had helped to secure Claudius' accession after the assassination of Caligula, and was appointed king of Judea. Tiberius' father, who had been imprisoned by Caligula, was released on Claudius' orders, and it was at this time that his younger brother Marcus became Berenice's husband. Tiberius's first senior appointment was as governor of the Thebaid in 42 CE. Career until 63 Tiberius Alexander was evidently well enough connected for an equestrian career in Roman public life. The first position he is known to have held, beginning in about 42, was that of epistrategus of the Thebaid, one of the three regions into which the Roman province of Egypt was divided. This was an administrative and judicial post involving no military command. He may have perhaps maintained contacts with his brother Marcus, who was trading in the same area until his premature death in 43 or 44. In recognition of his administrative abilities in the Thebaid after four years of service there, Claudius appointed him procurator of Judea in 46 CE. The province had returned to direct Roman rule only after the death of Agrippa in 44, and from the tenure of Alexander's predecessor Cuspius Fadus it had been a hotbed of zealot nationalism. Despite the opinion of some fellow Jews that he was a turncoat, his period of office as Procurator in Judea was marked by peace, as Josephus himself writes. He did condemn James and Simon, sons of an earlier rebel named Judas of Galilee, to crucifixion. It was also at this time that Judea was afflicted by a severe famine. In 48 he was succeeded by Ventidius Cumanus. Alexander appears to have risen in the ranks – though the details are unknown, until, with the reign of Nero, he served as a staff officer under the prominent general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo during campaigns against Parthia, under whom he distinguished himself. In 63 he was dispatched along with Corbulo's son-in-law to escort the Armenian king Tiridates, with whom he himself had initiated negotiations, to the Roman camp, on the first stage of his journey to receive the status of client king from Nero. Prefecture of Egypt In May 66, after Corbulo had backed him, Nero appointed Alexander Prefect of Egypt, one of the two most prestigious posts available to an equestrian along with Prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Alexander may have benefitted from a philhellenic tendency in equestrian appointments under