Antipater I the Idumaean (died 43 BC) was the founder of the Herodian Dynasty and father of Herod the Great. According to Josephus, he was the son of Antipas (I) and had formerly held that name.^[1][2]

A native of Idumaea,^[3] southeast of Judea between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, and which during the time of the Hebrew Bible had been known as the land of Edom,^[4] Antipater became a powerful official under the later Hasmonean kings and subsequently became a client of the Roman general Pompey the Great when Pompey conquered Judea in the name of Roman Republic.

When Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, Antipater rescued Caesar in Alexandria, and was made chief minister of Judea, with the right to collect taxes.^[5] Antipater eventually made his sons Phasaelus and Herod the Governors of Jerusalem and Galilee respectively. After the assassination of Caesar, Antipater was forced to side with Gaius Cassius Longinus against Mark Antony. The pro-Roman politics of Antipater led to his increasing unpopularity among the devout, non-Hellenized Jews. He died by poison.

The diplomacy and artful politics of Antipater, as well as his insinuation into the Hasmonean court, paved the way for the rise of his son Herod the Great, who used this position to marry the Hasmonean princess Mariamne, endear himself to Rome and become king of Judea under Roman influence.

Personal details[link]

Though historians understand that Antipater’s family converted to Judaism in the second century BCE, different stories had circulated in the wake of his sons coming to power.^[6] They demonstrate the stiff tensions that existed between the Jewish people and the powerful Idumaeans who appear at this time. One such came from Nicolaus of Damascus, the court historian for Herod, who wrote that Herod’s ancestors were among the historical elite in Jerusalem who had been taken by King Nebuchadnezzar into Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE.^[7][8]

This account serves two purposes; when the Persian King Cyrus sent the captives in Babylon back to Judea, it is likely that some chose to settle elsewhere.^[9] A legitimate dispersion such as this would shroud the fact that Herod’s ancestry is undocumented in the meticulous records of returned Jewish families.^[10] Claiming a heritage among the Jews from as early as the Babylonian captivity provides credibility for a pro-Roman and Hellenized Herod as a King over the Jews, for they were highly contemptuous of him.^[11] Josephus explains this rendering by critiquing its author: Nicolaus needed and wrote to please Herod and would do so at the cost of truthfulness.^[12]

Instead Josephus explains that Antipater's family converted to Judaism during the forced conversions by the Sadducee-influenced Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus threatened that any Idumeaan who wished to maintain their land would need to circumcise themselves and enter into the traditions of the Jews.^[13] Forcible conversion was not recognized by the dominant Pharisaic tradition, so even though Antipater and Herod the Great may have considered themselves of the Jewish faith, they were not considered Jewish by the observant and nationalist Jews of Judea.^[14] This influential family was resented for their Edomite ancestry, their Hellenistic incursions upon Jewish tradition, and their collusion with the Roman invaders.

Antipater married Cypros, a Nabataean noblewoman, which helped endear the Nabateans to him more.^[15] Their marriage helped bring about a close friendship between him and the King of the Arabia, Aretas, of whom Cypros is a relation. The two men had such a relationship that Antipater entrusted his children to his friend when he went to war with the Hasmonean Aristobulus II.^[16] They had four sons: Phasael, Herod, Joseph, and Pheroras, and a daughter, Salome, one of several Salomes among the Herodians.^[17] Antipater also had a brother named Phalion, who was killed in battle against Aristobulus at Papyron.^[18]

Before he became involved in the dynastic struggle of the Jewish brothers, Antipater served as a governor of Idumea under King Alexander Jannaeus and Queen Salome Alexandra, the parents of the feuding heirs.^[19] Josephus writes that he was a man of great authority among the Idumeans, both wealthy and born into a dignified family.^[20] Indeed it is clear in the various forms of assistance that Antipater provides to both Hyrcanus II, brother of Aristobulus, and the Romans, that he possessed great resources, and brilliant military and political capabilities.^[21]

Activity in the Hasmonean court[link]

Antipater laid the foundation for Herod's ascension to the throne of Judea partly through his activities in the court of the Hasmoneans, the heirs of the Maccabees, who were the hereditary leaders of the Jews, and partly by currying favor with the Romans, who were growing more involved and dominant over the region at this time.

