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Return to Zion and the Second Temple Period
  • Coin of Mattathias Antigonus the Hasmonian, featuring a representation of the Menorah of the Temple. Photo: Clara Amit. Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
    Coin of Mattathias Antigonus the Hasmonian, featuring a representation of the Menorah of the Temple. Photo: Clara Amit. Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
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  • Coin of Mattathias Antigonus the Hasmonian, featuring a representation of the Menorah of the Temple. Photo: Clara Amit. Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
    Coin of Mattathias Antigonus the Hasmonian, featuring a representation of the Menorah of the Temple. Photo: Clara Amit. Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
    View Image
Return to Zion and the Second Temple Period

The Last Hasmonean King and the Rise of Herod

How Sossius and Herod took Jerusalem by force and in addition took Antigonus captive has been related in our previous book…Now Antony…decided to behead him in Antioch.


JOSEPHUS, ANTIQUITIES 15:1–8

In 40 BCE, the Hasmonean King Mattathias Antigonus II revolted against the Romans. The Romans appointed Herod as their client king. Herod and Antigonus struggled with each other until the latter’s defeat in 37 BCE. Thus the Hasmonean dynasty came to an end and the Herodian period began.

In the picture: A coin from the period of the Hasmonean King Mattathias Antigonus, bearing the image of the Temple candelabrum (Menorah). This is one of the earliest images of the Menorah known to archaeology.