Code by Fab
Antiochus is the wrath put into effect.
Sack
of Jerusalem
In a spirit of revenge, he organized an expedition against Jerusalem.
He had soldiers enter the Jewish Temple and slaughter a pig (which was
considered "unclean" by the Jews) on the Altar of the Lord.
They set the pig ablaze and then took the meat and tried to make some
Jewish men eat it. The men refused and he cut their tongues out, scalped
them, cut off their hands and feet, and burnt them on the Altar of the
Lord. After this, the Jews began the war of independence under their
Maccabean leaders, defeating the armies that Antiochus sent against
them. Enraged at this, Antiochus is said to have marched against them
in person, threatening to exterminate the nation; but, on the way, he
was suddenly arrested by the hand of death (164 BC). The exact causes
of the Jewish revolt, and of Antiochus' response to it, are uncertain;
the Jewish accounts are in the Books of the Maccabees, and the successful
revolt is commemorated by the holiday of Hanukkah.
