Tetrarch

TETRARCH. - Originally, and according to etymology, the head of one of the four regions of a province, or also one who shared command with three others; tetrarchy was the authority, the office or the territory of the tetrarch.

Euripides (d. 406 B.C.) is the first to speak of a tetrarchy in relation to Thessaly. Strabo (d. A.D. 20) attests that each of the tribes of Galatia was headed by 4 tetrarchs. But around 85 B.C. a single chief commanded an entire tribe, while still retaining the title of tetrarch, which subsequently lost its original meaning, until it indicated only the sovereign of a not very extensive region, of a rank inferior to the king and to the ethnarch (v.), though enjoying some of their privileges. In this sense it was frequently used by the Romans, especially for the small states of Syria.

Herod (v.) the Great and his brother Phasael received from Antony the title of tetrarch (of Galilee and of Judea respectively) as early as 41 B.C. In the New Testament tetrarch is the ordinary title of Herod Antipas (Mt. 14, 1; Lk. 3, 1. 19; 9, 7; Acts 13, 1), who is however sometimes also called king (Mt. 14, 9; Mk. 6, 14. 22. 25 ff.), certainly according to popular usage; Lk. 3, 1 gives the same title of tetrarch to Herod Philip, son of Herod the Great: in fact both Antipas and Herod Philip had each inherited one of the four parts of the Kingdom of Herod the Great, while Archelaus had received the other two parts with the title of ethnarch. Lk. 3, 4 also names a Lysanias (v.) as tetrarch of Abilene (v.).

Luigi Vagaggini