Herod
(born 73 BCE—died March/April, 4 BCE, Jericho, Judaea) was the Roman-appointed
king of Judaea (37–4 BCE), who built many fortresses, aqueducts, theatres, and
other public buildings and generally raised the prosperity of his land but who
was the centre of political and family intrigues in his later years. The New
Testament portrays him as a tyrant, into whose kingdom Jesus of Nazareth was
born.
Family
and early life
Herod
was born in southern Palestine. His father, Antipater, was an Edomite (a
Semitic people, identified by some scholars as Arab, who converted to Judaism
in the 2nd century BCE). Antipater was a man of great influence and wealth who
increased both by marrying the daughter of a noble from Petra (in southwestern
Jordan), at that time the capital of the rising Arab Nabataean kingdom. Thus,
Herod was of Arab origin, although he was a practicing Jew.
When
Pompey (106–48 BCE) invaded Palestine in 63 BCE, Antipater supported his
campaign and began a long association with Rome, from which both he and Herod
were to benefit. Six years later Herod met Mark Antony, whose lifelong friend
he was to remain. Julius Caesar also favoured the family; he appointed
Antipater procurator of Judaea in 47 BCE and conferred on him Roman
citizenship, an honour that descended to Herod and his children. Herod made his
political debut in the same year, when his father appointed him governor of
Galilee. Six years later Mark Antony made him tetrarch of Galilee.
In
40 BCE the Parthians invaded Palestine, civil war broke out, and Herod was
forced to flee to Rome. The senate there nominated him king of Judaea and
equipped him with an army to make good his claim. In the year 37 BCE, at the
age of 36, Herod became the unchallenged ruler of Judaea, a position he was to
maintain for 32 years. To further solidify his power, he divorced his first
wife, Doris, sent her and his son away from court, and married Mariamne, a
Hasmonean princess. Although the union was directed at ending his feud with the
Hasmoneans, a priestly family of Jewish leaders, he was deeply in love with
Mariamne.
During
the conflict between the two triumvirs Octavian and Antony, the heirs to
Caesar’s power, Herod supported his friend Antony. He continued to do so even
when Antony’s mistress, Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, used her influence with
Antony to gain much of Herod’s best land. After Antony’s final defeat at Actium
in 31 BCE, he frankly confessed to the victorious Octavian which side he had
taken. Octavian, who had met Herod in Rome, knew that he was the one man to
rule Palestine as Rome wanted it ruled and confirmed him king. He also restored
to Herod the land Cleopatra had taken.
Herod
became the close friend of Augustus’s great minister Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa,
after whom one of his grandsons and one of his great-grandsons were named. Both
the emperor and the minister paid him state visits, and Herod twice again
visited Italy. Augustus gave him the oversight of the Cyprus copper mines, with
a half share in the profits. He twice increased Herod’s territory, in the years
22 and 20 BCE, so that it came to include not only Palestine but parts of what
are now the kingdom of Jordan to the east of the river and southern Lebanon and
Syria. He had intended to bestow the Nabataean kingdom on Herod as well, but,
by the time that throne fell vacant, Herod’s mental and physical deterioration
made it impossible.
Herod
endowed his realm with massive fortresses and splendid cities, of which the two
greatest were new, and largely pagan, foundations: the port of Caesarea
Palaestinae on the coast between Joppa (Jaffa) and Haifa, which was afterward
to become the capital of Roman Palestine; and Sebaste on the long-desolate site
of ancient Samaria. At Herodium in the Judaean desert Herod built a great
palace, which archaeologists in 2007 tentatively identified as the site of his
tomb. In Jerusalem he built the fortress of Antonia, portions of which may
still be seen beneath the convents on the Via Dolorosa, and a magnificent
palace (of which part survives in the citadel). His most grandiose creation was
the Temple, which he wholly rebuilt. The great outer court, 35 acres (14
hectares) in extent, is still visible as Al-Ḥaram
al-Sharīf. He also embellished foreign cities—Beirut, Damascus, Antioch,
Rhodes—and many towns. Herod patronized the Olympic Games, whose president he
became. In his own kingdom he could not give full rein to his love of
magnificence, for fear of offending the Pharisees, the leading faction of
Judaism, with whom he was always in conflict because they regarded him as a
foreigner. Herod undoubtedly saw himself not merely as the patron of grateful
pagans but also as the protector of Jewry outside of Palestine, whose Gentile
hosts he did all in his power to conciliate.
