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Plutarch: Philip of Macedon's Assassination
The assassination that had the greatest impact on the course of ancient history was that of Philip II (r. 359-336 B.C.E.), king of Macedon and father of Alexander the Great. Lawyers, confronted by a suspicious death, often ask the question cui bono?--" to whose benefit?" In Philip's case, obviously, it was to Alexander's. Father and son had their differences, at the center of which was Alexander's forceful mother, Olympias, who had figured more prominently in her son's life than Philip had. When Philip took as his new wife (Macedonian kings often practiced polygamy) a high-born Macedonian woman named Cleopatra, his relations with Olympias naturally were strained and Alexander's position as likely heir to the throne became insecure, since Olympias was not Macedonian by blood. Could either Alexander or Olympias have been behind the killing of Philip? You be the judge! Hint: try constructing a chart of relationships (several of the participants share the same name).
The marriages and love affairs of Philip not only led to conflicts in his household and among his womenfolk, but soon affected the state as a whole, when disputes arose between himself and his son Alexander. The envious and vengeful personality of Olympias fanned these flames, as she provoked Alexander to defy his father. Their differences came to a crisis with Philip's decision to marry Cleopatra, a very young woman with whom he had rashly fallen in love. At a banquet one night, Attalus, Cleopatra's uncle, being quite drunk, urged the Macedonians to pray the gods that the marriage of Philip and Cleopatra would produce a pure-blooded heir [i.e., Macedonian on both sides] to the throne. This infuriated Alexander, who shouted "You scoundrel, are you calling me a bastard?" He then flung his drink at Attalus. Philip rose to intervene, drawing his sword against his son. Luckily, he was so unbalanced by wine and anger that he stumbled and fell to the ground. At this, Alexander sneered and said "Here's the man who plans to travel from Europe to Asia, but he can't even make it from one couch to another without taking a header! " Following this drunken ruckus, Alexander left the capital, removing Olympias to Epirus and himself to Illyria.
In the archonship of Pythodorus [336 B.C.E.] ... Philip, having been appointed hegemon [commander-in-chief] by the Greek states, commenced the war with Persia by sending ahead into Asia [Minor] an advance expedition under the command of Attalus and Parmenio, with orders to liberate the Greek city-states there. Philip himself, anxious to have divine approval, consulted the Pythia [priestess at Delphi] to ask if he would defeat the Persian king. She responded as follows: "The bull is garlanded [for sacrifice]. All is ready and the sacrificer is at hand. "
Though the response was equivocal, Philip took it as propitious to himself: that is, predicting the death of the Persian king. In fact, it foretold Philip's own death at a festival with solemn sacrifices; he, like the bull, would die wearing religious wreaths. But Philip rejoiced to think that he had the backing of the gods and trusted that Macedonian arms would subjugate Asia [Minor].
Philip now made plans for spectacular celebrations for the gods, in conjunction with the wedding of his and Olympias's daughter, Cleopatra, who was marrying Alexander, the king of Epirus (and brother of Olympias). Eager to have as many Greeks as possible participating in the sacred observances, he scheduled elaborate musical displays and feasts for his guests. He invited his own friends from all over Greece and urged his courtiers to do the same. He intended to impress the Greeks with his civility and to repay the honors bestowed on him as supreme commander by staging an appropriate social event.
Many people came to the festival at Aegae in Macedonia from all parts both for the games and for the marriage. Philip was awarded golden crowns not only by individuals but also by many major city-states, including Athens. When the herald announced the Athenian decoration, he closed by saying that the Athenians would surrender anyone plotting against Philip and seeking refuge at Athens. The words (later) seemed an omen from the gods that a conspiracy was in fact approaching. There were several other sayings at the time that seemed to foreshadow the king's demise....
The games were to begin the next day. The theater was already packed before dawn, and at sunrise the lavish procession began: it included dazzling images of the twelve Olympian gods meant to awe the spectators; and to the twelve was joined a thirteenth--that of Philip himself.
