Note 215 — BOOK XXXIII
Evelyn S. (Evelyn Shirley) Shuckburgh translation
Alexander Balas was an impostor of low origin set up by Heracleides as a son of Antiochus Epiphanes. He entered Syria in B.C. 152, defeated and killed Demetrius in B.C. 150, and was himself defeated in B.C. 146 by Ptolemy Philometor (who also fell) in favour of a son of Demetrius, and was shortly afterwards murdered. Livy, Ep. 52. Appian, Syr. 67; Joseph. Antiq. 13, 2, 4.