334 TJie First Jewish Shekels. 



faith of the Greeks, slew the principal officer with his own hand, 

 and retired to the mountains with his five sons, John, Simon, 

 Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan. Being there joined by great 

 numbers of insurgents, a permanent and serious resistance was 

 offered, and the national independence was partially re- 

 established, after a series of signal successes against the 

 Syrian troops. He was the great-grandson of Asmonseus (or, 

 in the Hebrew form, Chasmon) ; and, in consequence of this 

 descent, his successors became known as the Asmonaean 

 dynasty. 



Mattathias died about 170 B.C., in the first year of the re- 

 volt ; and though no coins can at present be attributed to him, 

 it is probable that some were issued, and may yet be brought to 

 light, as he would, doubtless, have been anxious to put forth 

 such an evidence of the independent sovereignty which he had 

 established. Coins bearing the name of Mattathias, and which 

 were formerly assigned to him, have now been proved to belong 

 to his descendant, Antigonus, as will be shown further on. 



He was succeeded by his son Judas, who, after two decisive 

 victories, entered Jerusalem in triumph, during a Syrian civil 

 war which broke out on the death of Antiochus. He eventually 

 fell in a battle, overwhelmed by numbers, in 161 B.C. Coins 

 quite recently discovered are now attributed by M. de Saulcy to 

 Judas Maccabseus, — they are small copper, and only two speci- 

 mens are as yet known. These coins are of poor workman- 

 ship, and exhibit that degradation of art which was sure to 

 follow such political convulsions as were at the time leading 

 to the rapid dissolution of the great Syrian empire of the 

 Seleucidte, and the disturbances caused, at the same time, by 

 the struggles of the Jews to establish their independence. 

 The device of the reverse consists' of two horns of abundance ; 

 and this type thenceforth became a sort of family badge or de- 

 vice of the Asmona3an dynasty. The engraving (Fig. 2) is 

 from the coin recently discovered near Jerusalem, which has, 

 with every show of probability, been attributed by M. de Saulcy 

 to Judas Maccabseus. The inscription should read, Jehoida, 

 Cohen — " Judas, the high priest" — followed by the titles ' ' illus- 

 trious" and ' ' friend of the people." 



It has been suggested that the cognomen of Maccabaous is 

 derived from the Hebrew Maccab, a hammer, in allusion to the 

 heavy blows inflicted on the Syrian army in the course of his 

 rapid and decisive victories ; just as in our own annals Edward 

 I. was termed Malleus Scotorum, "the hommer of the Scots," a 

 title inscribed on his tomb in Westminster Abbey. Other 

 archaeologists have, however, asserted that the name was 

 assumod in consequence of the Hebrew letters, M. K. B. E. 

 borne on the standard of Judas, which were, in the Hebrew, 