Philip appeared at the crowded theater attired in a white mantle. He bid his bodyguards to keep their distance, meaning to demonstrate his confidence in the adulation of the Greeks, which made armed guards unnecessary. Amidst the general applause and raves, the plot to assassinate unfolded itself. In the interest of clarity, I will examine the motives for it.
A Macedonian, Pausanias by name, from the Orestis district, had been a member of the king's bodyguard. Because of his attractiveness, Philip became his lover. When Philip then turned his attentions elsewhere (to another man named Pausanias), the first Pausanias mocked the second by saying he was androgynous and promiscuous. Cut to the quick by this slur, the second Pausanias secured his own death in a sensational way, after confiding in Attalus what he was intending to do. For, some days later, during a battle with Pleurias, an Illyrian king, Pausanias shielded Philip's body with his own, and died from fatal wounds so received.
The incident was widely reported. Attalus, a man of standing and influence in the court of Philip, thereupon invited the first Pausanias to dinner. Having gotten him drunk on undiluted wine, he then handed him over nearly unconscious to be raped by his mule-drivers. Pausanias, once sobered up, was deeply aggrieved by the assault on his person and denounced Attalus to the king. Philip, however, although outraged at the brutality of the deed, did not choose to bring Attalus to account because of their affiliation and because he had need of the man's services at the moment: Attalus was the [uncle] of Philip's new wife, Cleopatra, and, owing to his valor, had just been appointed general of the forward forces in Asia. Thus, Philip instead tried to quell Pausanias's justifiable rage over his injury by giving him gifts and elevating his position in the corps of his personal bodyguards.
Pausanias for his part kept his grudge and longed to exact vengeance not only from the man who had injured him, but also from the one who had declined to redress the injustice. His teacher, the sophist Hermocrates, unwittingly inspired him in his scheme. When Pausanias asked him how one could become most renowned, the sophist answered: "by slaying the man whose achievements were the greatest, for the assassin's fame would endure as long as the great man's. " Pausanias took this opinion as applicable to his own situation. He immediately resolved to revenge himself during the distractions of the wedding festival. Having readied horses at the city gates, he went to the entrance of the theater carrying a concealed Celtic dagger. Philip on his arrival bid his companions to enter ahead of him and, with his bodyguard ordered to keep their distance, was by himself. Pausanias darted forward and stabbed the king through his ribs, killing him instantly. He then made a dash for the gates and his getaway horses. Meantime, the royal bodyguards sprang into action, some rushing to the fallen king, others pursuing the killer; these included Leonnatus, Perdiccas, and Attalus [not the uncle of Cleopatra]. Pausanias nearly made it to the waiting horses, but his shoe caught in a vine and he fell. As he was getting up, Perdiccas and the others overtook him and slew him with their javelins.
So perished Philip, the greatest European monarch of his era. The vast extent of his rule led him to claim a throne among the twelve great Olympian deities. He reigned twenty-four years, in that time rising from a man with little support for his claim to the throne to ruler of the greatest empire in Greece. The success of his career derived not so much from his military genius as trom his facility and tact in diplomacy. They say that he prided himself more on his skills of strategy and diplomacy than on his battlefield courage, for his whole army shared the credit for success in combat, while he alone got the recognition for diplomatic victories.
Question:
Which people and what motives might have been behind the murder of Philip?
Hippocrates (c. 400 BC)
Let us inquire then regarding what is admitted to be Medicine; namely, that which was invented for the sake of the sick, which possesses a name and practitioners, whether it also seeks to accomplish the same objects, and whence it derived its origin. To me, then, it appears, as I said at the commencement, that nobody would have sought for medicine at all, provided the same kinds of diet had suited with men in sickness as in good health. Wherefore, even yet, such races of men as make no use of medicine, namely, barbarians, and even certain of the Greeks, live in the same way when sick as when in health; that is to say, they take what suits their appetite, and neither abstain from, nor restrict themselves in anything for which they have a desire. But those who have cultivated and invented medicine, having the same object in view as those of whom I formerly spoke, in the first place, I suppose, diminished the quantity of the articles of food which they used, and this alone would be sufficient for certain of the sick, and be manifestly beneficial to them, although not to all, for there would be some so affected as not to be able to manage even small quantities of their usual food, and as such persons would seem to require something weaker, they invented soups, by mixing a few strong things with much water, and thus abstracting that which was strong in them by dilution and boiling. But such as could not manage even soups, laid them aside, and had recourse to drinks, and so regulated them as to mixture and quantity, that they were administered neither stronger nor weaker than what was required.
