during the reign of High Priest John Hyrcanus (reigned ~134–104 BC), with a few scholars suggesting that early in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (reigned 103–76 BC) is also a possibility. All agree that the book was written before 63 BC, as the author shows great admiration toward Rome and does not know of the Roman general Pompey conquering Jerusalem and reducing the Hasmonean kingdom to a client state of the Roman Republic in that year. He was likely a court historian or equivalent. The author appears to be very familiar with Judea and its geography, but appears less well-informed about the wider Hellenistic world. The entire work is generally considered to be a unity composed by a single author on both philological and thematic grounds, although there are occasional short passages sometimes contested as potentially being added at a later date. Title The title "1 Maccabees" is not the original title of the work. Rather, it comes from the Septuagint, which gave it that title to distinguish it from the other books of the Maccabees. In the book itself, "Maccabee" is used solely as a personal title for Judah Maccabee (Latinized as Judas Maccabeus). Judas's Maccabee title is generally tied to the Aramaic word maqqaba ("makebet" in modern Hebrew), "hammer" or "sledgehammer", in recognition of his prowess in battle. The word "Maccabees" in plural, however, does not appear to have been used until centuries after the Maccabean Revolt. At first, it was used to describe the martyrs described in 2 Maccabees. It later became a title given to the rebels as a whole around the 3rd-5th century AD, hence the Septuagint naming the works as books of the Maccabees. This usage of "Maccabees" as a group-term may have originated in Greek, as no usage of it in Hebrew to refer to the rebels survives from any era earlier than the 19th century. Eusebius, in his book Church History, quotes Origen of Alexandria who says the original title of the work was , an enigmatic Greek transliteration from a putative Hebrew original title. Various reconstructions have been proposed: "Book of the Prince of the House of Israel" or "the Prince of the House of God (El)", from the Hebrew , , or , , respectively, History of the House of the Warriors, Book of the House of the Princes of God, The Book of the Dynasty of God's resisters, perhaps