If indeed the Maccabean martyrs deserve their present character as heroes of Hellenistic Judaism, Eleazar should, by the early Roman period, have become the “father of all martyrs” and each of the seven sons the “poster child” of martyrdom. As independent Judaea slipped under strict Roman control, new conditions ripened for Eleazar's “noble example” to crop up.

Maccabean independence was crumbling after Pompey's conquest in 63 b.c. Jewish society again found itself divided, with groups of rebels fighting a foreign authority supported by fellow Jews and a Jewish monarch. Pro-Roman culture was believed to have replaced its Hellenistic forebears, and opposition forces ventured to follow in the footsteps of the Maccabean rebels to restore the glory of the past.

Reality, of course, was more complicated. Rebels constituted diverse groups, whereas levels of support for and collaboration with the Romans varied. And then, as in the Hasmonean period, there were the innocents caught between. If under these conditions the vivid memories of the past could bring to life the Maccabean militant, as the commemoration of the great Maccabean victory against the Syrian general Nicanor on 13 Adar demonstrates, it should have also revived the Maccabean martyr. And because the roster of Hellenistic martyrs known by name or fame was limited to eight individuals, Eleazar the scribe and the mother's seven sons should have been the natural choice for inspiring further exemplars or, at least, imaginative writers. Despite the inviting conditions, they did not.