Shemayah & Avtalyon

Shemayah and Avtalyon were the fourth pair of Zugot and the direct generation before Hillel and Shammai. They lived during the late Hasmonean period, when Rome was becoming dominant in Judea. Jewish tradition remembers them as highly respected sages, and later sources connect them to the education of Hillel. Hillel is described as a disciple of Shemayah and Avtalyon.

This pair is important because they form the bridge between the earlier Hasmonean-era sages and the famous final pair, Hillel and Shammai. For your timeline, place them right before Herod’s rise and the early Roman period. They represent the final stage of rabbinic leadership before the schools of Hillel and Shammai became central to later Jewish law.