Alexander the Pretender

While these things were going on in Judea, a young man named Alexander, who had been brought up at Rhodes, claimed falsely to be the son of Antiochus. Backed by the power of Ptolemy, king of Alexandria, he came into Syria with an army. He defeated Demetrius in war and killed him, after Demetrius had reigned twelve years. Before making war on Demetrius, this Alexander had formed an alliance with Jonathan and had presented him with a purple robe and the emblems of royalty. For this reason Jonathan had helped him with auxiliary troops, and when Demetrius was defeated he had been the very first to meet him with congratulations. Nor did Alexander afterward break the faith he had pledged. So for the five years he held power, the affairs of the Jews were at peace. [a]

Meanwhile Demetrius, the son of Demetrius, who had gone to Crete after his father’s death, was urged on by Lasthenes, general of the Cretans, and tried to win back his father’s kingdom by war. But finding his strength unequal to the task, he begged Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, to help him. Ptolemy was Alexander’s father-in-law, but he was then on bad terms with his son-in-law. Moved less by the pleas of the suppliant than by the hope of seizing Syria, Ptolemy joined his forces to those of Demetrius and gave him his daughter, who had been married to Alexander. Alexander fought a pitched battle against the two of them. Ptolemy fell in the fighting, but Alexander was defeated, and soon afterward he was killed, having reigned five years, or, as I find it stated in many writers, nine.