In the mean time, Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and father-in-law of Alexander, informed of what was passing in Judaea, came to Jerusalem for the purpose of effecting, if possible, a reconciliation between Herod and his son. Knowing the violence of Herod's tem- per, he feigned to pity his present situation, and to condemn the unnatural conduct of Alexander. The sympathy of Archelaus produced some relentings in the bosom of Herod, and finally led to his reconcilia- tion with Alexander and the detection of the guilty pirties. But this calm did not long continue. One Eurycles, a Lacedemonian, having insinuated himself into Herod's favor, gained also the confidence of Alex- ander; and the young prince opened his heart freely
concerning the grounds of his discontent against his fa- ther. Eurycles repeated all to the king, whose sus- picions against his sons were revived, and he at length ordered them to be tortured. Of all the charges brought against the young princes, nothing could be proved except that they had formed a design to retire into Cappadocia, where they might be freed from their father's tyranny, and live in peace. Herod, however, having substantiated this fact, took the rest for grant- ed, and dispatched two envoys to Rome, demanding from Augustus justice against Alexander and Aristo- bulus. Augustus ordered them to be tried at Berytus, before the governors of Syria and the tributary sov- ereigns of the neighboring provinces, particularly men- tioning Archelaus as one, and giving Herod permis- sion, should they be found guilty, to punish them as he might deem proper. Herod convened the judges, but basely omitted Archelaus, Alexander's father-in- law ; and then, leaving his sons under a strong guard at Platane, he pleaded his own cause against them be- fore the assembly, consisting of 150 persons. After adducing against them every thing he had been able to collect, he concluded by saying that, as a king, he might have tried and condemned them by his own au- thority, but that he preferred bringing them before such an assembly to avoid the imputation of injustice and cruelty. Saturnius, who had been formerly con- sul, voted that they should be punished, but not with death, and his three sons voted with him ; but they were overruled by Volumnius, who gratified the father by condemning his sons to death, and induced the rest of the judges to join with him in this cruel and unjust sentence. The time and manner of carrying it into execution were left entirely to Herod. Damascenus, Tyro, and other friends interfered in order to save the lives of the unfortunate princes, but in vain. They remained some time in confinement, and, after the re- port of another plot, were conveyed to Sebaste, or Sa- maria, and there strangled, B.C. 5 (ib. 11, 7). — Calmet. The leading incidents of this narrative, which is chiefly interesting as confirmatory of the barbarous character attributed to Herod in the Gospels, are con- firmed by Strabo (xvi, 7G5). It is probably this event to which Macrobius alludes (Saturn, ii, 4) when speak- ing of the jocose remark that Augustus is said to have made on hearing that in the massacre of the Bethle- hemite children (Matt, ii, 16) one of the kind's own sons had perished, " It were better to be Herod's swine than his son!" Perhaps, however, the son referred to may be Antipater (q. v.), whom he also ordered to ex- ecution just before his death. See Herod.
10. A son of Alexander Herod (above) by Glaphyra (Josephus, War, i, 18, 1). See Herod.
11. A son of Phasaelus (son of Phasaelus, Herod's brother) by Salampsio, Herod's daughter (Josephus, Ant, xviii, 5, 4). See Herod.
12. A relative of the high-priest, and a leading Jew, present at the examination of Peter and John before the Sanhedrim for the cure of the lame man (Acts iv, G), A.D. 29. Many (Kuinol, in loc.) suppose he was the Alexandrian alabarch Alexander Lysima- chus (below), who was a brother of the well-known Philo, and an old friend of the Emperor Claudius (Jo- sephus, Ant. xviii, 8, 1 ; xix, 5, 1), and whose son, Al- exander Tiberius (below), was procurator of Judaea and afterward of Egypt (Josephus, War, ii, 11, 6; 15, 1, etc.).
13. A man whose father, Simon, a Cyrenian Jew, was compelled to bear the cross of Christ behind him from the gate to Calvary (Mark xv, 21). A.D. post 29. From the manner in which he and his brother Rufus are mentioned, it is not unlikely that they were afterward known as Christians.
14. An alabarch (q. v.) of Alexandria, surnamed Lysimaciius, steward of Antonia the mother of Clau- dius, who freed him from the incarceration to which he had been subjected by the preceding emperor (Jo-
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sephus, Ant. xix, 5, 1). It -was through him that Agrippa received the loan of 200,000 drachmae (ib, xviii, 6, 3). Some have thought him the same with No. 12, above.
15. A son of the foregoing, surnamed Tiberius (Josephus, Ant. xx, 5, 2). His uncle was Philo, the celebrated Jewish author. Alexander, however, did not continue in the faith of his ancestors, and was re- warded for his apostasy by various public appoint- ments. In the rei^n of Claudius he succeeded Fadius as procurator of Judasa, about A.D. 46, and was pro- moted to the equestrian order. He was subsequently appointed by Nero procurator of Egypt; and by his order 50,000 Jews were slain on one occasion at Alex- andria in a tumult in the city. It was apparently during his government in Egypt that he accompanied Corbulo in his expedition into Armenia, A.D. 64 ; and he was, in this campaign, given as one of the hostages to secure the safety of Tiridates when the latter visit- ed the Roman camp. Alexander was the first Roman governor who declared in favor of Vespasian ; and the day on which he administered the oath to the legions in the name of Vespasian, the kalends of July, A.D. 69, is regarded as the beginning of that emperor's reign. Alexander afterward accompanied Titus in the war against Judaea, and was present at the taking of Jerusalem. (Josephus, War, ii, 11, 6; 15, 1; 18; 7, 8; iv, 10, 6; vi, 4, 3; Tacitus, Ann. xv, 28; Hist. i, 11; ii, 74, 79; Suetonius, Vesp. 6.)