HIRCANUS (LXX. 'Tpicavbs ; Vulg. Hir eanus), a son of Tobias, a man of great dignity' Criwavbs TcOlou a-0*a ciz,0 inrepoxii Acvos, Maccab. I). At the time when Heliodorus, the treasurer (O Irt 71;7P irpa-yp.cirwv) of Seleucus IV. Philopator, was ordered to seize the riches which had been placed in the temple of Jerusalem, Hircanus owned a large treasure there deposited for safety (2 Maccab. iii. 8 seq.) Nothing more is mentioned in 2. Maccab. than that he was a son of Tobias,' but Josephus gives an account of some children of Tobias' (raibes Twpiou) who took part with the high-priest Mene laus (Onias) against Jason (Jesus), who had been deprived of the high-priesthood by Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (Antiq. xii. 5. I). This Tobias had among his children a son named Joseph, who married as a second wife the daughter of his brother Solyinius, and by her had a son, whose name was Hircanus (Joseph. Andy. xii. 4. 2). Hirca nus, from this statement, would not be the son but the grandson of Tobias. Grotius, Calmet, Pri deaux, and others, have supposed that the Hircanus of Josephus is the same person as the Hircanus of 2 Maccab., and that `TpxoPas Twptou should be translated Hircanus„grandson of Tobias.' It is. however, worthy of notice that the story in 2 Maccab. respecting the sending of Heliodorus by Seleucus to rob the treasures at Jerusalem, his miraculous punishment, and his recovery from death at the prayer of Onias, is rendered very sus picious by the silence of Josephus, and that though Hircanus is represented both in 2 Maccab. and Josephus as bein,g connected by blood with Tobias, yet it is not recorded in Josephus (as it is in 2 Maccab.) that he had any treasure in the
temple. It seems hardly probable that the Hyr canus whose history is given by Josephus at some length can be identified with the son of Tobias' of 2 Maccab. The Hircanus in question may have been one of the sons of Tobias' elra/Ses Tcapiou) mentioned above as assisting in the sedition of the two high-priests.
The name of IIircanus occurs at a later period under the Maccabees. It has been thought that it was adopted on account of a victory gained by John, the son and successor of Simon Maccabxus, over the Hircanians (Euseb., Chran. lib. ii. ; Sulp. Severus, Hist. Sacr., lib. ii. c. xxvi.) Jose phus informs us that Hircanus accompanied Anti ochus VII. Sidetes into Parthia, and Nicolaus of Damascus says that a trophy was erected at the river Lycus to commemorate the victory over the Parthian general (Antiq. xiii. 8. 4). The Hircani ans were a nation whose territory was bounded on the north by the Caspian Sea, and would thus be at no great distance from Parthia, where John Hircanus had gained the victory. It is remark able that the different statements agree in the position of the countries, Hircania, Parthia, and the river Lycus (of Assyria) being contiguous. As Josephus, however, does not give any explana tion of the name (Antiq. xiii. 7. 4; Bell. "no'. i. 2. 3), and the son of Simon is nowhere called Hir canus in Maccab., the reason for its assumption is uncertain [MaccABERs].—F. W. M.