Tetrarch
/ˈtɛtrɑːrk/noun
The ruler of one of four divisions of a territory, or in Roman usage a minor client prince.
The Greek roots
Literally: “ruler of a fourth”
The story of the word
Thessaly was split into four, and the word started there, literally accurate. Rome then used it loosely for small dependent rulers, which is how Herod Antipas turns up in the Gospels as the tetrarch after his father's kingdom was divided among heirs. Diocletian revived the arithmetic in 293 with two Augusti and two Caesars, and the Tetrarchy's best surviving portrait is the group of four embracing emperors carved in porphyry, looted from Constantinople in 1204 and still standing on a corner of St Mark's in Venice.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
In a sentence
As tetrarch of Galilee he had authority enough to imprison a preacher and not enough to ignore Rome.