Case file · Sighting
Horsemen in the sky over Jerusalem
2 Maccabees 5 says that for almost forty days, around 170 BC, people saw golden-clad horsemen charging through the air above Jerusalem with lances and swords drawn.
170 BCE · 31.78, 35.23 · status: legend
The account
The vision is placed just before Antiochus IV's second campaign and his sack of the city. It is one of the oldest 'armies in the sky' accounts, a motif repeated by Josephus and medieval chroniclers.
The sceptical view
The text was written decades later as religious history; sky armies are a literary portent, sometimes linked to aurorae or cloud forms.