Bacchides () ( 2nd-century BCE) was a Syrian-Greek general and governor (strategos) and friend and advisor (philoi) of King Demetrius I Soter of the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucid Empire was one of the Greek successor states (diadochi) founded after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and was centered in Syria and Babylonia in the Hellenistic era.
Bacchides is only known from the books of Maccabees (1 Maccabees, possibly 2 Maccabees as well) and the works of the historian Josephus.
Depiction in 1 Maccabees
The main source on Bacchides is the book 1 Maccabees. The work was written in the Hasmonean kingdom after the success of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, and is thus a source hostile to Bacchides. Nevertheless, the book is open about the successes Bacchides achieved on behalf of the government.
According to Chapter 7, Demetrius sent Bacchides in 161 BCE to Judea with an army in order to invest Alcimus with the office of High Priest of Israel. This mission succeeded; the book of 1 Maccabees does not report any challenge to it, perhaps because the Maccabees were still rebuilding after their defeat at the Battle of Beth Zechariah. The book then reports a negotiation took place between Alcimus and the Hasideans, but Alcimus broke his oath, and seized and executed sixty of the Hasideans. Bacchides then left Jerusalem, encamped at a place called Beth Zaith, and then arrested and executed some locals. He then returned to the king at the capital. The reference to "Beyond the River" as where Bacchides ruled is more a linguistic quirk; the style of 1 Maccabees heavily uses archaic references and a biblical style, and so uses the Persian term for area west of Mesopatamia rather than the Greek one ("Syria").
Bacchides next appears in Chapter 9. After Nicanor's defeat at the Battle of Adasa, Bacchides is dispatched to quell the rebellious region. He engages with the rebel army at the Battle of Elasa, and wins a key victory. The leader of the Judeans, Judas Maccabeus, was killed, and the Maccabees were forced to retreat. The timing of these two events is somewhat uncertain and disputed; the work says that Adasa was in the month of Adar, and Elasa was in the following month of Nisan. Many scholars presume that Adasa was in 161 BCE, while Bacchides expedition happened in 160 BCE, suggesting a long 13-month gap compared to the narrative seemingly suggesting Bacchides was sent out immediately afterward; however, if both battles happened in the same year, this would be an exceptionally fast response to have the expedition of Bacchides ready to go and attack immediately after news of the defeat reached the capital, given travel times in antiquity.
With Judas's defeat, Bacchides re-established Seleucid authority in Judea. The rebels nominated Judas's brother Jonathan Apphus to lead them with Judas's death, and seem to have fled to Tekoa on the border of Idumea near the Jordan River. 1 Maccabees then describes a battle that the Maccabees won against Bacchides' forces on the Jordan River, with the government forces declining to attempt to follow the rebels across the river. Still, while the rebel movement would survive in the countryside, they could not retake the cities. Bacchides then built and established fortifications with Seleucid garrisons around Judea. He is described as fortifying Jericho, Emmaus, Beth-horon, Beth-el, Thamnata (Timnatha), Pharathon, Tephon, Beth-zur, and Gazara. Bacchides also orders the taking hostages of the sons of various important families of the Judean elite to the Acra citadel of Jerusalem as a guarantee of good behavior. Around 159 BCE, Alcimus died; Bacchides returned to Syria for a period of two years afterward, and Judea saw peace.