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 for 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 Malachus, 43 years before the Christian era. He left, among his other children, the famous Herod, king of the Jews.