Showing posts with label procurators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label procurators. Show all posts

Sunday, December 29, 2019

The Jewish Kings : Dynasties of Israel and Judah

Nadene Goldfoot                                             
                     The Three Founding Fathers of                                        Israel

1. The first king of Israel was Saul in the 11th Century BCE.  He was son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.   The people were threatened by the Philistines and Ammonites, and wanted a king over them to show their power.  The prophet Samuel chose Saul.

2. David of the tribe of Judah took over from Saul in 1000-960 BCE.  He ruled from about 1010 to 970 BCE.  He was the youngest son of Jesse, born in Bethlehem and at age 25 was Saul's armor- bearer.  David and Jonathan, Saul's son, were good friends.  He married Saul's daughter, Michal.  Saul became very jealous of David and his popularity.  First David was king of Judah.  After 8 years, David captured Jerusalem, making it his capital.  David won many battles and became king over all the area.  It is believed that he had written the Book of Psalms.

3. Solomon succeeded his father, David as the next king and reigned from 961 to 920 BCE. Where David had to engage in battles, Solomon was the creator and built the Temple.  Solomon was king of Israel from 961 to 920 BCE.  His mother was the Bathsheba.  He became king because of the help of his mother and the prophet Nathan before his father had died.  King Hiram of Tyre helped him by sending materials for the Temple which was completed in his 11th year of his reign.  Solomon divided his empire into 12 districts and built many cities such as Meggiddo and Hazor.  He had a harbor built on the Red Sea.  It is said that he had 1,000 wives and concubines, procured many by making peace with smaller kingdoms and marrying the daughters of the kings.  His realm extended from Egypt to the Euphrates River and was the most energetic in the entire region.  The arts of historiography, parables, and elegant writings were developed and many biblical works such as the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Psalm 72 were attributed to Solomon.  His reputation was his great wisdom.  His downfall was the forced labor that was part of his building program and it impoverished the country.  The Edomites and Arameans started revolts.  Inside Israel was malcontent of the people.  When he died, there was the problem of who the next king would be.  This is when Judah pulled out of the statehood of Israel.

                                                       ISRAEL'S  KINGS

4. Jeroboam became king from 930 to 910 BCE.  He was not a son of Solomon.  Instead, he was an Ephraimite, one of the 12 tribes of Jacob.  He had been a superintendent of Solomon' forced labor gangs who had led the revolt.  He hid out in Egypt after Solomon's death.

5-19.  Nadab (912-911 BCE)                           Jehoahaz   (816-800 BCE)
          Baasha (911-911 BCE)                          Jehoash     (800-785 BCE)
          Elah     (888-887 BCE)                          Jeroboam II  (785-745 BCE)
          Zimri   (887 BCE)                                 Zachariah  (744 BCE)
          Omri   (887-876 BCE)                          Shallum     (743 BCE)
          Ahab  (876-853 BCE)                           Menahem  (743-736 BCE)
          Ahaziah/Uzziah  (853 BCE)                 Pekahiah   (736-735 BCE)
          Jehoram  (853-843 BCE)                      Pekah        (735-730 BCE)
          Jehu   (843-816 BCE)                           Hoshea      (730-721 BCE)
     
                 ASSYRIA ATTACKED IN 721 BCE AND CARRIED OFF THE BEST OF THE PEOPLE INTO CAPTIVITY.  ISRAEL HAD LOST TERRITORY OF TRANSJORDAN AND GALILEE IN BATTLE.  PHILISTIA, TYRE, MOAB AND EDOM BECAME ASSYRIAN PROVINCES.  SAMARIA WAS TAKEN BY SARGON WHO ANNEXED ISRAEL AND DEPORTED 27,290 ISRAELITES TO ASSYRIA AND MEDIA.  REPLACED THEM WITH SYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN PRISONERS.                                     
                                                      

                                                   JUDAH'S KINGS

  Southern part of Israel, which divided in 933 BCE when Solomon had died,
                         maintained the Dynasty of Solomon

4. Rehoboam (933-917 BCE), son of Solomon and his Ammonite wife, Naamah.  He had not listened to the people who wanted relief from heavy taxation.  The tribes of Judah, the largest, and Simeon and mosat of Benjamin remained loyal to him because of the Temple.  Egypt invaded and plundered the Temple at this opportune time.

