The Hasmonean civil war was a succession war fought in Judea between Salome Alexandra's sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, over the Hasmonean crown. What began as a civil war, Hyrcanus backed by Antipater and Nabataean king Aretas III, Aristobulus holding Jerusalem, drew in the Roman Republic when Pompey intervened, besieged the Temple precincts in 63 BCE, and captured Jerusalem. Pompey reinstated Hyrcanus as high priest but stripped royal power, reduced Judea's territory, imposed tribute, and carried Aristobulus to Rome, ending the independence of Judea.
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👉 Hasmonean civil war in the context of Roman Palestine
Roman Palestine is the term used by historians for the Palestine region during the period in its history in which it stood, to varying degrees, under the rule of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Historians typically trace the period from the Roman intervention in the Hasmonean civil war in 63 BCE (uncontested), up until the transition from the pagan Roman to the Christian Byzantine Empire with the consolidation of Constantine's rule in 324 CE, but this end date varies from author to author. The Roman period can be subdivided into early and late phases, transitioning at either the First Jewish–Roman War c. 70 CE or the Bar Kokhba Revolt c. 135 CE. Some add a Middle Roman period to the Early and Late subsets.
During the Roman period, Palestine went through a series of administrative changes, beginning as a series of Roman client states under the Judean Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties before being gradually annexed into the Roman Empire as the fully incorporated Roman province of Judaea; in its peripheral areas it included parts of the Nabataean Kingdom, which underwent a similar evolution from client state to Roman province. After 135 CE, Roman Palestine was re-organised into the Roman province of Syria Palaestina.
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Hasmonean civil war in the context of History of the Jews in Europe
The history of the Jews in Europe spans a period of over two thousand years. Jews, a Semitic people descending from the Judeans of Judea in the Southern Levant, began migrating to Europe just before the rise of the Roman Empire (27 BCE), although Alexandrian Jews had already migrated to Rome, and some Gentiles had undergone Judaization on a few occasions. A notable early event in the history of the Jews in the Roman Empire was the 63 BCE siege of Jerusalem, where Pompey had interfered in the Hasmonean civil war.
Jews have had a significant presence in European cities and countries since the fall of the Roman Empire, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and Russia. In Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century, the monarchies forced Jews to either convert to Christianity or leave and they established offices of the Inquisition to enforce Catholic orthodoxy of converted Jews. These actions shattered Jewish life in Iberia and saw mass migration of Sephardic Jews to escape religious persecution. Many resettled in the Netherlands and re-judaized, starting in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In the religiously tolerant, Protestant Dutch Republic Amsterdam prospered economically and as a center of Jewish cultural life, the "Dutch Jerusalem". Ashkenazi Jews lived in communities under continuous rabbinic authority. In Europe Jewish communities were largely self-governing autonomous under Christian rulers, usually with restrictions on residence and economic activities. In Poland, from 1264 (from 1569 also in Lithuania as part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), under the Statute of Kalisz until the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Jews were guaranteed legal rights and privileges. The law in Poland after 1264 (in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in consequence) toward Jews was one of the most inclusive in Europe. The French Revolution removed legal restrictions on Jews, making them full citizens. Napoleon implemented Jewish emancipation as his armies conquered much of Europe. Emancipation often brought more opportunities for Jews and many integrated into larger European society and became more secular rather than remaining in cohesive Jewish communities.