JOHN HYRCANUS II., high priest from 78 to 40 B.C., was the eldest son of Alexander Jannaeus by his wife Alexandra, and was thus a grandson of the preceding. When his father died in 78, he was appointed high priest, and on his mother's death in 69 he claimed the succession to the supreme civil authority. After a troubled reign of three months, he was compelled to abdicate both dignities in favour of his more ambitious younger brother Aristo bulus II. In 63 Pompey restored him to the high priesthood, with some semblance of supreme command. He was soon again deprived of his office by the arrangement of the pro-consul Ga binius, according to which Palestine was in S7 B.C. divided into five separate circles. For services to Caesar after the battle of Pharsalia, he was again rewarded with the sovereignty in 47 B.C., Antipater of Idumaea, however, being at the same time made procurator of Judaea. In 41 B.C. he was practically superseded by Antony's appointment of Herod and Phasael to be tetrarchs of Judaea ; and in the following year he was taken prisoner by the Parthians, deprived of his ears that he might be permanently disqualified for priestly office, and carried to Babylon. He was permitted in 33 B.C. to return to Jerusalem, where on a charge of treasonable correspondence with Malchus, king of Arabia, he was put to death in 3o B.C.
See Josephus (Ant. xiii. 8-1o, xiv. 5-13; Bell. Jud. i. 2, i. 8-13). Also MACCABEES, History.