The contacts between various elements among the Jews, including the rebels, and the Seleucid authorities at the start of Demetrius Fs reign have been discussed above in a variety of contexts. The understanding of the aims and course of those contacts affected the assessment of the rebel recruitment and resistance capability during the second phase of the Revolt.1 Indeed during the reigns of Antiochus Epiphanes and Antiochus Eupator there were already diplomatic contacts between the Jews and the Antioch authorities. An accurate identification of the parties involved, the establishment of the exact timing, the way they evolved, their progress and outcome can illuminate Judas Maccabaeus’ diplomacy at the end of the first phase of the Revolt, and contribute to the understanding of the nature of the contacts during Demetrius Fs reign. They help also to clarify the political tactics of the Hellenizers and the internal struggle for power in Antioch in which the Jewish question played quite an important role.

The documents in II Maccabees 11

The information on the negotiations during the reigns of Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Antiochus Eupator is included in the four documents inserted in the eleventh chapter of II Maccabees. These documents have been the subject of much research in the last century, mainly because they present many fundamental difficulties which have attracted the attention of philologists as well as historians. The documents follow the description of Lysias’ first campaign, but it is impossible to fit the contents of some of them into the situation that developed immediately after that expedition.