Callisthenes

CALLISTHENES [isbe]

CALLISTHENES - ka-lis'-the-nez (Kallisthenes): An officer of Nicanor who was charged with the burning of the sacred portals of the temple at the time of the desecration under Antiochus Epiphanes (168 BC). After the decisive defeat of Nicanor's army at Emmaus (165 BC) the Jews celebrated the victory in the city of their fathers and burned C. who had fled into an outhouse with others who had set the sacred gates on fire, "the meet reward of their impiety" (2 Macc 8:33).