Forms: 4 tetrarke, 5 -arche, 5– tetrarch; also 4–6 in L. form tetrarcha. [ad. late L. tetrarcha (Vulgate), cl. L. tetrarchēs, a. Gr. τετράρχνς, f. τετρα- four- + -αρχνς ruling, ruler. Cf. F. tétrarque (13th c.).]
1. Rom. Hist. The ruler of one of four divisions of a country or province; at a later period applied to subordinate rulers generally, esp. in Syria.
[c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia, VIII. 299. Quadrans on lyden on grecise ys ʓecweden tetrarcha.]
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xiv. 1. Eroude tetrarcha [gloss that is, prince of the fourthe part; 1388 tetrarke], herde the fame of Jhesu.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), IV. 233. He and his breþer were made tetrarches, as hauenge the iiijthe parte of a realm, from proctors.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., IV. (1520), 28/1. The Emperoure … the halfe of the Iury and Idumea gaue to Archylaus vnder name of Tetrache.
1526. Tindale, Matt. xiv. 1. Herod the tetrarcha.
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, I. i. All the earth, Her kings, and tetrarchs, are their tributaries.
1718. Rowe, trans. Lucan, VII. 334. Kings and Tetrarchs proud, a purple Train.
1877. C. Geikie, Christ, lx. (1879), 735. The tetrarch Antipas had come up from Tiberias, to show how devoutly he honoured the law.
2. transf. and fig. a. A ruler of a fourth part, or of one of four parts, divisions, elements, etc.; also a subordinate ruler generally.
1610. Histrio-m., II. 19. For this aboundance pour’d at Plenties feet You shall be Tetrarchs of this petty world.
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, Pref. 45. The heads ofthe Church (where ever Christianity is preach’d) are Tetrarchs of Time; of which they command the fourth Division.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 201. If I … have propos’d What both from Men and Angels I receive, Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth Nations besides.
1797. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 307. It is not to the Tetrarch of Sardinia … that we mean to prove [etc.].
attrib. 1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxi. 209. Men in whose constitutions one of the tetrarch Elements, fire, may seem to be omitted.
b. One of four joint rulers, directors, or heads.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Cornw. (1662), I. 213. This was he who was one of the first four Tetrarchs or Joint-managers in chief of Marshall matters in Cornwall.
1902. Baring, in Encycl. Brit., XXVIII. 496/2. The Parnassian school [had] as their tetrarchs and judges Théophile Gautier, Leconte de Lisle, Baudelaire, and Banville.
3. a. The commander of a subdivision of an ancient Greek phalanx. (The quot. may belong here or to sense 1.)
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Scipio, Polyb. & Pan. (1853), 351. His bringing into the front of the center, as became some showy tetrarch rather than Hannibal, his eighty elephants.
b. In Fourier’s social organization: A ruler of the fourth (ascending) rank.
1848. Tait’s Mag., XV. 706. There will be duarchs for four phalanx, triarchs for 12, tetrarchs for 48.
