Battle of Elasa

Part of the Maccabean Revolt

Date	160 BCE
Location	Elasa, near modern-day Ramallah
Result	Decisive Seleucid victory

Belligerents

Seleucid Empire

Maccabean rebels

Commanders and leaders

Bacchides

Judas Maccabeus †

Strength

Est. 20,000 infantry,
2,000 cavalry

Est. 800-1,000 infantry(during the battle)

Casualties and losses

Unknown

Most killed

The Battle of Elasa was fought between Jewish and Seleucid armies during the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. The skirmish resulted in the defeat of outnumbered Maccabee forces and the fall of the Jewish leader Judah Maccabee. Despite the defeat and consequent overtake of Jerusalem by the Seleucids, Judah Maccabee's brothers continued in their revolt against the Seleucids and eventually succeeded in to expel the Seleucid forces from the region and establish an independent Kingdom.

In 160 BCE, the Seleucid King Demetrius, on campaign in the east, left his general Bacchides to govern the western portion of the empire. Bacchides led an army of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry into Judea intending to reconquer the newly emerging autonomous kingdom.

The Seleucid general Bacchides hastily marched through Judea after carrying out a massacre in the Galilee. He quickly made for Jerusalem, besieging the city and trapping Judas Maccabeus, the spiritual and military leader of Judea, inside.

1 Maccabees records that Judah's army consisting of 3,000 men were terrified of such a large force and two thirds of them fled the battle field, leaving Judah with only 800 or 1,000 soldiers (1 Maccabees, and Flavius Josephus respectively). Judah encouraged his remaining men and set out to meet the Seleucid army in the rough terrain surrounding Jerusalem.

Being heavily outnumbered, Judah Maccabee ignored the Seleucid infantry which had deployed in the slow moving and inflexible phalanx formation, instead launching an all out attack on Bacchides himself, who was part of the Seleucid cavalry squadron on the right flank of the army. They succeeded in quickly routing Bacchides' cavalry, who fled into the steep hills that surround Jerusalem, with the Judeans in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, the left flank of Seleucid cavalry had been racing to meet up with the right flank, and in doing so surrounded and fought against the Judeans in the hills. The Seleucid infantry may or may not have caught up. If they did catch up, despite being unable to properly deploy in phalanx formation due to the terrain, and not being trained or equipped properly for individual hand-to-hand combat, they would still have managed to turn the battle easily by sheer weight of numbers. Judah was eventually killed and the remaining Judeans fled.

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Wikipedia