Unfortunately,
there was a dark and cruel streak in Herod’s character that showed itself
increasingly as he grew older. His mental instability, moreover, was fed by the
intrigue and deception that went on within his own family. Despite his
affection for Mariamne, he was prone to violent attacks of jealousy; his sister
Salome (not to be confused with her great-niece, Herodias’s daughter Salome)
made good use of his natural suspicions and poisoned his mind against his wife
in order to wreck the union. In the end Herod murdered Mariamne, her two sons,
her brother, her grandfather, and her mother, a woman of the vilest stamp who
had often aided his sister Salome’s schemes. Besides Doris and Mariamne, Herod
had eight other wives and had children by six of them. He had 14 children.
In
his last years Herod suffered from arteriosclerosis. He had to repress a
revolt, became involved in a quarrel with his Nabataean neighbours, and finally
lost the favour of Augustus. He was in great pain and in mental and physical
disorder. He altered his will three times and finally disinherited and killed
his firstborn, Antipater. The slaying, shortly before his death, of the infants
of Bethlehem was wholly consistent with the disarray into which he had fallen.
After an unsuccessful attempt at suicide, Herod died. His final testament
provided that, subject to Augustus’s sanction, his realm would be divided among
his sons: Archelaus should be king of Judaea and Samaria, with Philip and
Antipas sharing the remainder as tetrarchs.
Antipater
Son
of Herod the Great
Antipater
(died 4 BC) was the son of Herod the Great, who conspired against his half
brothers Aristobulus and Alexander for the succession to the throne of Judaea
and secured their execution (7 or 6 BC). The following year he was tried for
plotting against Herod and Pheroras, Herod’s brother, and was executed five
days before his father’s death.
Philip
king
of Judaea
Philip
(born 20 BCE—died 34 CE) was the son of Herod I the Great and Cleopatra of
Jerusalem (not to be confused with another Herod Philip, son of Herod I the
Great by Mariamne II). He ruled ably as tetrarch over the former northeastern
quarter of his father’s kingdom of Judaea.
When
the Roman emperor Augustus adjusted Herod’s will, Philip was assigned to the
region east of the Sea of Galilee, in modern northern Israel, Lebanon, and
southern Syria. In 6 CE he may have joined in charging his half brother with
misgoverning Judaea, but with little benefit to himself, for Judaea then became
a Roman province.
Of
his father’s inheritance, his was the poorest share, but he ruled it well.
Because he had few Jewish subjects, he pursued a policy of Hellenization. His
coins bore the emperor’s image, and he rebuilt a town, Bethsaida (on the
northern shore of the Sea of Galilee), and renamed it Julias in honour of the
emperor’s daughter. Near the source of the Jordan River, he founded another
town and allowed it a large degree of self-government, on the Greek pattern.
Philip
was less extravagant a ruler than any of his brothers. He avoided prolonged
trips to Rome, instead traveling extensively in his territory and devoting his
time to his subjects. Late in his reign he married Salome, the daughter of
Herodias, who was her mother’s tool in securing from Herod Antipas the
execution of John the Baptist.
Philip
king
of Judaea
Philip
(born 20 BCE—died 34 CE) was the son of Herod I the Great and Cleopatra of
Jerusalem (not to be confused with another Herod Philip, son of Herod I the
Great by Mariamne II). He ruled ably as tetrarch over the former northeastern
quarter of his father’s kingdom of Judaea.
When
the Roman emperor Augustus adjusted Herod’s will, Philip was assigned to the
region east of the Sea of Galilee, in modern northern Israel, Lebanon, and
southern Syria. In 6 CE he may have joined in charging his half brother with
misgoverning Judaea, but with little benefit to himself, for Judaea then became
a Roman province.
Of
his father’s inheritance, his was the poorest share, but he ruled it well.
Because he had few Jewish subjects, he pursued a policy of Hellenization. His
coins bore the emperor’s image, and he rebuilt a town, Bethsaida (on the
northern shore of the Sea of Galilee), and renamed it Julias in honour of the
emperor’s daughter. Near the source of the Jordan River, he founded another
town and allowed it a large degree of self-government, on the Greek pattern.
Philip
was less extravagant a ruler than any of his brothers. He avoided prolonged
trips to Rome, instead traveling extensively in his territory and devoting his
time to his subjects. Late in his reign he married Salome, the daughter of
Herodias, who was her mother’s tool in securing from Herod Antipas the execution
of John the Baptist.
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