tetrarch, Str. 12.5.1, Plu. Ant. 56, OGI 416 (Cos, i. A.D.), 543.3 (Ancyra, ii A.D.), etc.; of rulers under the protection of Rome of lower grade than kings, e.g. in Palestine, Mat 14:1, al., J. BJ 1.12.5, al.; generally, Sall. Cat. 20.7, Hor. Sat. 1.3.12, etc.: also
II a leader of four
also spelled
G5076 —
[, see
G5076 —
1. a governor of the fourth part of any region. Thus Strabo, 12, p. 567, states that Galatia was formerly divided into three parts, each one of which was distributed into four smaller subdivisions each of which was governed by 'a tetrarch'; again, in book 9, p. 430, he relates that Thessaly, before the time of Philip of Macedon, had been divided into four 'tetrarchies' each of which had its own 'tetrarch'.
2. the word lost its strict etymological force, and came to denote "the governor of a third part or half of a country, or even the ruler of an entire country or district provided it were of comparatively narrow limits; a petty prince" (cf. e. g. Plutarch, Anton. 56, 3, i., p. 942 a.). Thus Antony made Herod (afterward king) and Phasael, sons of Antipater, tetrarchs of Palestine, Josephus, Antiquities 14, 13, 1. After the death of Herod the Great, his sons, Archelaus styled an ethnarch but Antipas and Philip with the title of 'tetrarchs', divided and governed the kingdom left by their father; Josephus, Antiquities 17, 11, 4. Cf. Fischer, De vitiis etc., p. 428; Winers RWB, under the word Tetrarch, and especially Keim in Schenkel v., p. 487ff The tetrarch Herod Antipas is mentioned in Mat 14:1; Luk 3:19; Luk 9:7; Act 13:1.