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Within the Seleucid kingdom, essentially reduced from this point on to Syria proper and its Cilician annexes, royal authority continued to decline. Since the middle of the third century, a dynasty of Iranian origin governed Commagene under the authority of the Seleucids, but around 163–162 BCE, its leader Ptolemy asserted his independence by proclaiming himself king, with a capital city of Samosata on the Euphrates, while Arsameia on the Nymphaios close to the royal necropolis of Mount Nemrud developed later. To the south, the Nabataeans of Petra continued to expand their kingdom to the north and toward the Mediterranean; they gradually occupied a large part of Transjordan, and before the end of the second century, they possessed solid bases in South Syria (Bosra) and were moving in the direction of Gaza, which they failed to take around 100 BCE.

The autonomy of new powers progressed rapidly to the detriment of the Seleucid royal authority. In Judaea, a long and violent crisis, known as the Maccabean Revolt, led to a de facto independence of the country. In 178 BCE, after Seleucus IV had instituted a new and stricter form of royal control over the temple finances in Syria, the high priest Onias opposed this reform. At the time of the king’s death in 175 BCE Onias was in Antioch to justify himself, but the new king, Antiochus IV, dismissed him and appointed his relative Jason instead. The latter obtained the right to create a Greek city (polis) in Jerusalem in exchange for a higher tribute. A few years later, in 171 BCE, Jason was replaced by Menelas and the tribute was increased again. A popular revolt broke out in Judaea, quickly organized by the Maccabees. The suppression of the revolt by the king was very harsh, although it never aimed to annihilate Judaism, contrary to the later assertions of the authors of the two books of the Maccabees. Faced with the resistance of the rebels (who retook the Temple in December of 165 BCE) and after the death of Antiochos IV (in October 164 BCE), negotiations between the Jewish rebels and the Seleucids took place, despite the continuation of the fighting. A new state gradually emerged first around Jerusalem (around 157–152 BCE) under the authority of Jonathan, brother and successor of Judah, and then soon after to include all of Judaea and beyond (Idumaea, Peraea in Transjordan, the Golan, South Lebanon). This new kingdom, led by an ethnarch and high priest who took a royal title around 104–103 BCE, asserted its independence, despite several attempts to recapture it by the Seleucids. This was no longer contested after the short-lived conquest of Jerusalem in 131 BCE by Antioch VII.