Question: What does this passage tell us about the Hellenistic practice of medicine?
Diogenes Laërtius: Life of Diogenes the Cynic (d. 325 BC)
Once, when some strangers wished to see Demosthenes, he stretched out his middle finger and said, "This is the great demagogue of the Athenian people." When some one had dropped a loaf, and was ashamed to pick it up again, he, wishing to give him a lesson, tied a cord round the neck of a bottle and dragged it all through the Ceramicus. He used to say, that he imitated the teachers of choruses, for that they spoke too loud, in order that the rest might catch the proper tone. Another of his sayings, was that most men were within a finger’s breadth of being mad. If, then, any one were to walk along, stretching out his middle finger, he will seem to be mad; but if he puts out his forefinger, he will not be thought so. Another of his sayings was, that things of great value were often sold for nothing, and vice versâ. Accordingly, that a statue would fetch three thousand drachmas, and a bushel of meal only two obols. . .
On one occasion he saw a child drinking out of its hands, and so he threw away the cup which belonged to his wallet, saying, "That child has beaten me in simplicity." He also threw away his spoon, after seeing a boy, when he had broken his vessel, take up his lentils with a crust of bread. And he used to argue thus, – "Everything belongs to the gods; and wise men are the friends of the gods. All things are in common among friends; therefore everything belongs to wise men." Once he saw a woman falling down before the Gods in an unbecoming attitude; he, wishing to cure her of her superstition, as Zoilus of Perga tells us, came up to her, and said, "Are you not afraid, O woman, to be in such an indecent attitude, when some God may be behind you, for every place is full of him?" . . .
Once, while he was sitting in the sun in the Craneum, Alexander was standing by, and said to him, "Ask any favour you choose of me." And he replied, " Cease to shade me from the sun." On one occasion a man was reading some long passages, and when he came to the end of the book and showed that there was nothing more written, "Be of good cheer, my friends," exclaimed Diogenes, "I see land." A man once proved to him syllogistically that he had horns, so he put his hand to his forehead and said, "I do not see them." And in a similar manner he replied to one who had been asserting that there was no such thing as motion, by getting up and walking away. When a man was talking about the heavenly bodies and meteors, "Pray how many days," said he to him, "is it since you came down from heaven?"
Question:
Why might Diogenes' cynicism have been popular in Hellenistic times?
Statue of Aphrodite-Isis (AD 2nd-3rd c)
Terra-cotta, Egyptian
Question:
What does this image of Isis tell us about the Hellenistic world?
Pergamon frieze: Athena taking Young Alcyoneos by the Hair (175 BC)
Click on image for larger view:
Question:
What does the style of this frieze tell us about the Hellenistic world?
Hanukkah as Historical Analysis
Question: What exactly is being celebrated in the Jewish
holiday of Hanukkah?
Method: (1) Underline the words representing bias,
(2) determine the meaning of Hanukkah to this particular
author (and thus his thesis), and (3) explain how history
helps prove the author’s point
Traditional Summary
Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated for eight
days, commencing on the 25th day of the month of Kislev
(November/December), to commemorate the victory of the
Jews over the Hellenist Syrians in 165 BCE.
Following their victory, the Maccabees, sons of the Priestly
Hasmonean family which led the Jews in their revolt against
the Syrian overlords, entered the Holy Temple in Jerusalem
defiled by the Syrian invaders, cleansed it and dedicated
it anew to the service of God. Then, in memory of their
victory, the Maccabees celebrated the first Hanukkah.
(Hanukkah is the Hebrew term for dedication.)
