Archelaus

Archelaus, (1) one of the Heraclidæ, the mythical founder of the royal house of Macedonia.—(2) A philosopher of the Ionic school, born at Athens, or, according to others, at Miletus. He was a scholar of Anaxagoras, and flourished about 450 B.C. He was the first to maintain the spherical form of the earth, which he inferred from his observation that the sun does not rise and set simultaneously at all parts of the earth, as must be the case were it a flat surface.—(3) King of Macedonia, a natural son of Perdiccas II., obtained the throne by murdering the rightful heir in 413 B.C. His reign was far better than its commencement, as he introduced several salutary measures, and was a generous patron of art and literature. His palace was splendidly adorned with paintings by Zeuxis, and Euripides was among his guests. He is believed to have been murdered by his favourite, Craterus, in 399.—(4) A distinguished general under Mithridates the Great, sent to Greece with a fleet and a large army to oppose the Romans in 87 B.C. He was defeated by Sulla at Chæronea, and a second time, with immense loss, at Orchomenos, in Bœotia, in 86. Unjustly suspected of treason, Archelaus went over to the Romans at the outbreak of the second war in 81.—(5) The son of the preceding, married Berenice, daughter of King Ptolemy Auletes, in 56 B.C., and ruled over Egypt for the short space of six months during the banishment of Ptolemy.—(6) Ethnarch of Judæa, son of Herod the Great, succeeded his father in 1 A.D., and maintained his position against an insurrection raised by the Pharisees. His heirship to the throne being disputed by his brother Antipas, Archelaus went to Rome, where his authority was confirmed by Augustus, who made him Ethnarch of Judæa, Samaria, and Idumæa, while his brothers, Antipas and Philip, were made tetrarchs over the other half of the dominions of Herod. After a reign of nine years, he was deposed by Augustus, on account of his cruel tyranny, and banished to Vienne, in Gaul, where he died. His territories were added to the Roman province of Syria.