The Roman–Jewish Treaty was an agreement made between Judas Maccabeus and the Roman Republic according to the book 1 Maccabees and Josephus's Jewish Antiquities. It took place around 161 BCE and was the first recorded contract between Judea and Ancient Rome. The Romans apparently extended an offer of aid to the Judean rebel side of the Maccabean Revolt. It does not appear the treaty ever resulted in direct action by the Romans, but it may have deterred other states from more extreme measures against Judea.
See also: Maccabean Revolt. During the early 2nd century BCE, Rome's power and influence in the Eastern Mediterranean region was growing, while that of the Hellenistic Greek successor states formed from the conquests of Alexander the Great was declining. Rome had defeated the Greek Syrians of the Seleucid Empire in the Roman–Seleucid War of 192 - 189 BCE and imposed terms at the Treaty of Apamea that required the Seleucid Empire to pay Rome an indemnity, as well as send important nobles to Rome as hostages. Rome defeated Antigonid Macedonia in the Third Macedonian War of 171–168 BCE, placing the Greek heartland under Roman influence. Rome then interfered in the Sixth Syrian War between the Seleucids and Ptolemaic Egypt, forcing Seleucid King Antiochus IV to choose between stopping his invasion of Egypt or facing war with Rome. The Roman intervention resulted in the war ending and Antiochus forced to hand back Cyprus to the Ptolemaic Kingdom. This incident was perceived as a humiliation of Antiochus and a sign to those discontent with the leadership of the Seleucid Empire that they might have a powerful ally in Rome.
The treaty was negotiated during the Maccabean Revolt, an attempt by Judeans first to stop Seleucid decrees against the practices of Second Temple Judaism, and later to acquire autonomy for the region. After winning a number of victories and capturing Jerusalem in 164 BCE, Judas Maccabeus sent two emissaries, Eupolemus son of John of the clan of Accos (Aramaic Hakkoz) and Jason son of Eleazar, to establish a treaty of friendship with the Roman Senate.
In 1 Maccabees, the treaty is preceded by several paragraphs of introduction which praise the Romans for their great strength and their unique system of government. The clauses of the treaty require each party to aid the other if it is attacked, and to refrain from helping the enemies of the other party. The treaty also contains an assurance by the Romans that they have told the Seleucid King Demetrius I not to attack the Jews.
2 Maccabees briefly mentions the diplomat Eupolemus in passing while discussing his father John. It says that John had negotiated concessions for the Jews, presumably with Antiochus III after his conquest of Coele-Syria, concessions that the new High Priest Jason was foolishly discarding:
2 Maccabees 11 also includes a document detailing a discussion with some Roman legates on their way to Antioch - not a full treaty, but showing that the Romans were monitoring the Jewish - Seleucid conflict and were staying in contact with both sides in the 160s BCE. This behavior would fit with Polybius's depiction of a Roman policy of promoting disunity and division within the Seleucid Empire.
Diodorus of Sicily reports the feud between the Hasmonean brothers Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, and that the two of them contended with a delegation of Jews opposed to both Hasmoneans. It seems to also attest to the alliance when reporting the delegation's case:
The historian Justin also seems to mention the alliance. While Justin wrote much later in the 2nd century, the source he was abridging from wrote in the first decades of the first century during the reign of Augustus:
The historian Josephus's Jewish Antiquities also includes an account of the treaty. Josephus almost certainly had a copy of 1 Maccabees that he used as a source, and Josephus largely paraphrases the account in 1 Maccabees without adding anything new.[1]
Mirabilia Urbis Romae, a popular medieval guidebook to Rome for the use of Christian pilgrims, mentions that the Greek church of San Basilio should be visited solely on account of a bronze tablet that had once been affixed to its wall. The Mirabilia in chapter 24 reports: in muro S. Basilio fuit magna tabula aenea, ubi fuit scripta amicitia in loco bono et notabili, quae fuit inter Romanos et Iudaeos tempore Iudae Machabaei. Attached to the wall of [the church of] San Basilio was a large bronze tablet where there was written, in a suitable and conspicuous place, friendship between the Romans and the Jews in the time of Judas Maccabaeus.
The Israeli scholar Dov Gera notes the similarity in form between the Roman-Jewish treaty and other comparable agreements, arguing that it was a legitimate agreement with the Romans rather than wishful thinking by the author of 1 Maccabees.
Despite the treaty, Rome did not directly militarily intervene in the Maccabean Revolt or the various wars of the early Hasmonean kingdom, nor were they obligated to by the rather flexible terms. Rather, the treaty was more a matter of proving legitimacy: that the premier power of the world recognized the nascent Jewish movement as a people worthy of their own autonomy and support. Rome's policy of generally endorsing breakaways such as the Hasmoneans or Timarchus helped weaken the authority of Demetrius I, a gamble that would eventually pay off with the movement of Alexander Balas, who challenged Demetrius I for leadership backed by mercenaries paid for by Rome and Pergamon. Rome's indirect pressure thus indeed weakened the Seleucid Empire, which benefited both the Hasmoneans and Rome to the detriment of the Seleucids.
One mysterious incident that may or may not have happened involves Josephus recording a complaint from the Hasmoneans about Seleucid depredations around Joppa. Josephus records an appeal from the Hasmoneans to the Romans to ask them to demand the Seleucids restore Hasmonean control of the coastal region, as well as the end of a Seleucid embargo on Judean exports. The incident is undated and the resolution unclear, although the Hasmoneans would eventually control the coastal region. Historian Chris Seeman suggests that this most likely happened, and that the Jewish appeal was apparently successful in getting the Seleucids under King Antiochus IX to back down.