Antipater insinuated himself into the party of Hyrcanus II in his contest for power with his younger brother Aristobulus II.^[22] Soon after Hyrcanus succeeded his widowed mother as ruler and took the office of the high priest, but was immediately attacked by his brother and surrendered. Thus Hyrcanus agreed to live quietly in Aristublus’ former home as his disposition inclined him to living quietly and his brother took both offices.^[23] Aristobulus was known for his aggression, a “contrary temper” and thus posed a threat to Antipater, already a friend and supporter of Hyrcanus of old.^[24]

With this struggle for power, Antipater becomes a central component to the future governance and Roman takeover of Judea. Antipater was known as a seditious and trouble-making man, and he exploited the weak-willed Hyrcanus for the sake of his great ambitions and abilities.^[25] After Hyrcanus stepped down, Antipater persuaded him to contend against his brother for his rightful position, and even took it upon himself to convince the unsuspecting and reluctant Hyrcanus that his younger brother's intention was to kill him.^[26] He arranged for Hyrcanus to come under the protection of the Arabian King Aretas III in Petra. Together they attacked Aristobulus in Jerusalem, and there was a great upheaval that drew the attention of the Roman magistrate Pompey assigned to the eastern Mediterranean province.^[27][28]

Although Pompey and his lieutenant Scaurus initially ruled in Aristobulus’ favor when the brothers brought their case forward, on the third intervention Pompey ordered the brothers to wait. Aristobulus impatiently provoked a political offense that brought Pompey to appoint Hyrcanus the ethnarch of Judea.^[29] The arrival and the Hasmonean’s voluntary request of Pompey’s arbitration marks the beginning of Roman restructuring and rule in Judea, a relationship that deeply, irrevocably altered Jewish life, ways of worship, and governance. Antipater’s legacy of shrewdness stems from his craftiness with Hyrcanus and his foresight over the Near East’s growing subordination to Rome. He embraced Rome to his family’s longstanding gain, and through his machinations in the Hasmonean court, Antipater began to make a name for himself among the Roman rulers. Due his loyalty to Rome and reliability as a statesman, he was placed in charge of Judea, with responsibilities and privileges that included mediating civil disturbance and tax collecting.^[30][31]

Roman Procurator and Appointments of Sons[link]

With Hycranus established, Antipater thrived and laid the foundation for his family’s success by navigating conflicts of loyalty and power-shifting within the Roman elite. When Julius Caesar and Pompey go to battle in Egypt, Pompey dies, so that Antipater shifted his allegiance to Caesar, and indeed ingratiated himself with Caesar. While Caesar was besieged in Alexandria, Antipater rescued him with three thousand men and the aid of numerous nearby friends. For his “demonstrations of valor” Caesar elevated Antipater to Roman citizenry, freed him from taxes, and showered him with honors and declarations of friendship.^[32]

Later when accused by Aristobulus’ son, Antigonus, who returns from Roman bondage to contest for power, Antipater made a great scene of his scars from fighting for Caesar’s life in Egypt. He defended himself with a history of unfailing loyalty to the Romans.^[33] This appeal persuades Caesar who then appointed Antipater the first Roman Procurator of Judea.^[34] This amity allows the Jews a special degree of protection and freedom to govern themselves and enjoy Rome’s good will.^[35][36] Josephus notes that with his newfound rights and honors, Antipater immediately began to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that Pompey had destroyed when subduing Aristobulus.^[37][38] He established order by tempering civil disturbances in Judea and threatening to become a “severe master instead of a gentle governor” should the people grow seditious and unruly. Matters in Judea were finally calm for a time.^[39]

At this time, came the defining point in Antipater's legacy, whereby he made his son, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem, and Herod the governor of Galilee, to the north of Samaria between the Sea of Galilee and Mediterranean. Herod was but 15 years old and quickly made a name for himself to the contention of the Jews.^[40] The leading men of the Jews became embittered toward the family and made accusations against them that brought Herod into trial before the Sanhedrin, a Jewish ruling body.^[41] Now the principal character in the affairs of Jews was beginning to shift to the illustrious Herod as asserted his will and abilities with great show.

