The Hasmonean Kingdom http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?hasmon01.wav=Hasmonean (Hebrew: Hashmonai) (140 BCE–37 BCE) The family name of the Hasmonean dynasty originates with the ancestor of the house, Ἀσαμωναῖος Asamoneus or Asmoneus (see Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=J.+AJ+12.265; http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=J.+AJ+14.468; http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=J.+AJ+16.179), who is said to have been the grandfather of Mattathias, but about whom nothing more is known. was an autonomous Jewish state in ancient Judea. Its ruling Hasmonean dynasty was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after his brother Judah the Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabee Revolt in 165 BCE. The Kingdom was the only independent Jewish state to exist in the four centuries after the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed by Babylonia in 586 BCE, and was one of the last prior to the modern State of Israel.