Antipater

Antip'ater (Α᾿ντίπατρος, instead of his father), the name of several men in the Apocrypha and Josephus.

1. The son of Jason, and one of the two ambassadors sent by the Jews in the time of the Maccabees to renew the league with the Romans and Lacedaemonians (1 Maccabees 12:16; 14:22).

2. The father of Herod the Great (q.v.) was, according to Josephus (Ant. 14, 1, 3; for other accounts of his parentage, see Nicolas of Damascus, ap. Joseph. in loc.; Africanus, ap. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 1, 6, 7; Photius, Bibl. 76 and 238), the son of a noble Idumaean, to whom the government of that district had been given by Alexander Jannaeus (q.v.) and his queen Alexandra, and at their court the young Antipater was brought up. In B.C. 65 he persuaded Hyrcanus to take refuge from his brother Aristobulus II with Aretas, king of Arabia Petraa, by whom, accordingly, an unsuccessful attempt was made to replace Hyrcanus on the throne (Joseph. Ant. 14, 2; War, 1, 6, 2). In B.C. 64 Antipater again supported the cause of Hyrcanus before Pompey in Ccele-Syria (Ant. 14, 3, 2). In the ensuing year Jerusalem was taken by Pompey and Aristobulus deposed; and henceforth we find Antipater both zealously adhering to Hyrcanus and laboring to ingratiate himself with the Romans. His services to the latter, especially against Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, and in Egypt against Archelaus (B.C. 57 and 56), were favorably regarded by Scaurus and Gabinius, the lieutenants of Pompey; his active zeal against Mithridates of Pergamus in the Alexandrian war (B.C. 48) was rewarded by Julius Caesar with the gift of Roman citizenship; and, on Caesar's coming inmo Syria (B.C. 47), Hyrcanus was confirmed by him in the high-priesthood through Antipater's influence, notwithstanding the complaints of Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, while Antipater himself was appointed procurator of Judaea (Josephus, Ant. 14, 5, 1 and 2; 6, 2-4 and 8; War, 1, 8, 1 and 7; 9, 3-5). After Caesar had left Syria to go against Pharnaces, Antipater set about arranging the country under the existing government, and appointed his sons Phasaelus and Herod governors respectively of Jerusalem and Galilee (Joseph. Ant. 14, 9, 1 and 2; War, 1, 10, 4). In B.C. 46 he dissuaded Herod from attacking Hyrcanus, and in B.C. 43 (after Caesar's death) he regulated the tax imposed by Cassius upon Judaea for the support of the Roman troops (Ant. 14, 9, 5; 11, 2; War, 1, 10, 9; 11, 2). During the last- mentioned year he was carried off by poison which Malichus, whose life he had twice saved, bribed the cup-bearer of Hyrcanus to administer to him (Ant. 14, 11, 2-4; War, 1, 11, 2-4).