HASMONEAN DYNASTY

also spelled Hasmonaean, dynasty of ancient Judaea, descendants of the Maccabee (q.v.) family. The name derived (according to Josephus, in The Antiquities of the Jews) from the name of their ancestor Hasmoneus (Hasmon), or Asamonaios. In 143 (or 142) BC Simon Maccabeus, son of Mattathias (and brother of Judas Maccabeus), succeeded his brother Jonathan as leader of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid dynasty. He soon became independent of the Seleucids as high priest, ruler, and ethnarch of Judaea; the offices were hereditary, and Simon thus became the first of the Hasmonean dynasty. He was succeeded by his son John Hyrcanus I, Aristobulus I, Alexander Jannaeus and his widow Salome Alexandra, Aristobulus II, John Hyrcanus II, and the last Hasmonean, Antigonus, who was deposed and executed by the Romans under Mark Antony.