* the king.
  Mt 14:10,11 
 * an executioner.  or, one of his guard.
   [Spekoulator [,] in Latin, speculator,
   from speculor, to look about, spy, properly denotes a
   sentinel; and as these sentinels kept guard at the palaces of
   kings, and the residences of Roman governors, so they were
   employed in other offices besides guarding, and usually
   performed that of executioners.  As, however, we learn from
   Josephus, that Herod was at this very time engaged in war with
   Aretas, king of Arabia, in consequence of Herod's having
   divorced his daughter in order to marry Herodias, his brother
   Philip's wife; and as this event occurred at an entertainment
   given at the castle of Machaerus, while his army was on its
   march against his father-in-law; we are furnished with an
   additional reason why a speculator, or sentinel, should have
   been employed as an executioner; and are thus enabled to
   discover such a latent and undesigned coincidence as clearly
   evinces the truth of the evangelical narrative.