5-20  Abijam  (917-915 BCE)                    Jotham  (740-735 BCE)
         Asa        (915-875 BCE)                    Ahaz     (735-720 BCE)
        Jehoshaphat  (875-851 BCE)              Hezekiah  (720-692 BCE)
        Jehoram  (851-844 BCE)                    Manasseh (692-638 BCE)
        Ahaziah  (844-843 BCE)                    Amon       (638-637 BCE)
        Athaliah  (843-837 BCE)                   Josiah       (637-608 BCE)
       Joash       (837-798 BCE)                    Jehoahaz  (608 BCE)
       Amaziah  (798-780 BCE)                   Jehoiakim  (608-598 BCE)
       Azariah/Uzziah  (780-740 BCE          Jehoiakin   (598-597 BCE)
                                                                   Zedekiah   (597-586 BCE)
                                      
                                    On Mount Moriah in Jerusalem

Temple built by Solomon was destroyed in 586 BCE
It was rebuilt from 538-515 BCE (2nd Temple)
519 BCE-RENEWED TEMPLE WORSHIP
A 50 YEAR INTERVAL
by the returning Babylonian Jewish exiles.
This was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans
The Romans built a temple over this site.
A mosque has stood there (Mosque of Omar)

                BABYLONIANS(Chaldees where Abraham was born) , WHO HAD TAKEN OVER ASSYRIA, ATTACKED IN 597 BCE AND AGAIN IN 586 BCE WITH NEBUCHADNEZZAR, LAND OF INSOLENT PAGAN TYRANNY, EXILED MANY JEWS TO BABYLON.  MANY JEWS REMAINED HERE AFTER FREED BY CYRUS WHO HELPED THEM TO RETURN TO JUDAH.  THE JEWISH POSITION WOULD BE IN PERIL UNTIL THE ARAB CONQUEST IN 7TH CENTURY CE.

  538 BCE  CYRUS II, KING OF PERSIA (IRAN TODAY) was in power so granted permission to the exiles of Judah in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple.  The Jewish exiles regarded Cyrus as a Divine agent.  Ezra led them back.  Not all followed.  
He overran the Babylonian Empire which then included what was later called Palestine by the Romans in 135 CE.  Cyrus died in 529 BCE.  It's thought that he may have been the son of Queen Esther, the Jewish beauty who was married to King Ahasueros.  

312-198 BCE:  Ptolemaic rule and then under                Seleucids-growing Hellenization
           Macedonian king of Egypt
                One of Alexander the Great's generals.  

250 BCE:  PARTHIA RULED JUDAH: This was an empire of Iranic people.  from 3rd century BCE-226 CE it ruled over the vast mass of the Jewish population in Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Media.  
200 BCE:  Antiohus III conquered Eretz Yisrael  and granted privileges to the Temple.  Seleucids had financial problems and had a hard time eeting its depressed monetary situation.  Here we have the Hasmonean revolt.  

                             

            2 CENTURIES OF PERSIAN RULE OVER JUDAH

                                                

                                         HASHMONEAN DYNASTY

168 BCE  Mattathias the Hashmonian revolted against Greek Syrians who had  occupied Jerusalem.  5 sons, Judah, Jonathan, Simon John and Eleazar  with him.  


Judah Maccabee
   d: 160 BCE

145 BCE Jonathan, Judah's brother, added Lydda to Judah
142 BCE Simon , brother of Judah Maccabee, became leader and high priest  died in 135 BCE:  

135 BCE  John Hyrcanus aka Yohanan Cohen Gadol (John, the high priest) was Simon's son, 
first to force people to become Jewish which he did to Idumaea.  
Preferred Sudducees over Pharisees.  
was defeated by Antiochus Vii Sidetes. 
     Aristobulus I, son of Hyrcanus last reign with Judaea being powerful and united as a state.
 Jerusalem was taken by the Syrians after a prolonged siege.
     Judea once more became a Seleucid province.    

