Balthazar, also called Balthasar, Balthassar, and Bithisarea,[1] was, according to Western Christian tradition, one of the three biblical Magi along with Caspar and Melchior who visited the infant Jesus after he was born.

[6] As part of the Magi, Balthazar followed the Star of Bethlehem first to the palace of Herod the Great, who instructed them to return to him when they had found the Child Jesus.

Balthasar and Gaspar, another of the Magi, are characters in the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ and the various film adaptions of the novel, which chronicles his later years.

Balthazar, along with the other Magi, are purported to be buried in the Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral following his remains being moved from Constantinople by Eustorgius I in 344 AD to Milan.

In many Spanish towns that custom continues, while others now ask a prominent resident of African descent to take on this role in the cavalcades.