Assassination and Legacy[link]

After the assassination of Sextus Caesar, Antipater was forced to side with Cassius against Mark Antony. Whence Cassius came to Syria to collect troops, he began to demand harsh tributes, so much so that some entire cities and city curators were sold into slavery.^[42] Cassius demanded seven hundred talents out of Judea, so Antipater split the cost between his two sons. One aristocrat tasked with collecting tribute was Malichus, who disdained Antipater and enraged Cassius at not collecting with haste.^[43][44] However, Antipater saved Malichus from death by expending one hundred talents of his own and placating Cassius’ anger.^[45]

Although Antipater saved Malichus' life a second time from a different ruler, Malichus continued to despise Antipater and seek his murder. Josephus presents two opposing reasons, one which would help secure Hyrcanus against the rising threat of Herod,^[46] and the other being his desire to quickly dispose of Hyrcanus and take power himself.^[47] He devised multiple assassination attempts which Antipater evaded, but successfully bribed one of Hyrcanus’ cup-bearers to poison and kill Antipater.^[48]

Antipater’s work as power-broker between the Hasmoneans, the Arabians, and the Romans inaugurated dramatic dynamics and steep changes in the history of the Jewish nation. The diplomacy and artful politics of Antipater produced the Herodian dynasty; he paved the way for the rise of his son Herod the Great, who married the Hasmonean princess Mariamne,^[49] endeared himself to Rome, and usurped the Judean throne to become king of Judea under Roman influence.

Notes[link]

1. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
2. ^ "Antipater". JewishEncyclopedia.com. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1598-antipater. 
3. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
4. ^ Genesis 36:8
5. ^ Hayes, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
6. ^ Peterson, Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans, p.52-53
7. ^ 2 Kings 25:8-12
8. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
9. ^ Ezra 1:2-5
10. ^ Ezra 2
11. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.15.2.
12. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 16.7.1.
13. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 13.9.1.
14. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.15.2.
15. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.8.9.
16. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.7.3.
17. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.7.3.
18. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.6.3.
19. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
20. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.6.2.
21. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.8.7.
22. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
23. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.2.
24. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
25. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.3.
26. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.1.4.
27. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.19-21.
28. ^ Hayes and Mandell, The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity, p.101
29. ^ Hayes and Mandell, The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity, p.107
30. ^ Hayes and Mandell, The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity, p.117
31. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.6.3.
32. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.9.3-5.
33. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.8.4.
34. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.8.5.
35. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.10.3.
36. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.8.5.
37. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.9.1.
38. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.4.4.
39. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.9.1.
40. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.9.2.
41. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.9.3-4.
42. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 11.1-2.
43. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.11.2.
44. ^ Hayes and Mandell, The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity, p.122
45. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.11.2.
46. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.11.2-4.
47. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.11.7.
48. ^ Josephus, Wars, 1.9.2-4.
49. ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 14.15.14.

References[link]

• Josephus, Flavius. William Whistom, translator. (2003) The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, Updated Edition(17th printing). The Antiquities of the Jews.The Wars of the Jews. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 1-56563-167-6
• Hayes, John H., and Sara R. Mandell (1998). "The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity." Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-25727-5.
• Richardson, Peter (1996). "Herod: king of the Jews and friend of the Romans." Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1570031363 .
• Eisenman, Robert, 1997. James, the Brother of Jesus. Political background of Judea.

External links[link]

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Antipater

Antipater (Greek: Ἀντίπατρος Antipatros; c. 397 BC – 319 BC) was a Macedonian general and a supporter of kings Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. In 320 BC, he became Regent of all of Alexander's Empire. Antipater was one of the sons of a Macedonian nobleman called Iollas or Iolaus^[1] and his family were distant collateral relatives to the Argead dynasty.^[2] Antipater was originally from the Macedonian city of Paliura;^[3] had a brother called Cassander;^[4] was the paternal uncle of Cassander’s child Antigone and was the maternal great uncle of Berenice I of Egypt.^[5] Antipater had ten children from various unknown wives. His daughters were: Phila, Eurydice of Egypt and Nicaea of Macedon, while his sons were: Iollas, Cassander, Pleistarchus, Phillip, Nicanor, Alexarchus and Triparadeisus.^[6]

Career under Philip and Alexander[link]

Nothing is known of his early career until 342 BC, when he was appointed by Philip to govern Macedon as his regent while the former left for three years of hard and successful campaigning against Thracian and Scythians tribes, which extended Macedonian rule as far as the Hellespont. In 342 BC, when the Athenians tried to assume control of the Euboean towns and expel the pro-Macedonian rulers, he sent Macedonian troops to stop them. In the autumn of the same year, Antipater went to Delphi, as Philip's representative in the Amphictyonic League, a religious organization to which Macedon had been admitted in 346 BC.

