“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.”
Matthew 2:16 — Greek Interlinear
Church Fathers on Matthew 2:16
When the infant Jesus had subdued the Magi, not by the might of His flesh, but the grace of His Spirit, Herod 'was exceeding wrath,' that they whom he, sitting on his throne, had no power to move, were obedient to an Infant lying in a manger. Then by their contempt of him the Magi gave further cause of wrath. For when kings' wrath is stirred by fear for their crowns, it is a great and inextinguishable wrath.
And while he thus persecutes Christ, he furnished an army (or martyrs) clothed in white robes of the same age as the Lord.
He is not satisfied with the massacre at Bethlehem, but extends it to the adjacent villages; sparing no age from the child of one night old, to that of two years.