Category:John Hyrcanus II (subject)

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John Hyrcanus II (1st century BCE) was a member of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled as High Priest, 76-66 BCE (under Queen Salome Alexandra) and 63-40 BCE (under Roman rule).

Overview

John Hyrcanus II was the son of Alexander Jannaeus and Salome Alexandra. At the death of his father in 76 BCE, he replaced him as High Priest but not as King, as his mother became the Queen. When in 67 BCE Hyrcanus was designated to succeed his mother as King, he was overpowered by his brother Aristobulus II, who took the throne and the office of High Priest, from 66 to 63 BCE.

With the Roman intervention in 63 BCE, John Hyrcanus II regained the High Priesthood, while political authority was given to the Idumean Antipater. Hyrcanus had a daughter, Alexandra the Hasmonean who married her cousin Alexander of Judea; the couple had a daughter Mariamne and a son Aristobulus III

In 40 BCE John Hyrcanus II was deposed by his nephew Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus II who allied himself with the Parthians and thanks to their support was High Priest and King from 40 to 37 BCE. Hyrcanus was mutilated at his ears to make him permanently ineligible for the high priesthood and taken to Babylon.

After the Romans regained control of the region, the newly appointed King Herod the Great, who in 37 had married Hyrcanus's granddaughter Mariamne, invited him to return to Jerusalem in 36 BCE. In 35 BCE Hyrcanus's grandson Aristobulus III was appointed High Priest. The alliance between Herod and the House of Hasmoneus did not last long, however. Herod had Aristobulus III] killed just a few months after his appointment in 35 BCE and in 30 BCE the same destiny fell upon John Hyrcanus II.

John Hyrcanus II in ancient sources

  • Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book XIV, 5-13.
  • Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, book I, 8-13.

John Hyrcanus II in Scholarship

John Hyrcanus II in Fiction

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