Nicanor (Seleucid general)

Nicanor /naɪˈkeɪnər/ (Greek: Nικάνωρ Nikā́nōr; died 161 BC) was a Syrian-Seleucid General under Antiochus Epiphanes and Demetrius Soter.

The son of Patroclus and one of the king's "chief friends" (2 Macc 8:9), After the defeat of Seron by Judas Maccabeus at the Battle of Beth Horon, Epiphanes entrusted his chancellor Lysias with the destruction of Judea (1 Macc 3:34). Nicanor was one of the three generals commissioned by Lysias-the others being Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, and Gorgias (1 Macc 3:38). The campaign began in 166 BC; the Syrians were defeated at Emmaus (1 Macc 3:57), while Gorgias at a later stage gained a victory at Jamnia over a group of Jews who disobeyed Judas Maccabeus (1 Macc 5:58). The account given in 2 Maccabees differs considerably, both in omissions and in additions (2 Macc 8:9). There Nicanor, not Gorgias, is the chief in command. The battle of Emmaus is not mentioned, but "the thrice-accursed Nicanor," having in overweening pride invited a thousand slavedealers to accompany him to buy the Jewish captives, was humiliated, and his host was destroyed, he himself escaping "like a fugitive slave" to Antioch (2 Macc 8:34 f).

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