116 book reviews

Kenneth Atkinson, A History of the Hasmonean State: and Beyond. JCT 23. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016. Hardback. Pp. ix + 210. $122. ISBN 9780567669025.

A new book on the history of the Hasmonean state promises to be intriguing. It has the potential to include not only the relationship with Rome, the Seleucids, the Ptolemies, the Nabateans and the conquest of Hellenistic cities, but also internal affairs related to culture, society, religion and economics. Atkinson’s book, however, concentrates on political history, mainly based on Josephus, but also using Hellenistic sources, numismatic evidence, and at times the re- sults of archaeological excavations and surveys. The book is divided into nine chapters. The introductory chapter discusses some earlier studies on the Hasmoneans, providing a knowledgeable sum- mary of the historical methodologies of Josephus and how they contribute to an understanding of the history of the Hasmonean kingdom, both as told by Josephus and as it appears in other sources. The ensuing chapters follow a chronological framework from the beginning of the Hasmonean state to the Roman conquest, ending with Josephus the historian in Rome: the creation of the Hasmonean state (in the days of Jonathan and Simon), , Judah Aristobulus, , Alexandra, and the Hasmoneans, and after the Roman Conquest. The concluding chapter deals with Josephus’s historiographical perspective when writing about the Hasmoneans in Rome. A considerable portion of the book focuses on chronology, dealing with the presentation of Josephus’s diplomatic connections and military campaigns. Atkinson brings together all the relevant sources, including numismatic evi- dence (Hasmonean and Hellenistic) and inscriptions, and he relates to other Hellenistic historians. His discussion is lucid and well informed, although maps and illustrations would have been helpful. Atkinson is mainly concerned with providing an accurate and detailed chronology of the Hasmonean campaigns and the relationship with the Seleucids. For example, he engages with the chronology of Tryphon as a key for dating his intersection with the rule of Jonathan and Simon. To this end he introduces multiple sources, including 1 , Strabo, Livy, Diodorus Siculus, Tryphon’s coins, and Babylonian astronomical diaries. He concludes that Tryphon died later than Josephus’ portrayal, in 138 or 137 BCE, hence his influence on Simon’s rule is more substantial than scholars usually tend to be- lieve (40–44). An interesting discussion relates to Aristobulus and the Itureans, that is, the “conquest” or “annexation” of the Galilee and the Judaization or conversion of the Itureans (86–97). Atkinson is aware of recent research on the archaeology

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/15685179-12341494 book reviews 117 of the Galilee and Golan, especially the excavation and surveys of Shimon Dar in Mt. Hermon. He notes that although there is evidence of Jewish settlement in the Galilee, there is no indication of an Iturean presence. Moreover, it is un- likely that Aristobulus conquered the Golan heights. Thus, there is no evidence of forced Judaization by Aristobulus in the Galilee. Unfortunately, Atkinson makes no attempt to explain why Timagenes of Alexandria (followed by Strabo and Josephus) ascribes this unusual achievement to Aristobulus (Ant. 13.319). Another interesting issue is the identity of Aristobulus’s wife, Salina “also known as Alexandra” (Ant. 13.320), who is sometimes identified as Jannaeus’s wife Salome Alexandra. After Aristobulus’s death, Salina freed his brother Jannaeus from prison and appointed him king. Atkinson brings several rea- sonable literary and legal arguments against identifying Salina with Salome (85–86). Later, he devotes considerable attention to Salome Alexandra, focus- ing on her diplomacy. While she failed to continue the Hasmonean policy of territorial expansion, she did force Tigranes, the king of Armenia, who had conquered Ptolemais and threatened Hasmonean territory, to withdraw. In the final chapter Atkinson argues that Josephus’s writing on the Hasmoneans is influenced by the fact that he was writing in Rome under Titus. Josephus stressed the Hasmonean alliance and contacts with the Romans in order to counterbalance anti-Roman political tendencies in the first century, and to demonstrate that Jews and Romans could cooperate. However, the con- nections with the Romans are already highlighted in 1 and 2 Maccabees, and it is likely that the Hasmoneans themselves were very proud of them, even if they did not really contribute to their standing against the Seleucids. Readers interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls may be disappointed. Atkinson mentions references to Hasmonean rulers in the Scrolls (104, 134–35), but he does not discuss the contribution of the Scrolls to the history of the Hasmonean state or the attitude of the Qumran sectarians towards the Hasmoneans (though he has published on this issue elsewhere). Readers might have expect- ed more attention to be paid to representations of the Hasmonean rulers, such as the identification of the Wicked Priest mentioned in the Pesharim, or a dis- cussion of the prayer for the sake of the kingdom of Jonathan the King and its historical background. Consideration of such issues would also have addressed a question almost completely ignored by Atkinson—what legitimacy did the Hasmoneans have to rule and become kings, and who challenged them? At the outset Atkinson declares that he has three goals: (1) to compare Josephus’s accounts of the Hasmonean state with archaeological findings, numismatics, literary works, and relevant inscriptions; (2) to show the in- terconnectedness of the Hasmonean state and neighboring empires; and (3) to demonstrate the extent to which nonliterary evidence can alter the

Dead Sea Discoveries 26 (2019) 101–134