In some respects more fortunate than many of his successors in the art
of claiming royal kinship, Alexander Balas has obtained the sanction of
several Jewish and Roman historians to the legality of his pretensions.
In his "Antiquities of the Jews," Josephus, from obvious nationalistic
reasons, accepts without a query the pseudo Alexander as the legitimate
sovereign of Syria; and more recent Latin chroniclers have copied his
narration without doubting--probably without having heard anything to
the contrary. Justin, and other later writers, however, positively
assert that the real name of this pretender was Prompale; and that so
far from having been born in the purple, his parents were of the very
lowest ranks of society.
According to these more reliable authorities, Balas was a Rhodian youth
employed by various monarchs hostile to the pretensions of Demetrius
Soter, then in possession of the kingdom of Syria, to personate
Alexander, a long deceased son of Antiochus Epiphanos. The impostor,
assuming the name and title of the deceased prince, speedily found
himself, through the assistance of the allied sovereigns and the favour
of the Roman senate, at the head of a large army, with which he invaded
Syria. The garrison of Ptolemais having been betrayed into his hands,
and other advantages accruing to him by reason of the hatred which the
Syrians entertained for Demetrius, awoke that king to the real danger
of the situation. He sent an embassy with rich gifts, and still richer
promises, to Jonathan, the Jewish ruler, in order to obtain his
friendly assistance, and then, collecting his forces, marched against
Balas.
The pretender was not ignorant of the great value of Jonathan's
services, and by means of greater presents and more flattering promises
managed to withdraw him from an alliance with Demetrius. With the
loans obtained from his allies, and by means of extortion, Balas was
enabled to gather a large army of mercenary soldiers together, with
which to give battle to the Syrian monarch. After a hardly-contested
fight Demetrius was slain, and the kingdom fell an easy prey into the
hands of the victor, who, elated with his triumph, demanded the hand of
Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy Philopater, King of Egypt, declaring
that as he had now recovered the principality of his forefathers, he
was worthy of his alliance. The Egyptian monarch, pleased with this
offer, replied that he would meet Alexander at Ptolemais, and there
give him his daughter in marriage.
The meeting soon afterwards took place, and the new king was united in
marriage to the Princess Cleopatra, receiving with his bride a right
royal dower. Jonathan, the Jew, assisted at the wedding _fetes_, and
was very cordially and magnificently treated by the two monarchs. A
short time, however, and the impostor began to show the cloven hoof.
He commenced his almost unaccountable perfidies by an attempt to
overthrow Jonathan, but his forces being defeated by that skilful
warrior, he repudiated the affair as carried out without his sanction,
and pretended to be pleased with the want of success of his own troops.
Aroused from the voluptuousness and profligacy into which he had
plunged by the intelligence of an invasion of his dominions by
Demetrius, a son of the late king of that name, he prepared for war.
About this time he treacherously endeavoured to destroy his
father-in-law, Ptolemy, by means of Ammonius, a friend of his; the plot
being discovered, Ptolemy wrote to Alexander, and demanded that condign
punishment should be administered to Ammonius, but when he found that
his demands were disregarded, he soon perceived whence the conspiracy
had originated, and repented of having given his daughter in marriage
to the pseudo Alexander. Having succeeded in getting the princess back
into his own hands, he broke off his alliance with her husband, and at
once entered into a league of mutual assistance and friendship with the
young Demetrius, to whom he subsequently offered his daughter in
marriage.
This prince was only too delighted with the terms of the embassage,
and, without troubling himself as to the existence of Balas's prior
claim, gladly accepted the hand of Cleopatra, coupled as it was with
the armed assistance of her father. After some difficulty the Egyptian
king persuaded the people of Antioch to receive Demetrius as their
king, and then took the field with a force capable of supporting his
new son-in-law's claims.
In the meanwhile Balas was not idle; but, hastening into Syria from
Cecilia, where he was when the war broke out, he collected a large
army, and, in right royal fashion, burnt and pillaged the country
belonging to Antioch. Forced to give battle to the combined strength
of Ptolemy and his son-in-law (for Demetrius had already espoused his
antagonist's wife), the pretender was, however, beaten and put to
flight. Seeking refuge in Arabia, his head was cut off by Zabdiel, an
Arabian prince, and sent to Ptolemy. The Egyptian monarch, however,
did not long enjoy his triumph, for shortly after the arrival of the
head of his first son-in-law, he died from the effect of the wounds
received in defeating him. For five years the pseudo Alexander reigned
over a large portion of Asia, during which period he thoroughly
disgusted his subjects by his absurd vanity and profligate conduct.
Some years after the death of Balas, Diodotus Tryphon, one of his
commanders, finding the nation as dissatisfied with Demetrius as they
had been with Alexander, excited a rebellion against him, and set up a
son, or a pretended son, of his late master as king. Tryphon
ultimately proving victorious over Demetrius, and obtaining the entire
control of the country, put his youthful _protege_ to death, and,
according to the account of Livy and Josephus, usurped the government
himself; but after a reign of three years was overthrown and slain.