NICANORE. - Syrian general, son of Patroclus, elephant commander and later commander-in-chief of the army of the Seleucid kings (I Mach. 3, 38; 7, 26-47; II Mach. 8; 14-15). In 165 B.C., together with Gorgias and Ptolemy of Dorymenes, he received from Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163 B.C.) the task of suppressing the revolt of the Maccabees against Syria; but, defeated at Emmaus, he fled in disguise to Antioch (II Mach. 8, 9-35).
From the successor of Antiochus, Demetrius I Soter (162-150 B.C.), he received command of the troops assigned to the capture of Judas Maccabaeus. N. first resorted unsuccessfully to cunning, then gave battle to Judas. The final encounter on 13 'ādhār (March 161 B.C.), near Adasa, marked the tragic end of N., recognized as a just divine punishment for his sacrilegious insolence directed against the Temple and against God (II Mach. 14, 33; 15, 3).
His head and right arm were cut off: the arm was hung from a pole before the Temple, the skull attached to the walls of the citadel. Thereafter 13 'ādhār, which was also the eve of the day of Mordecai (the feast of Pūrīm), was celebrated by the Jews under the name of the “day of N.” With the death of N. II Maccabees comes to an end. Cf. Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XII, 10, 5.