The Maccabees, also spelled Machabees (Hebrew: מכבים or מקבים‎, Maqabim; Latin: Machabi or Machado; Greek: Μακκαβαῖοι, Makkabaioi), were the leaders of a Jewish rebel army that took control of Judea, which at the time had been a province of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE.