16 - Bacchides against Judas Maccabaeus at Elasa (160 B.C.)

Summary

The Jewish rebellion, which sustained a bad setback from the heavy blow received at Beith-Zacharia, soon recovered its momentum, taking advantage of the internal crisis in the Empire and the struggle for succession at Antioch. Once established on the throne, Demetrius experimented with a new policy by granting Judaea the status of an eparchy, and appointing Nicanor, a high-ranking officer who formerly served as elephantarch, as the stratēgos of the new eparchy (II Macc. 14.12). But Judas Maccabaeus, encouraged by the confinement of the bulk of the Seleucid army in the eastern provinces in the expedition against the rebel Timarchos, defeated Nicanor twice in the battlefield. Nicanor himself was killed in the battle of Adasa and his body was displayed to the public in Jerusalem and mutilated (I Macc. 7.31–50; II Macc. 14.15–25, 15). The Hasmoneans resumed power all over Judaea after the victory. There was certainly nothing new in this development, but the Jewish treaty with Rome, which made imminent the danger of Roman intervention (I Mace. 8.17–32, esp. 31–2), forced Demetrius to react promptly and vigorously. After subduing the revolt in Babylonia (see p.210 n.29 above), he sent to Judaea Bacchides, who in his absence was in charge of the western regions of the Empire, in a determined effort to put down the Jewish revolt once and for all.