King Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed harsh measures to enforce Hellenization, banning Jewish practices such as circumcision, Sabbath observance, and Temple worship. Nevertheless, the Maccabees ...

In 167 B.C. the Judeans, led by a priest named Mattathias and his sons, rebelled against their Seleucid Greek overlord, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus’ idea of reform, the historian Diodorus ...