105-104 BCE  Judah Aristobulus, son of Aristobulus King. 
104-76 BCE  Alexander Yanai, son of Aristobulus, now King. He set up a standing mercenary army and conquered Transjordan, Idumea and the coastal plain.  The Pharisees opposed his war policy so he was antagonistic toward them.  This led to a Civil War.  After a bloody struggle, he won.  
76-69 BCE He was married to Salome Alexandra who ruled after his death.  She died and the Hashmonean Dynasty declined.  

Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II were sons of Salome and Alexandaer Yanai had strife between them as leaders.  

63-43 BCE: Antipater saw a door open during this strife and became ruler of Judea.  He supported Hyrcanus in his war against his brother Aristobulus.  Then he assisted the Romans.  He joined up with Julius Caesar after his victory over Pompey, and recruited Jewish and Nabaean troops for his army.  He became financial administrator of Judea in 47 BCE.  
Father of Herod.  
47 BCE;  Antipater became effective ruler of the country.  He was also ruler of Idumea in 1st century BCE.  He grew rich from  trade with Arabia.  

Phasael and Herod: were sons of Antipater.  Appointed to chief administrative posts by their father.  
. 
73-4 BCE:  Herod I:  King of Judea by the Senate of Rome, son of Antipater the Idumean by his Nabatean wife, Cypros.

 Parthias restored: 40-37 BCE: King Antigonus Mattathias restored  to the throne of Judah .  he had been the last Hasmonean king, son of Aristobulus II.  when Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63, he was taken as a hostage to Rome.  He returned to Judea in 49.  He captured Jerusalem in 40 with the support of the Parthians.  Herod's brother, Phasael put him to death and mutilated his own uncle Hyrcanus so as to disqualify him for the high priesthood.  He then ruled as king of Judea and high priest.  

40 BCE  Parthians made Antigonus king who was the son of Aristobulus II. Antigonus was put to death.  

4 BCE-6 CE   ARCHELAUS, Son of Herod  ruled Judah as king.  A Jewish delegation requested Emperor Augustus.of Rome to dethrone the herodian dynasty.  Augustus did but gave him the title of ethnarch of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria.  Archelaus's rule was marked by severity, leading to his removal from office by Augustus.  He sent him to Gaul where he died in 16 CE.  

6 CE:  Romans created a province out of Judea,       Samaria and Idumea, naming it Iudaea

6 -66 CE:  Archelauas, son of Herod, Jerusalem            was ruled by Roman Procurators.
Procurators of Judea usually lived in Caesarea, the administrative capital of Roman Judea.  They went to Jerusalem to maintain order during holidays where they stayed in Herod's palace.  There were 14 of these governors:  7 between 6-41 CE.  Others ruled between 44-66.  

29 CE: Pontius Pilate was a procurator.  During his time, Jesus was crucified. 
37 CE  Herod captured Jerusalem with help of large Roman force.   
37 CE Herod married Mariamne, granddaughter of the high priest, Hyrcanus, a Hashmonean.  Herod murdered all rivals to his new power including his own brother in-law, Aristobulus III, the last Hasmonean high priest.  He put to death his own wife Mariamne, their 2 sons Alexander and Aristobulus, and his firstborn, Antipater.   

He rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale and erected the 2 new cities of Sebaste and Caesarea.  When he died, his will read that his kingdom was to be partitioned among his sons Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip. 

39: Romans drove the Parthians from Syria.  Herod attacked Antigonus and won.  Antigonus then fortified himself in Jerusalem, but was captured after a 5 month siege and put to death. 

  Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas, (born 21 BCE—died in 39 CE), son of Herod I the Great who became tetrarch of Galilee and ruled throughout Jesus of Nazareth's ministry.  His mother was Malthace of Samaria.  Herod died in 4 BCE and he became tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, founded Tiberias for the emperor.  He married Herodias, wife of his brother Herod.  

41-44: Agrippa (10 BCE-44 CE)  ruled in Jerusalem as king.  Son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod.  He began to build a 3rd wall to the North
It was Caligula, Roman Emperor from 37 -41 the title of king to rule NE Palestine.  Caligula was touched in the head, insisting on being worshiped as a divinity causing disturbances in Alexandra when he visited.  

