36.
For it happened that there arose a certain Alexander, 1 son of Philip. He withstood Antiochus 2 at that time, and made war upon him, and cut him off, and gained possession of the kingdom. Then he sent to Ptolemy king of Egypt, saying, Give me thy daughter Cleopatra to wife. And he gave her to Alexander to wife. And thus the Scripture is fulfilled, when it says: "And he shall obtain his daughter to wife." And it says further: "And he shall corrupt her, and she shall not be his wife." This also has been truly fulfilled. For after Ptolemy had given him his daughter, he returned, and saw the mighty and glorious kingdom of Alexander. And coveting its possession, he spoke falsely to Alexander, as the Scripture says: "And the two kings shall speak lies at (one) table." And, in sooth, Ptolemy betook himself to Egypt, and collected a great army, and attacked the city at the time when Alexander had marched into Cilicia.
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He refers to Alexander I. king of Syria, of whom we read in 1 Macc. x. He pretended to be the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and even gained a decree of the senate of Rome in his favour as such. Yet he was a person of unknown origin, as indeed he acknowledged himself in his choice of the designation Theopator. Livy calls him "a man unknown, and of uncertain parentage" (homo ignotus et incertae stirpis). So Hippolytus calls him here, "a certain Alexander" (tina). He had also other surnames, e.g., Euergetes, Balas, etc. ↩
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For "Antiochus" in the text, read "Demetrius." ↩
