The Maccabees, also spelled Machabees, were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who re-took control of Judea, which at the time was occupied by the Seleucid Empire. Its leaders, the Hasmoneans, founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 167 BC to 37 BC, being a fully independent kingdom from 104 to 63 BC. They reasserted the Jewish religion, freed Judea from the Syrian-Greek occupiers, and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.