“The son of Dorymenes,” 1 Macc. 3:38; 2 Macc. 4:45; comp. Polyb. v, 61, a courtier who possessed
great influence with Antiochus Epiphanes.•
•The son of Agesarchus, a Megalopolitan, surnamed Macron, 2 Macc. 10:12, who was governor
of Cyprus during the minority of Ptolemy Philometor. He afterward deserted the Egyptian service
to join Antiochus Epiphanes. He stood in the favor of Antiochus, and received from him the
government of Phoenicia and Coele-Syria. 2 Macc 8:8; 10:11,12. On the accession of Antiochus
Eupator his conciliatory policy toward the Jews brought him into suspicion at court. He was
deprived of his government, and in consequence of this disgrace he poisoned himself, cir. B.C.
- 2 Macc. 10:13.
•The son of Abuhus, who married the daughter of Simon the Maccabee. He was a man of great
wealth, and being invested with the government of the district of Jericho, formed the design of
usurping the sovereignty of Judea.
Pua
properly Puvvah. Phuvah the son of Issachar. (Numbers 26:23) (B.C. 1452.)
Puah
(splendid).
•The father of Tola, a man of the tribe of Issachar and judge of Israel after Abimelech. (Judges
10:1) (B.C. 1211.)
•The son of Issachar, (1 Chronicles 7:1) elsewhere called Phuvah and Pua.
•One of the two midwives to whom Pharaoh gave instructions to kill the Hebrew male children at
their birth. (Exodus 1:15) (B.C. 1571.)
Publican
The class designated by this word in the New Testament were employed as collectors of the
Roman revenue. The Roman senate farmed the vectigalia (direct taxes) and the portorin (customs)
to capitalists who undertook to pay a given sum into the treasury (in publicum), and so received
the name of publicani. Contracts of this kind fell naturally into the hands of the equites, as the
richest class of Romans. They appointed managers, under whom were the portitores, the actual
custom-house officers, who examined each bale of goods, exported or imported, assessed its value
more or less arbitrarily, wrote out the ticket, and enforced payment. The latter were commonly
natives of the province in which they were stationed as being brought daily into contact with all
classes of the population. The name pubicani was used popularly, and in the New Testament
exclusively, of the portitores. The system was essentially a vicious one. The portitores were
encouraged in the most vexatious or fraudulent exactions and a remedy was all but impossible.
They overcharged whenever they had an opportunity, (Luke 3:13) they brought false charges of
smuggling in the hope of extorting hush-money (Luke 19:8) they detained and opened letters on
mere suspicion. It was the basest of all livelihoods. All this was enough to bring the class into ill
favor everywhere. In Judea and Galilee there were special circumstances of aggravation. The
employment brought out all the besetting vices of the Jewish character. The strong feeling of many
Jews as to the absolute unlawfulness of paying tribute at all made matters worse. The scribes who
discussed the question, (Matthew 22:15) for the most part answered it in the negative. In addition
to their other faults, accordingly, the publicans of the New Testament were regarded as traitors and
apostates, defiled by their frequent intercourse with the heathen, willing tools of the oppressor. The
class thus practically excommunicated furnished some of the earliest disciples both of the Baptist