64–68 CE: Nero, Roman Emperor 54-68,  persecutes Jews and Christians throughout the Roman Empire.  His wife was sypathetic to Judaism.  This was a period of turmoil in Judea ending with war against Rome.  


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Featured snippet from the web

  • The Sanhedrin is relocated to Yavne. Pharisees become dominant, and their form of Judaism evolves into modern day Rabbinic Judaism (whereas Sadducees and Essenes are no longer recorded as groups 
  • in history. 
  • 130 CE Hadrian, Roman Emperor, built a new city over Jerusalem, calling it Colonia Aelia Capitolina.  

132 Revolt against Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138) led by Bar Kokhba. He tried to end circumcision.  Turning Jerusalem into Roman colony to be called after himself. 
135 CE  General Bar Kokhba died after retaking Jerusalem and holding it for 3 years from the Romans.  Nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin, of David descent.  

324 – Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire Constantine the Great, having defeated Emperor Maximian, Caesar of the Western Roman Empire at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge becomes the sole ruler of the re-united Roman Empire with its capital at Byzantium (New Rome) and legalizes Christianity and other religions. Queen Helena, a devout Christian, wife of Eastern Roman Emperor Constantius and mother of Constantine the Great, departs for the Holy Land and begins the construction of churches.


Updated with additional information going to 324 CE:  12/31/19 





352 CE  An upriing in Lydda happened causing Jews to be nearly exterminated by Constantius Gallus.  Now Christians made up the population.  
After Arab conquest, Lydda became the capital of Palestine until: 700 CE.  Arabs left in 1948.  
700 CE when the capital became Ramleh nearby.  

1950  Lydda holds the airport of modern-day Israel.  




Thursday, November 15, 2018

The Major Hannukah Story: Judah's Occupation By Greek Syrians Leading To Roman Occupation -

Nadene Goldfoot                                       
King Hoshea of Israel  in 721 BCE getting ready to attack the Assyrians
Israel had been a large Empire which later divided in a civil disagreement which turned into a small war. When they divided they were the northern part- Israel and the southern part-Judah.  The northern half of Israel, later called Samaria (name of their capital and surrounding area) , had been lost to Judah when the Assyrians had attacked them and took them away from 722 to 721 BCE, leaving Judah exposed.  The Assyrians annexed Israel and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media.  Then they replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.  Before that, Israel ruled itself when king Solomon had died in 920 BCE.   Though Israel  had broken away from David and Solomon's Judean dynasty, they had their own kings with Hoshea being their last one who reigned from 730 to 721 BCE. 
 Judeans had been seized by  the Babylonians from 597 to 586 BCE and taken to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar.  They were able to finally return in 538 BCE and rebuilt their Temple that King Solomon and spent so much time and labor building.  
                                                                 
King Zedekiah of Judah, last king in 586 BCE
  Judah had kept up their own state with kings after Solomon had died in 920 BCE until 586 BCE with Zedekiah being Judah's last king from 597 to 586 BCE.
                                                                             
Problems were inevitable when Alexander the Great died in 322 BCE when only 29 years old who had been the king of Macedonia, an empire now divided into Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia.  The people spoke Greek.    He had made a great impression on the Jews.  When he visited Jerusalem, he gave great honor to the high priest, Jaddua, and gave the Jews many privileges.   He was not married and had no children, so didn't leave his lands to any family members.  His generals then divided Alexander's empire up among themselves.   The Greeks believed in many gods but did believe in a god.  Alexander admired the Jewish religion.  The Jews loved him.  This is why so many used his name for their own children.  It was adopted as a surname often when that became the naming laws.
Most of the 60,000 Jews living in the Greek area of Macedonia were exterminated during WWII. 
                                     
 Alexander the Great, a Greek, conquered Syria in 332 BCE and, after his death in 323 BCE, the Seleucid Empire ruled the region.   That was one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus Nicator who then established his Hellenistic royal dynasty of the Seleucids.  

