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Events
By place
Syria
★ The
Seleucid king
Demetrius I, on campaign in the east of his empire, leaves his general
Bacchides to govern the western portion of the empire.
★ In response to
Jewish high priest,
Alcimus, request for assistance, Seleucid general Bacchides leads an army into
Judea with the intent of reconquering this now independent kingdom. Bacchides rapidly marches through Judea after carrying out a massacre of the
Assideans in
Galilee. He quickly makes for
Jerusalem, besieging the city and trapping
Judas Maccabeus, the spiritual and military leader of the
Maccabees, inside. However, Judas and many of his supporters managed to escape the siege.
★ Judas Maccabeus and many of his supporters regroup to face the Seleucid forces in the
Battle of Elasa (near modern day
Ramallah). Greatly outnumbered, the Maccabees are defeated and Judas Maccabeus is killed during the battle.
★ Judah Maccabeus is succeeded as army commander of the Maccabees by his younger brother,
Jonathan, who is already high priest following the departure of Alcimus.
★ Demetrius I defeats and kills the rebel general
Timarchus and is recognized as king of
Syria by the
Roman Senate. Demetrius acquires his surname of Soter, or Saviour, from the
Babylonians, for delivering them from the tyranny of Timarchus. The Seleucid empire is temporarily united again.
★
Parthian King
Mithradates I seizes
Media from the
Seleucids following the death of Timarchus.
Bactria
★ The king of
Bactria,
Eucratides I, is considered to have killed
Apollodotus I, an Indo-Greek king who rules the western and southern parts of the Indo-Greek kingdom when he invades the western territories of that kingdom.
Armenia
★
Artavasdes I succeeds his father
Artaxias I as king of
Armenia.
Roman Republic
★
Roman playwright
Terence’s play ''
Adelphoe'' (The Brothers) is first performed at the funeral of Roman general
Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus.
Births
★
Jugurtha, King of
Numidia (d.
104 BC)
★
Theodosius of Bithynia (ca. 160 BC–ca. 100 BC), Greek astronomer and mathematician who wrote the ''Sphaerics'', a book on the geometry of the sphere. (d. c.
100 BC)
Deaths
★
Gaius Laelius,
Roman general and politician who was involved in Rome's victory during the
Second Punic War between Rome and
Carthage. (approximate date)
★
Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, Roman
consul, politician and general whose victory over the Macedonians at the
Battle of Pydna ended the
Third Macedonian War. (b. c.
229 BC)
★
Artaxias I, king of
Armenia who ruled from
190 BC. He was the founder of the
Artaxiad Dynasty whose members would rule the Kingdom of Armenia for nearly two centuries.
★
Apollodotus I, Indo-Greek king who ruled from
180 BC the western and southern parts of the Indo-Greek kingdom, from
Taxila in
Punjab to the areas of
Sindh and possibly
Gujarat.
★
Judas Maccabeus, third son of the
Jewish priest
Mattathias. He led the
Maccabean revolt against the
Seleucid Empire until his death.