The Talmud, the body of Jewish oral law, relates how the
Judean heroes, led by Judah Maccabee, were making ready
to rededicate the Temple and were unable to find enough
undefiled oil to light the lamps. However, in one of the
Temple chambers, they finally came upon a small cruse
of oil which, under normal circumstances, would have lasted
only one evening. Miraculously, this small amount of oil
kept the Temple lights burning, not for one night, but
for all the eight nights until new oil fit for use in
the temple could be obtained. This is the miracle commemorated
by the kindling of the Hanukkah lights.
--ORT.net (nonprofit, educational)Analysis #1
More than 2000 years ago there was a time when the land
of Israel was part of the Syrian Empire, dominated by
Syrian rulers of the dynasty of the Seleucids.
In order to relate the story that led up to Chanukah,
we shall start with Antiochus III, the King of Syria,
who reigned from 3538 to 3574 (222-186 B.C.E.). He had
waged war with King Ptolemy of Egypt over the possession
of the Land of Israel. Antiochus III was victorious and
the Land of Israel was annexed to his empire. At the beginning
of his reign he was favorably disposed toward the Jews
and accorded them some privileges. Later on, however,
when he was beaten by the Romans and compelled to pay
heavy taxes, the burden fell upon the various peoples
of his empire who were forced to furnish the heavy gold
that was required of him by the Romans. When Antiochus
died, his son Seleucus IV took over, and further oppressed
the Jews.
Added to the troubles from the outside were the grave
perils that threatened Judaism from within. The influence
of the Hellenists (people who accepted idol-worship and
the Syrian way of life) was increasing. Yochanan, the
High Priest, foresaw the danger to Judaism from the penetration
of Syrian-Greek influence into the Holy Land. For, in
contrast to the ideal of outward beauty held by the Greeks
and Syrians, Judaism emphasizes truth and moral purity,
as commanded by G-d in the holy Torah. The Jewish people
could never give up their faith in G-d and accept the
idol-worship of the Syrians.
Yochanan was therefore opposed to any attempt on the part
of the Jewish Hellenists to introduce Greek and Syrian
customs into the land. The Hellenists hated him. One of
them told the King’s commissioner that in the treasury
of the Temple there was a great deal of wealth.
... A short time later, Seleucus was killed and his brother
Antiochus IV began to reign over Syria (in 3586 - 174
B.C.E.). He was a tyrant of a rash and impetuous nature,
contemptuous of religion and of the feelings of others.
He was called "Epiphanes," meaning "the
gods’ beloved." Several of the Syrian rulers
received similar titles. But a historian of his time,
Polebius, gave him the epithet Epimanes ("madman"),
a title more suitable to the character of this harsh and
cruel king.
Desiring to unify his kingdom through the medium of a
common religion and culture, Antiochus tried to root out
the individualism of the Jews by suppressing all the Jewish
Laws. He removed the righteous High Priest, Yochanan,
from the Temple in Jerusalem, and in his place installed
Yochanan’s brother Joshua, who loved to call himself
by the Greek name of Jason. For he was a member of the
Hellenist party, and he used his high office to spread
more and more of the Greek customs among the priesthood.
--from The Complete Story of Chanukah, by Dr. Nissan Mindel
Analysis #2
Two thousand years ago, the Jewish people lived in Jerusalem,
the capital of Judea. It was in Jerusalem that the Jews
built a beautiful temple where they went to worship. The
Jews believed in the existence of one God but did not
recognize the power of kings. This put them in a troublesome
position in 336 B.C., when Alexander the Great conquered
the Persian Empire. Alexander placed the Jews under the
rule of Syrian kings who did not tolerate the Jewish belief
in one God.
The worst of the Syrian kings was Antiochus Epiphanes,
who was known as "the mad king." He was the
cruelest of kings, and forced the Jews to bow down to
him and worship him as their God. When the Jewish people
refused to acknowledge Antiochus as their king, he destroyed
their holy temple, defiled their altars, tore down the
holy ark, burned the holy Torah, and killed many of the
Jews.
