to Judas, his
From the death of Alexander the Great the third son.
Greek language, religion, and civilisation, which 1. JUDAS, who assumed the surname of Machad been spread more or less throughout the whole cabaeus, as has been mentioned above, carried on
of Asia, from the Indus to the Aegaean, had been the war with the same prudence and energy with