Answer:
   
   After the relative calmness of the period of Persian rule, the Greek
   occupied Eretz Yisrael. For over a century the land was the
   battlefield for warring armies of the Ptolemies and Seleucids. As a
   result, the Jewish homeland was politically, economically, and
   spiritually torn apart. During these times, Jewish leadership was in
   the hands of the Zugot.
   
   The term 'Zugot' refers to the two heads of the Sanhedrin (Great
   Assembly). The Sanhedrin was the successor to the Great Assembly, and
   it functioned as the legislative body of the Jewish people. At the
   head of the Sanhedrin was the Nasi (President) and second to him was
   the Av Bet Din (Father of the Assembly). For a period of about two
   hundred years, these Zugot were the spiritual guides of Jewish life
   and the transmitters of the Oral Law. These Zugot were:
     * Yose ben Yoezer of Sereda, Yose ben Yohanan
     * Yehoshua ben Perahyah, Mattai (or Nittai) or Arbel
     * Yehudah ben Tabbai, Simeon ben Shetah
     * Shemayah, Abtalion
     * Hillel the Elder, Shammai

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