THE MACCABEES and the BATTLE of ANTIOCH1 Elizabeth

THE MACCABEES AND THE BATTLE OF ANTIOCH1 Elizabeth Lapina Narratives of the Crusades and, more specifically, of the First Cru- sade provide one of the most important clusters of references to the Maccabees – primarily the Maccabean warriors, but also the Macca- bean martyrs – in Christian medieval sources. Many authors writing about the crusades used the stories of both types of the Maccabees, the warriors and the martyrs, to interpret current events in the Holy Land. There was a particularly large number of references in connection with one event: the Battle of Antioch, fought between crusaders and Muslims on June 28, 1098. Two more crucial references appear in the context of two more battles fought by Prince Roger of Antioch in the vicinities of the city: the Battle of Tall Danith (1115) and the Battle of the Field of Blood (1119). Although there seems to be no direct connection between Antioch and the Maccabean warriors, the city was of paramount importance for the Maccabean martyrs. Although the locations of the martyrdom of seven Maccabean brothers, their mother, and Priest Eleazar and of their initial burial (the remains eventually found their way to Con- stantinople and Rome) are uncertain, a number of patristic sources mention Antioch in connection with them.2 There is no doubt that at one point Antioch was the center of the Maccabean cult. In one of his sermons, St. Augustine of Hippo argues vehemently that the Mac- cabean martyrs belong not to the Jewish but rather to the Christian tradition. As proof, he refers to a church dedicated to the Maccabees in Antioch. Augustine found it ironic and fitting that the city bearing 1 I would like to thank Professor Gabriela Signori for organizing the conference in which this article was originally presented. I am also grateful to Professors Gabrielle M. Spiegel and David Nirenberg for their help at various stages of my work on the Mac- cabees and to Professors Bernhard Jussen, Neithard Bulst, and Michael Borgolte for making it possible to present my findings at the University of Bielefeld and the Hum- boldt University, Berlin. 2 On the Maccabees and Antioch as the place of their martyrdom and burial see Margaret Schatkin, “The Maccabean Martyrs,” Vigiliae Christianae 28 (1974): 97–113. 148 elizabeth lapina nearly the same name as King Antiochus IV, the persecutor of the Maccabean martyrs, would celebrate those whom he persecuted.3 In Late Antiquity, Antioch suffered an unprecedented series of disasters from which it never recovered. The Crusades, however, sig- naled a rediscovery of the city by western Christians. On their way to Jerusalem, crusaders stopped at Antioch and besieged the city for eight months. Within days of its capture, they found themselves besieged in turn by an impressive army assembled by Kerbogha, atabeg of Mosul. The lack of supplies was drastic, desertions multiplied, the majority of horses were lost, and reports were made to the Byzantine emperor Alexius that the annihilation of the crusaders was imminent. In des- peration, unable to continue their resistance in the long-depleted city, crusaders opted for a battle, in the course of which they routed Kerbogha’s troops.4 Apart from its purely military significance, the Battle of Antioch was at the very center of medieval conceptions of the First Crusade. For many authors, the triumph of crusaders at this particular point, when everything foreboded disaster, proved the extent of God’s support for the Christian side. For many contemporaries, this was made evident by a number of miracles reported in connection with the battle: the discovery of the Holy Lance; a multiplication of visions; and – most importantly for the present discussion – intervention of a number of saints, perhaps an entire celestial army, on the side of crusaders. In this manner, the battle would end up, to some degree, upstaging the capture of Jerusalem a year later. It is unclear what exactly the crusaders and medieval chroniclers of the Crusades knew about the importance of Antioch within the cult of the Jewish martyrs in Late Antiquity. When describing the city, cru- sading sources do not mention the Maccabees. One of the rare excep- tions is the so-called Charleville Poet, who claims that Antioch was very ancient: “The book of Maccabees asserts its [Antioch’s] existence, when the priest is said to have perished, next to Daphne.”5 The poet 3 Augustine, Homily 300 In solemnitate martyrum Machabaeorum, PL 38, col. 1379. 4 On the Battle of Antioch see John France, Victory in the East: A Military His- tory of the First Crusade (Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 269–296. 5 Gilo of Paris, The ‘Historia Vie Hierosolimitane’ of Gilo of Paris and a Second, Anonymous Author, ed. and trans. Christopher Wallace Grocock and Elizabeth Siberry (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 95, 97..

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