2nd-century BCE) was a Syrian-Greek general (strategos), governor, friend and advisor (philos) of King Demetrius I Soter of the Seleucid Empire.
The Seleucid Empire was one of the Greek successor states (ruled by the diadochi) founded after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and was centered in Syria and Babylonia in the Hellenistic era.
The work was written in the Hasmonean kingdom after the success of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, and is thus a source hostile to Bacchides.
So there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that prophets ceased to appear among them.With Judas's defeat, Bacchides re-established Seleucid authority in Judea.
He is described as fortifying Jericho, Emmaus, Beth-horon, Beth-el, Thamnata (Timnatha), Pharathon, Tephon, Beth-zur, and Gazara.
Bacchides also orders the taking hostages of the sons of various important families of the Judean elite to the Acra citadel of Jerusalem as a guarantee of good behavior.
Around 159 BCE, Alcimus died; Bacchides returned to Syria for a period of two years afterward, and Judea saw peace.
1 Maccabees describes Judean Hellenists as stirring up trouble and convincing Bacchides to come back to Judea a third time to try his luck against Jonathan's rebels.
The Jewish War mentions a Seleucid commander named Bacchides who is in charge of the garrison at Jerusalem at the start of the persecution (around ~168–167 BC) who began torturing eminent citizens to indulge in his own brutal barbarity.
In Megillat Antiochus, a rabbinic Judaism version of the Hanukkah story written around the 2nd century CE, he is called Bagris, or Bogores.