ANTIPATER, an Idumean of illustrious birth, and
possessed of great riches and abilities, taking advantage
of the confusion into which the two brothers Hyrcanus
and Aristobulus plunged Judea by their contest for
the office of high priest, took such measures as to gain
Hyrcanus that office, and under his government to
obtain the absolute direction of all affairs; while his
great abilities and application to business made him so
considerable, that he was honoured as much as if he
had been invested with the royal authority in form:
but he was at last poisoned by a Jew, named Mala-
chus, 43 years before the Christian era. He left,
among his other children, the famous Herod king of
the Jews.