Antiochus III settled Babylonian Jews in the cities of Phrygia and Lydia and entrusted them with an important role in securing those regions of his empire.  He conquered the Jewish land by 200 BCE and granted privileges to the Temple.

The Greek Syrians had been occupying  Judah since 174 BCE and held the land including Jerusalem till 163 BCE.  They chose kings over the Jewish land. 
                                                           

Antiochus IV Epiphanes was their new king, who waged a bloody war upon the Jews, and  had imposed his own Hellenic cult on them which sparked a national rebellion.  It was a threat not only to all their lives, but also to their spiritual existence.  

After years of Greek domination, Jews were beginning to be a part of the Greek culture and its hedonistic pagan way of life.  They had become Jewish Hellenists and were willing pawns in Antiochus' scheme to obliterate all traces of their own Jewish religion.  The 2nd Temple was invaded, desecrated and robbed of all its treasures.  Many Jews were massacred and any lucky survivors were heavily taxed.  Antiochus put an idol of Zeus on the holy altar and forced the population to bow before it under penalty of death.  He forbid the Jews to observe their Sabbath and the rite of circumcision. Antiochus proclaimed himself a god, and took the name ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES---the DIVINE.  Even his own Greek Syrians mocked him as ANTIOCHUS EPIMANES--the madman!  

In every town and city in Judah, altars were erected with statues of Greek gods and goddesses.  Soldiers rounded up Jews and forced them to make offerings to their gods and engage in other immoral acts customary to the Greeks.  The Jews did not resist at this point.  

                                                                         
Yehuda "Judah" Maccabee, the Hammerer
used guerilla warfare against the Greek Syrians.
Numbering 6,000, they defeated the armed battaion of
47,000 Syrians.  
Back in about 166 BCE, there was a priestly family, the Hasmoneans, founded by Mattathias of the town of Modiin.  Their ancestor, a priest, descended from Aaron, brother of Moses, had been named Hashmon.   Mattathias had 5 sons:  Judah the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John and Eleazar.

In Modiin, a small village a few miles east of Jerusalem, Mattityahu challenged the Greek soldiers and those who were acquiescing to their demands.  With his 5 sons backing him, he attacked the troops, slew the idolators, and destroyed the idol.  They cried out, "ALL WHO ARE WITH G-D, FOLLOW ME!"  
                                                   
Remembering this history every year with
the celebration of Hanukkah and lighting
a menorah.  

Then these brave activists retreated to the hills, gathered more forces and commenced to overthrow the oppression of Antiochus and his men.  

The Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, had attacked Judah and was about to occupy the Jewish land.  The Hasmoneans fought a number of battles against them, and in 164 BCE, Judah captured Jerusalem back from the Syrians. Then they held raids to rescue the Jews of Ammon, Idumea, Gilead and Galilee.  

 Eleazar (5)  was killed in 163 BCE at Bet Zechariah where they were finally defeated.  They had been able to get better terms for their religious freedom, though due to  the Syrian distractions.  
                                                       

Judah (1)  continued the fight for political freedom as well, and Judah fell at Elasa in 160 BCE. 

John (4) was murdered shortly afterwards and Jonathan (2) took over the leadership.  He was able to secure the high priesthood in 152 BCE and then the governorship of Judah by 150 BCE.  

Simon (3) got the exemption from tribute in 147 BCE.  He was confirmed by the people as the hereditary high priest, the ethnarch and general in 142 BCE.  Then he was murdered in 135 BCE. 
                                                                           
Seleucides lost to the Judeans
That ended in the expulsion of the Seleucides and the establishent of Judah as an independent Jewish kingdom once again, but this time under their own Hasmonean dynasty of Judah.

The Hasmonians converted Moabites, Edomites and Ammonites to Judaism forcibly as well as the northern kingdom of Israel, now populated with other peoples that the foreign leaders had brought in.  
The pragmatic materialism of Greek culture left no room for the Jews'special relationship with G-d.  The Syrian-Greek desecration of the Holy Temple was another example of their determination to destroy the sanctity of Jewish life.  

