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275 begins in Babylon Anshan, Elam, Mitanni emerge against Babylon; Moses in Sinai, the “burning bush” Neo-Assyrian empire launched; Akitu festival renewed in Babylon Ashurnasirpal wears cross symbol Prophecy in Jerusalem begins with Amos Anunnaki gods complete their Departure; Persians challenge Babylon; Cyrus Greece’s golden age; Herodotus in Egypt Maccabees free Jerusalem, Temple rededicated 1460 2300 960 2800 860 760 2900 3000 560 3200 460 160 3100 3600 The impatient reader will hardly wait to fill in the next entries: 60 3700 The Romans build the Jupiter temple at Baalbek, occupy Jerusalem Jesus of Nazareth; A.p. count begins 3760 The century and a half that elapsed from the Maccabean freeing of Jerusalem to the events connected with Jesus after he arrived there were some of the most turbulent in the his- tory of the ancient world and of the Jewish People in par- ticular. That crucial period, whose events affect us to this day, began with understandable jubilation. For the first time in centuries the Jews were again complete masters of their holy capital and sacred Temple, free to appoint their own kings and High Priests. Though the fighting at the borders contin- ued, the borders themselves now extended to encompass much of the olden united kingdom of David’s time. The es- tablishment of an independent Jewish state, with Jerusalem as its capital, under the Hashmoneans was a triumphal event in all respects—except one: Jerusalem: A Chalice, Vanished