The Books of the Maccabees, the chief sources for the battles of Judas Maccabaeus, do not specify any Jewish tactical unit that took part in them nor any armament. I Maccabees usually confines himself to the general term ἄνδρες (‘men’, ‘people’: 4.6, 29, 5.20, 7.40, 9.5) and II Maccabees is no less obscure (e.g. 8.1, 22, 10.1, 16,25, 11.6, 13.15), in contrast to the wealth of detail they provide for the enemy army. Such a presentation creates the impression that the arms at the disposal of the Jews were meagre and primitive. The author of I Maccabees even complains more than once of the shortage of basic fighting equipment at the start of the Revolt (3.12, 4.6, 31). The complaints do not recur after the purification of the Temple, and the author incidentally notes the improvement that had taken place in the effectiveness and quantity of the armament at the disposal of the Jewish forces (6.6). But that was only a slip of the pen in the course of an explanation of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in Persia as being the result of his disappointment at the failure of his Judaean plans. Even here the author is not explicit, and is satisfied with a general and vague statement, and he continues to refrain from mentioning the types of weapons or units in the Jewish army even in descriptions of later battles.