Jerusalem Saga
The third Saga
The third Saga
Shahar, better known by his Greek name, Gianny, arrived in the small village of Modiin that day by pure chance. A few days earlier, he had deserted from the Greek Seleucid army, where he had served as a soldier of fortune, along with many other foreigners.
The last Achaemenid Persian emperor was Darius III, but Alexander defeated him at the Battle of Gaugamela with only 40,000 Greeks against a Persian army six times as large.
In a single battle, Alexander ended Persian rule and became king of Asia, which included Babylonia, half of Persia, and Mesopotamia.
When Alexander died without heirs at the age of 32, the Hellenic world was plunged into a civil war that lasted 40 years until the Greek generals divided Alexander's empire among themselves. The northern empire, including Syria and Asia Minor, was ruled by the general Seleucus and was therefore called the Seleucid Empire. The southern empire of Egypt and Africa, ruled by the general Ptolemy, was called the Ptolemaic Empire. Its capital was Alexandria, home to a large Jewish community.
For 150 years, Jerusalem was ruled without Ptolemaic interference, but everything changed after the Battle of Panium between Seleucid and Ptolemaic forces, where the Seleucids took control of Judea.
The Greek Seleucid emperor, Antiochus Epiphanes, decided to adopt the policy of universal Hellenization throughout his empire, and banned Judaism, turned the Temple of Solomon into a shrine of Zeus, installed in the courtyard of the Temple a gymnasium where athletes trained naked, and forced the Jews to renounce their religion and pray only to the Greek gods.
After the massacre of Jerusalem, in which young mothers were thrown from the walls with their newborn babies if they were circumcised, Gianny deserted from the Greek army, as did almost all the Jewish soldiers.
He wandered for several days, and only fate brought him that day to the small town of Modiin, at the same time that a Greek platoon arrived with a pig.
The Greek officer demanded to see the local priest, named Mattathias.
When Mattathias arrived with his five sons, the Greek officer handed him a knife and asked him to slaughter the pig in the name of the new Hellenization law.
Instead of killing the pig, Mattathias killed the Greek, and the people of Modiin began to attack the Greek platoon, led by Mattathias' five sons.
This was the beginning of the Jewish revolt against the Greek Seleucids.
Gianny will join the revolt and help Mattathias' family fight against the famous formations of Greek hoplites, called ‘phalanxes’.
Mattathias' revolt puts the entire Seleucid Empire on the defensive, thanks to new fighting tactics devised by Judah, Mattathias' second son, who becomes the rebellion's military leader, inventing guerrilla warfare through ambushes.
The climax of the rebellion took place with the recapture of Jerusalem by the rebel forces and the purification of the Temple with oil for the candles, which was supposed to last one day, and lasted eight, becoming the celebration of Hanukkah.
Gianny will tell us about the incredible sacrifices of the rebellion of Mattathias and his sons, Shimon, Judah, Yohanan, Eleazar and Jonatan, or as the people know them, the Maccabean family.