Despite this horrible cruelty and oppression, the Jewish
people did not give up. When a Syrian soldier sacrificed
a pig at a Jewish altar (this was sacrilegious in the
Jewish tradition) a peasant named Mattathias killed the
soldier. Determined to fight his oppressors, Mattathias
fled to the mountains with his five sons and formed a
guerrilla army. Although these "Maccabees,"
as they were called, had no training and no weapons, they
vowed to overcome the rule of the Syrian kings. After
three long years of fighting, the Maccabees defeated the
Syrian soldiers and reentered the city.
The Maccabees found that their holy temple had been ruined
when they returned to Jerusalem. They cleaned the blood
from the holy Torah scrolls and purified the ruined altars.
After much work, the Maccabees finished rebuilding the
temple and rededicated it to the Jewish people on the
25th day of the Kislev (December). In celebration, they
relit the eternal light using the only holy oil they could
find. Although there was only enough oil for the light
to burn for one day, it miraculously burned for eight
days and eight nights.
--Children’s version, birthdayexpress.com
Analysis #3
At first the Greeks thought that they would attract the
people to their teachings with peaceful techniques. 'They
therefore won over the weak-minded among the people by
giving them power in both the government and the Sanctuary.
These were appointed as officials, Kohanim Gedolim, Elders
and Judges. Together they formed a sect which came to
be called, 'The Hellenists.' The Hellenists sought to
spread Greek culture among the people. They incited the
people to forsake God's Torah, and to embrace the Greek
way of life. as they had done. They arranged evenings
of lust and licentious dancing. They erected altars to
the Greek idols, to which they brought offerings. All
their days were filled with celebrations, enchanting entertainment
and inflammatory pleasures. The larger part of the people
did not follow them and continued to adhere to the Torah
of their fathers. They turned their backs on the traitors,
and hated them in their hearts. They wept to their God
over their traitorous brothers, and over the people of
God who were handed over to enemies without, and to traitors
within.
The evil Antiochus saw that the Hellenists were not achieving
their aim; and that they were as outcasts in the eyes
of the majority of their people. Whereupon he sent his
armies, under the leadership of relentless brutal commanders,
either to force the Jews into submission or to subject
them to slaughter. These armies murdered, slaughtered
and plundered. They spread desolation among the people,
and afflicted them with all manner of persecution. They
put to death tens of thousands of men, women, children
and infants, who offered their lives for the Torah. Some
of the people surrendered, bowed to the idols, and participated
in the abominations. Some fled to the wilderness, or hid
in caves. The Hellenists helped the enemy track down those
who were in hiding; to torture those who had not fled,
and to incite them to wanton transgression. And they handed
over the daughters of Israel to the enemy tyrants for
defilement. They then came to the courtyard of the Sanctuary
and defiled it. They suspended the daily offering. They
defiled the oils and the Menorah. They built an altar
and offered a pig on it, whose blood they then brought
into the Holy of Holies. The people heard and trembled
in outrage. It became apparent that there was no escape
from open war with sword and spear, against both the enemy
and the traitorous brothers.
--Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov
Analysis #4
The Sages then understood that a greater victory had taken
place here. The Torah had vanquished assimilation and
the darkness of the superficial Greek "wisdom."
A lesson had to be taken for all time. So the next year
they instituted a new Holiday, named after the Rededication
Ceremony. Thus we have an eight-day Holiday called Chanukah,
during which we light oil or candle lights, sing praises
to G-d, and study G-d's Torah.
Chanukah does not celebrate any political or temporal
victory, because there actually was none at that time.
Chanukah does not celebrate the conquering or regaining
of land, because it was not a war over land, and in fact
we did not gain any land at that time. (Remember, the
Hasmoneans were priests, and priests were not even allowed
to own land in Israel.)
Chanukah celebrates our freedom to worship G-d without
the negative influences of the cultures around us.
-- by Mordechai Housman
Analysis #5
The Hebrew word Hanukkah means "dedication."
The roots of this name, and the Hanukkah holiday, come
from the second century B.C.E. (Before the Common Era).
