Ancient Rome 135-37BC – Judaea – Maccabean Kings AE Prutah Widow’s Mite

This is a genuine ancient bronze prutah of the Roman province of Judaea. It has been inspected and certified as genuine by NGC (Numismatic Guarantee Corporation). Comes in Box with a COA. This is a stock photo and the coin received may not be identical to the one pictured. For Four hundred years after the Babylonian conquest 287 BCE, the Jews were a conquered people, subject to the whims of their overlords. Then, in 167 BCE, Judah the Hammer-Maqqaba in Aramaic; hence “Maccabee”-led a rebellion against the forces of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had slaughtered thousands of Jerusalem Jews by invading on the Sabbath. Judah and his brave warriors liberated the Temple from the profane Seleucids, removing the idols placed there, and dedicating a new altar on the twenty-fifth on the month of Kislev, in the year 165 BCE. Although there was only enough oil to burn for a single day, the Menorah stayed lit for eight days-a miracle that demonstrated divine protection. It is from this event that Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, derives. Antiochus IV died a year later, 164 BCE, and Jerusalem was liberated. Judah was the patriarch of the Maccabean, also known as the Hasmonean, dynasty. He was succeeded by Simon the Great and then by Simon’s son John Hyrcanus I. Under John’s leadership, the Jews completely repelled the hated Seleucids from all of Judaea, doubling the size of their kingdom and granting them the opportunity to mint coins for the first time.