Jason of Cyrene

Jason of Cyrene was a Hellenistic Jew who lived about 100 BC and wrote a history of the times of the Maccabees down to the victory over Nicanor (175-161). This work is said to have been in five books and formed the basis of the present 2 Maccabees.^[1]

References

^ Smith, Sir William (ed.) (1849). "JASON, literary". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. vol. II. Boston: Little & Brown. p. 555. http://books.google.com/books?id=HP4rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA555.

"And all such things as have been comprised in five books by Jason of Cyrene, we have attempted to abridge in one book." 2 Maccabees 2:24

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.