Chafing under foreign domination, a band of Jews led by
Mattathias took to the hills of Judea in open revolt against
the Seleucid regime of Antiochus IV.
Mattathias' son Judah took charge of the rebellion after
his father's death. He was given the nickname "the
Maccabee" ("the hammer"). Antiochus sent
thousands of well-trained and well-armed troops to the
land of Israel to crush the rebellion. The Maccabees responded
with a brilliant campaign of guerilla warfare, and succeeded
in driving the foreigners from their land.
Jewish fighters entered Jerusalem in December, 164 B.C.E.
They found the sacred Temple in shambles, defiled and
desecrated by foreign soldiers. They cleansed the Temple
and re-dedicated it on the 25th day of the Jewish month
of Kislev. They observed a feast of dedication for eight
days in honor of their historic victory.
--Rabbi Mark S. Diamond
Analysis #6
Greek Hellenic imperialism-cum-colonialism, like a variety
of totalitarian experiments in history, engaged in the
'politics of truth' on a vast scale. Cultural arrogance
and political haughtiness galvanized a policy of unbridled
repression of Jewish freedom in the Hebrew homeland. The
pagan gymnasium on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the
Greek campaign against the Torah throughout the country
strove to impose a homogeneous cultural modality in the
Orient.
The nationalistic and proud Jews in Judea under the leadership
of the Hasmonean clan rejected attachment to the metropolitan
civilization that emanated from Athens, Alexandria, and
Antioch, despite its seeming amenities and advantages.
This narrow particularism would be castigated as reactionary
by the modern dogmatists marketing their 'politically
correct' wares. But the Modi'inist Jews were emboldened
by a healthy and correct instinct which recognized that,
borrowing a phrase from Eric Voegelin, "the death
of the spirit is the price of progress."
The high civilization of Hellenic culture, art, and architecture,
no less philosophy and science, cannot be presumed to
represent the quintessence of morality or truth. The politics
of oppression and conquest have in fact often gone hand-in-hand
with -- what otherwise qualify as -- sophisticated civilizations.
Culture and barbarism flourished within the fabric of
Hellenism and Islam, medieval Catholicism and modern Nazism.
In sum, the sanctification of the Greek state was idolized
in place of the transcending kedusha (sanctity) of the
Jewish people. . . .
The patriotic Maccabees were true to Torah while their
Hellenized Jewish brothers betrayed faith and fatherland.
Before Antiochus IV imposed the anti-religious edicts
on the Jews of Judea, Menelaus and others of his ilk had
already strayed from the Jewish path, instigated official
repression of Torah observance, and proposed that Jerusalem
be fashioned into a Greek polis. Thus, Seleucid cultural
imperialism drew its mantle of legitimacy from the traitorous
'court Jews' and 'temple officialdom' who pushed for a
complete Hellenization policy. This cosmopolitan Jewish
elite favored assimilation, lacking the will and conviction
to persevere as proud Jews within the larger cultural
landscape of the East.
The history of the Jews is in its fundamentals internal
history. . . .
It is the 'enemy within', or the renegade at odds with
his own people that provides the leitmotif throughout
Jewish history. In pharaonic Egypt, Datan and Aviram broke
Jewish ranks and opposed the leadership of Moses and his
mission to liberate the Hebrews from the yoke of servitude.
On the edge of Cana'an, ten spies faltered on the political
dividing line separating the realization of freedom from
renewed slavery. With the return to Eretz-Israel from
the Persian exile, Sanbalat inveighed against Nehemia
who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in the hope of re-
establishing national Jewish independence. The Hasmonean
rebellion against Hellenist persecution encountered the
traitorous machinations of 'fifth column' Jews, like Eliyakim
in Judea. . . .
The Maccabee tale is a warning on many fronts. . . .
-- Mordechai Nisan
Analysis #7
Only in the case of Hellenistic Jewish culture does a
long scholarly tradition exist, but many of the assumptions
that have guided the study of Hellenistic Judaism are
currently undergoing fundamental revision. . . . [T]he
outlines of a more nuanced interpretation of relations
between Hellenistic Greek and Jewish culture has recently
begun to emerge. This interpretation recognizes the existence
of tension between the two cultural traditions but nevertheless
allows for significant interaction between them. Central
to this new approach to the study of Hellenistic Judaism
is the demonstration by Ben Zion Wacholder and Martin
Hengel that the sharp distinction between a Hellenized
Jewish diaspora and a Judaean Jewish society ignorant
of and hostile to Greek culture is false, and that evidence
of familiarity with Greek literature comparable to that
characteristic of diaspora authors is present also in
works written in Hellenistic Judaea. The full implications
of this discovery have yet to be completely worked out.
An indication of the possibilities opened up by it, however,
is provided by E. J. Bickermann's brilliant analysis of
the Jewish school system created by the Pharisees in the
third and second century B.C.--a development for which
there was no precedent in previous Jewish history. Bickermann
explains that the school system was developed as a direct
response to the challenge to the survival and integrity
of Judaism posed by the patronage of Greek schools by
the Jewish elite of Hellenistic Judaea.
--Stanley Burstein (1997)
Analysis #8
In the north-west and west of the Seleucid kingdom there
were also constant separation movements. In Asia Minor
the already mentioned kingdom of Pergamum and the tribalism
of the Galatians were founded. Furthermore several small
independent areas were already founded in the time of
the diadochs: Bithynia with its mostly Thracian inhabitants,
Pontus with kings who claimed to be descendants of the
Persian dynasty of Achaemenidics, and Cappadocia which
was a puny feudal nation with an Iranian upper class.
Other separations of later date are Commagene in north
Syria and Ituraea with its religious centre Heliopolis.
The most important separation for the course of history
was the founding of an independent Jewish nation of the
Maccabaens or Hasmonaens.
It is absolutely not as if the Seleucids approved of these
separations. Many attempts were made to restore the unity,
and especially those of Antiochus III were remarkable.
From 212 till 205 he restored his power in the east with
an enormous expedition which reminded of the journey of
Alexander, and which gave him the reputation of a new
Alexander the Great. Unfortunately were these successes
mainly formal and temporary.
-- Martijn Moerbeek
Analysis #9
Jews in their own land, with their G-d, have great power,
much more than the sum of arms and men. During Chanukah
we should recall the legacy of the Maccabees. Remember
how two "Hellenized Jews," Jason and Menelaus
tried to destroy Judaism and force assimilation on the
Jewish population. For generations we have taught our
children about the evil of Antiochus and his attempt to
suppress the Jews. In reality, there were traitors among
our own people who led the way for Antiochus. Today in
Israel, a similar situation has developed. Former Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Yossi Beilin, Shimon Peres
led a left wing coalition that was blatantly hostile to
everything Jewish. They planned to give away the heartland
of Eretz Yisrael, promised in perpetuity to Abraham and
his descendants by G-d. The educational system in Israel
was being revamped to eliminate the study of Jewish sources
like the Bible. They cultivated hatred of all things Jewish
and especially religious Jews. Units of the Israel Defense
Forces are being recruited from the non-religious population
for the sole purpose of suppressing and possibly
destroying the religious villages of YESHA.
Barak and Peres, anxious to win favor with the Arabs,
much like Jason and the Greeks, plan to give away Israel's
strategic assets. Territory is not important if your new
god is economics. . . .
Let us be Maccabees again. Let the IDF go into battle
with the Maccabee cry, "All who are with G-d, follow
me!" With the words: "Who is like unto Thee
O G-d (the acronym of which spells out the word Maccabee
in Hebrew) inscribed on their flags, the G-d inspired
Jewish army swept the much larger enemy from the field
in a great victory. It is this victory for which we celebrate
Chanukah and not just the miracle of the oil burning eight
days.
There is a simple but crucial lesson for us all in the
above events. If we as Jews turn our backs on our religion
and our G-d, we can expect disaster. Like Judah Maccabee,
angered by the treason of Jason and Menelaus, and outraged
by Antiochus, we must revolt against the Israeli left.
-- Bernard J. Shapiro (November 2002)