The Ptolemies

After the death of Alexander in 323 bce, Palestine, with much of Syria and Phoenicia, fell to Ptolemy I (Soter), who established himself as satrap in Egypt that same year and adopted the title of king by 304. (After the death of Ptolemy, the Ptolemaic dynasty ruled Egypt for 300 years.)

The successors of Alexander, including Ptolemy and Seleucus I (Nicator), defeated Antigonus I (Monophthalmus), another of Alexander’s generals, who had almost succeeded in re-creating under his sole rule Alexander’s vast empire, at the Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia in 301 bce. This victory confirmed Ptolemy in his possession of his territory, although he had arrived too late for the battle, and Seleucus, whose participation in it had been decisive, at first disputed Ptolemy’s claim to Syria and Phoenicia and actually occupied northern Syria. This early dispute laid the foundations of a century of bitter antagonism between the houses of Ptolemy and Seleucus that led to war five times—the so-called Syrian Wars—and was finally stilled only when Palestine, in 200 bce, became part of the Seleucid kingdom. The northern boundary of the kingdom established by Ptolemy lay apparently slightly north of modern Tripoli, Lebanon, perhaps on the course of the Kabīr River (ancient Eleutherus), and there are no signs of any important change in this frontier throughout the next century.

Of Ptolemaic rule in the southern part of this territory, Palestine, little is known. The small amount of information there is—mainly from writers of a later period, especially the author of the First Book of Maccabees and the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus—suggests that, unlike the northern region, known as Syria and Phoenicia, the area was left in much its previous state, with considerable power and authority in the hands of the native chieftains.

More is known of taxation than of administration. A story preserved by Josephus (The Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, section 154 ff.) indicates that tax farming, whereby the right to collect taxes was auctioned or was awarded to privileged persons, was employed for the collection of local taxes. It seems likely that there were additional extraordinary taxes levied by edict from Egypt.

Knowledge of the economic and commercial life of Palestine in the mid-3rd century bce is, on the other hand, fuller and more reliable. It is drawn from the dossier of letters received and written by one Zenon, the confidential business manager of the chief minister of Ptolemy II (Philadelphus; 285–246 bce). In 259 Zenon was sent to Palestine and Syria, where his master had commercial interests. His letters speak particularly of trafficking enslaved persons, especially young girls for prostitution, in whom there appears to have been a brisk commerce, with export to Egypt. Zenon’s records also testify to a considerable trade in cereals, oil, and wine. Inevitably, like all imports to Egypt, Palestinian exports worked under state monopoly, without which the internal monopolies of Egypt would have been undermined. Palestine, like Egypt and Syria, seems to have had no economic freedom under Ptolemaic rule; in all transactions the hand of the government’s agents is clearly visible.

Far less is known of the material culture of Palestine in the Ptolemaic period. The population seems, as in Syria, to have been divided between the Hellenized cities (poleis) of the coast, notably Ascalon (modern Ashkelon, Israel) and Joppa (modern Jaffa in Tel Aviv–Yafo), and the rural population living in villages (komai). The fact that several cities had Ptolemaic dynastic names (Philadelphia, Philoteria, Ptolemais) must not lead to the conclusion that the early Ptolemies wanted to urbanize and raise the standard of living of the people of Palestine. It seldom appears that they did more than rename a previously existing city (e.g., Scythopolis for Beit Sheʾan)—a practice not uncommon in the Hellenistic world. In fact, unlike the Seleucids, the Ptolemies do not appear to have been great city builders. Nor do they appear to have encouraged the outward forms of independence in local government. It seems likely from the story of the Phoenician tax farmers mentioned above that considerable authority lay in the hands of the wealthy. Yet the fact that both Ascalon and Joppa issued Ptolemaic regal coinage, but apparently no autonomous bronze coinage, suggests a rigid control. The absence of epigraphic evidence from the cities of Ptolemaic Palestine, however, renders any judgment about the conditions of the cities hazardous. Archaeology too helps but little, inasmuch as the buildings of Roman Palestine superseded most of the Hellenistic remains. One exception must be noted: the tombs of the Hellenized Sidonian military settlers at Marisa in Edom (Idumaea)—the walls of which are decorated with frescoes of fine hunting scenes—indicate that Hellenic civilization had been embraced by the non-Greek population in that period.

The chronic state of hostility between Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid house, which in much of the 3rd century bce had been concerned with the coastal regions of western Asia Minor, received a new impetus with the accession to the Seleucid throne of the energetic Antiochus III (the Great; 223–187), who aimed to win southern Syria and Palestine from Egypt, now weakly governed, and thereby establish the frontier to which Seleucus I had unwillingly renounced his claim in 301 bce. However, after the decisive defeat of Antiochus by Ptolemy IV (Philopator) at Raphia (modern Rafah in the Gaza Strip) in 217, the former was for several years occupied with internal troubles, and it was therefore not until about 200 bce that he could think again of an attack on Egypt. There a child—Ptolemy V (Epiphanes)—had recently ascended the throne, and the government was in the hands of overly powerful ministers who were more concerned with enriching themselves than with preserving the integrity of the kingdom. At Panion, on the northern boundary of Galilee, the armies of Antiochus and Ptolemy met, and Ptolemy was defeated. Thus, the Ptolemaic possessions north of the Sinai desert, including Palestine, passed into the hands of the house of Seleucus.

