English: This period in Syria may be called that of the Tyrants, men of both Greek and Semitic race, who took advantage of the weakness of the Ptolemies and Seleucids to usurp domains varying from a single town and its surroundings and two or three towns, to territories of a considerable size. The number of autonomous cities was thus reduced.

Alexander, succeeding to Idumaea, Judaea, Samaria, S. Galilee, and part of the Maritime Plain, brought under his sway, in the course of several campaigns, more of Palestine than any Israelite prince since Solomon. Towards the close of his life in 78, his power was more or less established over the bulk of this territory, and it seems to have been retained by his widow, the first Israelite queen since Athaliah, during the nine years of her reign. Yet it is uncertain how firmly the subjects of his conquests were held by him or by her. I have included with some hesitation the part of Moabitis, S. of Arnon. Yet Josephus appears reliable in his statements that Alexander took Kabbath-Moab, and Zoara, along with Alousa in S.W. Palestine, from the Nabateans, who, however, about the same time extended their supremacy as far N. as Damascus (c. 85), but held this only for a short interval, for it was autonomous again in 70-69. Zeno Cotylas, a tyrant, held Rabbath- Ammon and adjacent territory against both Alexander and the Nabateans. Josephus extends Alexander's conquests to Rhinokoroura (beyond this map), and on the west Askalon (independent since 104) alone preserved its freedom, for Gaza fell to Alexander in 96, and for a time at least he held Strato's Tower and Dora, the domains of another tyrant, Zoilus. Josephus also assigns to him Carmel, but he held this probably only while he was besieging Ptolemais. This city had but intervals of autonomy during the period, but Tyre and Sidon, autonomous since 126 and 111 respectively, retained their freedom. Strabo says that Beyrut and Byblus (which for a time before Pompey's arrival had a tyrant of its own, Cinyrus) suffered from Ptolemy, son of Mennseus (85-40), a tyrant with effective power as chief of an Itursean confederacy over the Beka', Anti- Lebanon as far as Abila (thus threatening Damascus) and S. into N. Galilee, along with a great hold on the W. at Botrys and Theoprosoupon. Chalcis was his capital. E. of Jordan the extent of Alexander's conquests northwards is uncertain. Seleucia and Gamala, said by Josephus to have been taken by him, are, with most authorities, placed in Gaulanitis, over which Itursean influence extended somewhat. But Holscher identifies Seleucia with the southern Abila, E. of Gadara, and Gamala with Philoteria, an unknown site on the Lake of Galilee, given along with Abila and Hippos by Syncellus.

The map shows the kingdom claimed for Alexander in its fullest extent. He never can have held it all at once, and many of its outlying portions he held only for a short time.

AUTHORITIES.—Ancient: Josephus, xiii Antt, xii.-xvi.; xiv Antt, i. 4; i Wars, iv.; Strabo, Geog., xvi. 15 ff.; Pliny, H.N., v. 16 [18]; further ancient material has been handed down by the Byzantine G. Syncellus, Ekloge Ghronographias, ed. Dindorff, i. 558 ff. For the coins of Alexander and the Phoenician cities, see Madden, Coins of the Jews, 1903 (1881), 33 ff.; Eckhel, Doctr. Vet. Num., vol. iii.; De Saulcy, Numismatique de la Terre Sainte; Head, Hist Num., 673 ff. Modern: Schiirer, Gesch., i., § 10 f.; Schlatter, Zur Topogr. und Gesch. Paldstinas 13, 48 f., and Gesch. Israels von Alexander, &c., 13-15; Bevan, Jerusalem under the High Priests (Lond., 1904); G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, i. 409 f., ii. 458-463.