Jews had freed themselves from the Seleucids.    Antiochus VII Sidetes then invaded the country in the time of Simon the Hasmonean, the Judean chosen ethnarch (ruler of the people) in 138 BCE and again with greater success in 134 BCE.  When Antiochus died in 129 BCE, the Jews revolted, and the Seleucid rule in the land ended in 128 BCE.

Simon's son, John Hyrcanus had succeed him and suffered a crushing defeat by Antiochus VII Sidetes in that Jerusalem was taken by the Syrians after a long siege and Judea once more became a Seleucid province.  After the defeat of Antiochus in his war against Parthia, John launched a successful offensive against Transjordan.  Samaria and Idumea which marked the transition of the Hashmoneans to a semi-hellenized secular military dynasty.  This led to his repudiation of the Pharisees and his siding to the aristocratic Sadducee party.  He was succeeded by his sons Judah Aristobulus in 105  to 194 BCE and Alexander Yannai in 104 to 76 BCE.  Alexander was the first to use a royal title.  He set up a standing mercenary army and conquered  Transjordan, Idumea and the coastal plain.   The Pharisees opposed his war policy and this led to a civil war in which Alexander was the victor after a very bloody struggle.  

The Pharisees were in the ascendant during the reign of his widow, Salome Alexandra from 76  to 69 BCE.  When she died, the Hasmonean dynasty declined.  There had been strife between her sons Hyrcans II, ethnarch appointed by Julius Caesar and Aristobulus II which led to the intervention and eventual domination of Antipater and his son, Herod who had Roman assistance.  

In Syria, "the Parthians reigned until, weakened by repeated attacks by the Scythians, their empire fell.  Tigranes the Great (140-55 BCE) of the Kingdom of Armenia in Anatolia was welcomed by the people of Syria as a liberator in 83 BCE and held the land as part of his kingdom until Pompey the Great took Antioch in 64 BCE and annexed Syria as a Roman province. 
                                                        

"In 63 BCE the Roman General Pompey conquered Jerusalem and made the Jewish kingdom a client state of Rome.  

Hyrcanus remained a puppet while Aristobulus II and his sons, Alexander and Antigonus Mattathias failed to gain any power.  

Hyrcanus' granddaughter, Mariamne, daughter of Alexander, son of Aristobulus II,  married Herod and was his 2nd wife, mother of his 3 sons and 2 daughters,  but was put to death by him in 29 BCE.  Also killed were the surviving Hasmoneans viz.  Aristobulus III in 35 BCE, Hyrcanus II in 30 BCE, and Mariamne's son, Alexander and Aristobulus in 7 BCE.  

Herod's sister, Salome, had never stopped inciting the king against Mariamne  and had finally convinced him that she was an adulteress which was why he had her killed.  
                                                          
Herod
Son of Antipater the Idumean (Edom) or Mt. Seir, mountainous land, descendants of Esau, hunters and Cypros, the Nabatean mother. Nabateans also lived Edom in 6th century BCE with their capital in Petra;  nomads who learned farming and water conservation. They were Arabs.  
The Edomites had been conquered by John Hyrcanus  who ruled from 135 to 104 BCE, and forced to convert to Judaism. 

By 40-39 BCE, Herod the Great was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate. His son, Archelaus, was appointed ethnarch by  Augustus. Archelaus's mother was Malthace, the Samaritan.  Herod had named Archaelaus in his will as the ruler over the greater part of his kingdom as king.  When Archelaus went to Rome to get Augustus' ratification of the will, disturbances broke out all over Judah and a Jewish delegation asked Augustus to dethrone the Herodian dynasty.  Augustus took away the title of king but named him as an ethnarch of Judea, Idumea and Samaria.  He ruled severely from 4 BCE to 6 CE, causing Augustus to remove him from office.  He was exiled to Gaul where he died in 16 CE.
                                                        
                                                             
Herod's kingdom 4 BCE



In the year 6 CE, the last ethnarch of Judea was deposed by the emperor Augustus.  His territories combined with Idumea and Samaria and annexed as Iudaea Province under direct Roman administration.  

Now the Romans stepped in with Procurators, Roman governors over Judah after banishing Archelaus in the year of 6 CE.  The Romans gave titles to Jews and took them away as well.  