The Seleucids

The Seleucids brought to the problem of the administration of Palestine a different tradition from that which had been behind Ptolemaic rule. The latter was based on the careful exploitation of territory that was possible in a small and closely knit land such as Egypt and had thence been extended to the Ptolemaic provinces. This had never been possible for the Seleucids, who had always been masters of regions so vast as to render a unified and absolute control impossible. There is no sign that the Seleucid government oppressed the native peoples; they seem, on the contrary, to have aimed at improving the natives’ status as far as possible, largely through bringing them into contact with Greek modes of urban existence.

It might then be supposed that Seleucid rule would have been popular in Palestine. In fact, however, it was under Seleucid rule that the great uprising of the Jewish people, the revolt of the Maccabees, occurred. The explanation of this paradox is perhaps twofold. First, the Seleucids were in need of money, and, second, the throne, at a critical time, was occupied by a tactless and neurotic king. Knowledge of Seleucid rule in Palestine before the accession of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes; 175–164 bce) is slight. The period from 188 bce onward was a lean time for the dynasty, because the war with Rome, which had ended (in 189) in a complete Roman victory, had cost it not only almost the whole of Asia Minor (Anatolia) but also a yearly indemnity of 15,000 talents. It is therefore not surprising that the first glimpse of Seleucid rule in Palestine tells of an attempt by Heliodorus, the leading minister of Seleucus IV (Philopator; 187–175 bce), to deprive the Second Temple in Jerusalem of its treasure. His failure was soon ascribed to divine protection.

With the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, relations rapidly deteriorated. Antiochus appears to have aimed at a wholesale restoration of the Seleucid empire in the east, including an occupation of Egypt, as a counter to the loss of the western province occasioned by the Treaty of Apamea. He made an unwise beginning in Palestine by establishing a philhellene high priest, and it is clear from this and from his whole subsequent policy that he wished to extirpate Jewish religion from its central stronghold (there is no indication that he persecuted Jews of the Diaspora [Greek: “Dispersion”] living in the cities of his kingdom).

Antiochus invaded Egypt in 170 or 169 bce and returned to Syria by way of Jerusalem, where he and his army despoiled the Temple of all its wealth. Two years later, after his humiliating expulsion from the gate of Egypt by the Roman legate, he sent a financial official to exact taxes from the cities of Judaea. Antiochus’s official attacked the city of Jerusalem by guile and largely destroyed it. He then built a fortified position on the citadel, called by the Greeks the Akra. This became the symbol of Judah’s enslavement, though in itself the presence of a royal garrison in a Hellenistic city was by no means unusual. Its imposition was followed by an open attack on religious practice, in which many rites were forbidden. Noncompliance with the order—which contained many items calculated to raise the bitterest resistance in the hearts of law-abiding Jews, such as the prohibition of circumcision and the abolition of the observance of the Sabbath—was punishable by death. Finally, on the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev (December) in 168 bce, the “abomination of desolation,” namely the altar of Zeus, was set up in the Temple in Jerusalem. It was this above all that summoned forth the resistance of the sons of the aged priest Mattathias; thus began the Maccabean revolt, led by Judas Maccabeus.

The resistance, it must be emphasized, came from only a section of the population. The century and a half of Greek rule had Hellenized much of the upper class of Jerusalem, and some of the characteristic features of Greek city life—such as the ephebic institute, for the training of young men, and the gymnasia—had been established on the initiative of this section of the ruling class, which was able to accept a less radical observance of Judaism and combine it with loyalty to the throne. Throughout the revolt, and indeed until the closing days of the Hasmonean dynasty established by the Maccabeans, this Hellenized element had to be taken into account.

Judas Maccabeus proved himself a leader of high quality. He successfully resisted the weak forces sent by the Seleucid authorities, and after three years of intermittent warfare he succeeded in purifying the Temple (165 bce). The Akra, however, remained in Seleucid hands until 141 bce.

After the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 bce, the numbers of claimants to the Seleucid throne made a continuous policy toward Palestine impossible, because each claimant felt the need to seek support wherever it might be found. Thus, Jewish high priests were bribed by the kings and dynasts of Syria. This development enabled Judas and those who succeeded him to hold their own and eventually to establish a hereditary dynasty, known as the Hasmonean for their ancestor Hasmoneus. Soon after Antiochus Epiphanes’ death, an agreement was reached with the Seleucid regent Lysias (who feared the appearance of a rival in Syria) through which the Jews received back their religious liberty. But, at the same time, the regular practice of pagan worship, beside the Jewish, was established, and a Seleucid nominee was appointed high priest. Thus were laid the seeds of fresh revolt.

Almost immediately Judas again took the field and scored a considerable victory over Nicanor, the Seleucid general, in which the latter was killed. Within two months, however, Demetrius I (Soter), the Seleucid king, sent Bacchides to take up a position near Jerusalem, and, in the engagement that followed, Judas lost his life (161/160 bce).