Mattityahu Antigonus מתתיהו אנטיגונוס
the last king of the Hasmonean house
The son of Aristobulus II came with a Parthian army, took Jerusalem and ruled three years. His coins are the only ones bearing two scripts side by side: in Greek "King Antigonus", in Hebrew "Mattityahu the High Priest and the council of the Jews". On the reverse are the Menorah and the table of the showbread—the only image of the Temple Menorah made while it still stood.
Herod went to Rome, came back with the title King of Judea and Roman legions, and in AM 3724 took the city after a long siege. Antigonus was carried to Antioch; at Herod's request Mark Antony executed him—the first king, a Roman historian notes, whom the Romans beheaded: a living Hasmonean was more dangerous than a dead claimant.
Herod finished the rest. The Talmud says it shortly and terribly: "Herod was a slave of the house of the Hasmoneans… he rose and killed all his masters." One girl was left; when he wanted to marry her she went up on the roof and threw herself down, saying: "Whoever says he comes from the Hasmonean house is a slave, for none of them is left but this girl, and she threw herself from the roof."
On the timeline
Places
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Batra 3b — Herod destroys the Hasmonean house; the girl on the roof
Documents of the period
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 14:330–491 — his coming with the Parthians, three years of rule, the siege and the fall
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 15:8–10 — his execution at Antioch at Herod's request
- Cassius Dio, Roman History 49:22 — the first king the Romans beheaded
Basis: documents and evidence.