Aechmalotarcha

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Aechmalotarcha, or Æchmalotarcha, in antiquity, is a Greek term signifying the chief or leader of captives.

The Jews who refused to return with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity created an Æchmalotarcha to govern them. The people themselves did not refer to him by that title, since they spoke Hebrew or Chaldee, not Greek. Origen and others, who wrote in Greek, rendered the Hebrew name ראש גלות (Rosh galut, or ריש גלותא, Reish galuta in Aramaic), meaning "head of the exile" or "exilarch".

However, Jews must have had officers of this kind before the return from Babylon; for example, in the Apocryphal story of Susannah, the two elders who condemned her were Æchmalotarchæ that year.

This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.