The Acra was a fortress or citadel built in Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, after his conquest of the city in 168 BCE. According to Josephus^[1], it stood on a hill higher than the Temple and was garrisoned by Greek soldiers. Its exact location is now unknown, but is generally believed to have been in the northern part of the City of David, near the contemporary southern wall of the Temple Mount^[2].

The first stage of the liberation of Jerusalem by the Maccabees in 164 BC was incomplete, as they gained possession of the city and the temple but the Hellenistic garrison and local supporters of the Seleucids held out in the Acra for a considerable time. It withstood the efforts of both Judas and Jonathan Maccabeus to subjagate it, eventually yielding to Simon Maccabeus in 141 BC.

After reduction of the fortress the Maccabees demolished the Acra and leveled the hill on which it had stood, thereby finally securing the position of Judea as an independent kingdom.

However, the name "Acra" persisted as a popular name for this part of Jerusalem for many years later, and is so attested in later sources.

[edit] References

• 1911 Britannica

[edit] See also

• Ptolemaic Baris
• Acropolis
• Kremlin
• Alcázar
• Citadel

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