Ptolemy VI Philometor, Macedonian ruler of Hellenistic…

Mithridates I of Parthia, taking advantage of Antiochus' western problems, had attacked from the east and seized the city of Herat in 167 BCE, disrupting the direct trade route to India and effectively splitting the Greek world in two.

Antiochus, recognizing the potential danger in the east but unwilling to give up control of Judea, had sent a commander named Lysias to deal with the Maccabees, while the King himself is to lead the main Seleucid army against the Parthians.

Setting out in 164 BCE on an expedition to the Arabian coast, he funds the city of Antioch on the Persian Gulf, where its mint is to serve the trade along the sea route between India and the district at the mouth of the great Mesopotamian rivers.

Near the end of the year, the fifty-one-year-old monarch of an illness at Tabae (or Gabae, probably present Isfahan) in Persis.

(Many believers see his death as a punishment for his attempt to loot the shrine of Nanaia in Elam, but this story seems to be baseless.

Judas, a military genius, several times defeats the generals Antiochus has commissioned to deal with the uprising.

Judas refuses a partial amnesty, conquers Judaea with the exception of the Akra in Jerusalem, and in December 164 BCE is able to tear down the altar of Zeus and reconsecrate the Temple to the God of Israel.

(A miracle—the burning of a day's supply of pure olive oil for eight days, until fresh jars of clean oil could be brought into the temple—is recorded in the Talmud.

Jews continue to celebrate this event as the eight-day Festival of Rededication, sometimes also called the Festival of Lights or the feast of the Maccabees, who institute the festival, known as Hannukah, a transliteration also romanized as Chanukah or Ḥanukah.

Eumenes II of Pergamon had been refused a hearing before the Senate on his visit to Italy in 165 BCE; his fall from favor has prompted his enemies to dispute his territory and in 164 BCE a Roman embassy in Anatolia publicly invites complaints against the king.

Rhodes, using its considerable resources to control piracy, had thrived as the leading trade center of the eastern Mediterranean.

Rome now undermines its economy and power by making the island of Delos a free port, thereby depriving Rhodes of its income from harbor dues.

Territory in Lycia and Caria on the mainland granted in 189 to Rhodes is now taken away.

The far harsher proposal in the Senate to declare Rhodes an enemy and to destroy it, opposed by senior senators such as Cato the Censor, is voted down.

The numbers of claimants to the Seleucid throne following the death of Antiochus make a continuous Seleucid policy toward Palestine impossible, because each claimant feels the need to seek support wherever it might be found.

The Roman Senate still keeps Demetrius, son of Seleucus IV and the rightful heir to the throne, as hostage, refusing to release him because they consider it better to have Syria nominally ruled by a boy and his regent than the twenty-two-year-old Demetrius.

The general Lysias, who had been left in charge of Syria by Epiphanes, had collected another army at Antioch, and after the recapture of Beth-zur had been besieging Jerusalem when he learned of the approach of Philip, to whom Antiochus, on his deathbed, had entrusted the guardianship of the first son of Laodice IV and Antiochus III.

This prince, a younger cousin of Demetrius, is only nine years old when he succeeds to the kingship as Antiochus V. Lysias, returning to Syria to claim the regency, defeats Philip in 163 BCE; he is supported at Rome.

Timarchus, a Greek satrap of the Seleucid province of Media, becomes the more or less independen, in opposition to the general Lysias, who acts as steward for the infant king Antiochus V.

Timarchus has distinguished himself by defending Media against the emergent Parthians.

On his coins, Timarchus introduces the epithet "Great King" (Basileus Megas) which is the traditional Achaemenid title and may reflect an effort to gather support from the natives in a time when the Seleucid empire has lost ground in Iran.

He is inspired by the Bactrian king Eucratides the Great, who had assumed the same  title a few years earlier.

The Syrians attempt to quell the Maccabean Revolt in Judaea at the outset of the reign of Antiochus V, but this ends in a weak compromise.

After a military victory in the Battle of Beth-Zecharia, and the killing of Eleazar, a brother of Judas Maccabaeus, the Syrian chancellor, Lysias is informed that Philip, (a confidant of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had accompanied this previous king to conquer Mesopotamia, and had been entrusted prior to the death of the king with the upbringing of Antiochus V), is returning to the capital with the other half of the Seleucid army.

Lysias feels threatened, and advises Antiochus V to offer peace to the Jews.

The Jews accept.

However, in order to ensure they will not rise against them soon again, the Syrian king and regent break their promise and tear down the walls of Jerusalem before leaving.

The Pharisees, a Jewish sect, emerge as a clearly defined party during the revolt of the Maccabees. (The name Pharisees is of uncertain origin; one suggestion renders it as "those separated," meaning separation from impurity and defilement.)

The Essenes, a religious sect or brotherhood, had fled to the Judaean desert wilderness around Qumran during Antiochus IV Epiphanes' persecution of Palestinian Jews.

Like the Pharisees, the Essenes meticulously observe the Law of Moses, the Sabbath, and ritual purity.

They also profess belief in immortality and divine punishment for sin.

Unlike the Pharisees, the Essenes deny the resurrection of the body and refuse to immerse themselves in public life.

With few exceptions, they shun Temple worship and are content to live ascetic lives of manual labor in seclusion.

The Sabbath is reserved for daylong prayer and meditation on the Torah.

Oaths are frowned upon, but once taken they cannot be rescinded.

The Romans now partition the Ptolemaic realm, ordering Ptolemy VIII Euergetes into Cyrenaica and giving Philometer Egypt and …

…Cyprus.