On the history of the district see further Jews; Maccabees; Palestine.
For the later period he uses the Greek Esther, with its additions, I Maccabees, Polybius, Strabo and Nicolaus of Damascus.
For since the ministers of the Temple at Jerusalem were the aristocracy of the land, and were often, as we know both from the book of Malachi and from the history of the Maccabees, the chief offenders, it is extremely unlikely that they collected for the official services.
Robert has been compared to the Maccabees, and the fact that he was the ancestor of the Capetian kings of France has invested him with historical importance.
By the Jews it was called the Era of Contracts, because the Syrian governors compelled them to make use of it in civil contracts; the writers of the books of Maccabees, call it the Era of Kings.