                                                                
Agrippa I was the king of Judea from 10 BCE but was defeated in 44 CE.  He was the son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod. 

 Herod I was King of Judea, appointed by the Roman Senate,  from 73 BCE to 4 BCE.  He was the son of Antipater, the Idumean by his Nabagean wife, Cypros.  His father had first appointed him governor of Galilee, and he showed that he had a strong hand by executing dissident Jews.  Because of his cruelty, he was summoned by the Sanhedrin and could have been put to death for taking lives, but the procurator (governor) of Syria, Sextus Caesar and Hyreanus saved him.  John Hyreanus  was the son and successor of Simon, the Hasmonean, and ruled from 135 to 104 BCE.   Hyrcanus II ws the oldest son of Alexander Yannai and had succeed his mother, Salome Alexandra in 67 BCE, but was driven from the throne and high priesthood by his brother, Aristobulus.  Pompey left for Jerusalem and was determined to fight the Roman invaders.  Pompey chased him and afater a 3 month sige, captured the Temple Mount, deposed Aristobulus and appointed Hyrcanus II as high priest.  The Jewish land was joined politically to Syria.  
                                                                    

     I  The first procurator (Roman Governor) was Josephus. 

6-9 CE  Coponius, revolt of Judas the Galilean happened.
9-12 CE  Marcus Ambibulus,   

14-37 CE TIBERIUS- Roman emperor.  In year 19, expelled Jews from Rome because of  fraud on a Roman matron sympathetic to Judaism.  He had 4,000 young Jews sent to Sardinia to fight the brigands.  Judah was harshly ruled under his rule when Jesus was crucified. 

12-15 CE Annius Rufus, Augustus died then. 
 15-26 CE  Valerius Gratus, appointed and deposed the high priests
26-36 CE  Pontius Pilate, deposed in Spring of 36
36-37 CE  Marcellus, subordinate official of Vitellius. Vitellius deposed Pilate.

44-46 CE  Ciuspius,  Claudius appointed him to stop the Syrian legate Vibius Marsus who didn't like Jews and had been mistreating them.
46-48 CE  Tiberius Alexander, sent by emperor believe that a born Jew would be welcome to the Jews.  
48-52 CE  Ventidius Curnanus, removed on the urgent petition of the Jews
52-60 CE  Felix,  appointed by emperor when high priest Jonathan asked for him.Had to sit in judgement on the apostle Paul.
60-62 CE  Porcius Festus, a fairly just man, in proceedings against Paul
62--64 CE  Albinus, notorious through his extortions.
64-66 CE  Gessius Florus, a contemptible ruler, revolt of Jews took place.  
70 CE:  ROMANS BURNED 2ND TEMPLE AND DESTROYED JERUSALEM. 

            Many Jews were captured, made into slaves, taken to Rome, killed in arenas, etc.                  

132-135 CE General"Aluf" Bar Kokhba fought the Romans, regained Jerusalem, but was killed in 135 CE. Romans were so angry that they named the land PALESTINE, after the Philistines, the worst Jewish enemy of their history.  In Greek it was called Syria Palaestina, and in Latin it was called Palaestina, and Palaistine.    

Aluf Simon bar Kokhba 
The Jewish travails started with the death of Alexander the Great and didn't end until General Bar Kokhba died which was a total of 457 years.  Chanukah's celebration was an important moment during this history of succeeding to keep alive our religion which  mattered from then on through thick and thin efforts.  It seems it's a never-ending struggle against elements that  could wipe us out, but here we are.  We live.  Chai, chai, chai.  

Resource: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12376-procurators
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.jewishhistory.org/alexander-the-great/
https://www.ancient.eu/syria/
Your Chanukah Guide, Dec 5- 13, 1996, Lubavitch World Headdauater, Rabbi Schneerson
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-land-of-edom-aka-idumea-enemies-of.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/08/jezebel-and-fatal-royal-houses-of.html
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2016/02/roman-destruction-of-2nd-temple-and.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2016/12/our-miracle-of-chanukah-storys-enemy.html