After the triumphal Macedonian victory at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Antipater was sent as ambassador to Athens (337–336 BC) to negotiate a peace treaty and return the bones of the Athenians who had fallen in the battle.

He started as a great friend to both the young Alexander and the boy's mother, Olympias; there were even rumours that he was Alexander's father. He aided Alexander in the struggle to secure his succession after Philip's death, in 336 BC.

He joined Parmenion in advising Alexander the Great not to set out on his Asiatic expedition until he had provided by marriage for the succession to the throne. On the king's departure in 334 BC, he was left regent in Macedonia and made "general (strategos) of Europe", positions he held until 323 BC. The European front was to prove initially quite agitated, and Antipater also had to send reinforcements to the king, as he did while the king was at Gordium in the winter of 334–333 BC.

The Persian fleet under Memnon of Rhodes and Pharnabazus was apparently a considerable danger for Antipater, bringing war in the Aegean sea and threatening war in Europe. Luckily for the regent, Memnon died during the siege of Mytilene on the isle of Lesbos and the remaining fleet dispersed in 333 BC, after Alexander's victory at the Battle of Issus.

More dangerous enemies were nearer home; tribes in Thrace rebelled in 332 BC, led by Memnon of Thrace, the Macedonian governor of the region, followed shortly by the revolt of Agis III, king of Sparta.

The Spartans, who were not members of the League of Corinth and had not participated in Alexander's expedition, saw in the Asian campaign the long awaited chance to take back control over the Peloponnese after the disastrous defeats at the Battle of Leuctra and Battle of Mantinea. The Persians generously funded Sparta's ambitions, making possible the formation of an army 20,000 strong. After assuming virtual control of Crete, Agis tried to build an anti-Macedonian front. While Athens remained neutral, the Achaeans, Arcadians and Elis became his allies, with the important exception of Megalopolis, the staunchly anti-Spartan capital of Arcadia. Agis started in 331 BC to besiege the city with his entire army, generating great alarm in Macedon.

So to not have two enemies simultaneously, Antipater pardoned Memnon and even let him keep his office in Thrace, while great sums of money were sent him by Alexander. This helped to create, with Thessalian help and many mercenaries, a force double that of Agis, which Antipater in person led south in 330 BC to confront the Spartans. In the spring of that year, the two armies clashed near Megalopolis. Agis fell with many of his best soldiers, but not without inflicting heavy losses on the Macedonians.

Utterly defeated, the Spartans sued for peace; the latter's answer was to negotiate directly with the League of Corinth, but the Spartan emissaries preferred to treat directly with Alexander, who imposed on Sparta's allies a penalty of 120 talents and the entrance of Sparta in the league.

Alexander appears to have been quite jealous of Antipater's victory; according to Plutarch, the king wrote in a letter to his viceroy: "It seems, my friends that while we have been conquering Darius here, there has been a battle of mice in Arcadia".

Antipater was disliked for supporting oligarchs and tyrants in Greece, but he also worked with the League of Corinth, built by Philip. In addition, his previously close relationship with the ambitious Olympias greatly deteriorated. Whether from jealousy or from the necessity of guarding against the evil consequences of the dissension between Olympias and Antipater, in 324 BC, Alexander ordered the latter to lead fresh troops into Asia, while Craterus, in charge of discharged veterans returning home, was appointed to take over the regency in Macedon. When Alexander suddenly died in Babylon in 323 BC however, Antipater was able to forestall the transfer of power.

The fight for succession[link]

The new regent, Perdiccas, left Antipater in control of Greece. Antipater faced revolts in Athens, Aetolia, and Thessaly that made up the Lamian War, in which southern Greeks attempted to re-assert their independence. He defeated them at the Battle of Crannon in 322 BC, with Craterus' help, and broke up the rebellion. As part of this he imposed oligarchy upon Athens and demanded the surrender of Demosthenes, who committed suicide to escape capture. Later in the same year Antipater and Craterus were engaged in a war against the Aetolians when he received the news from Antigonus in Asia Minor that Perdiccas contemplated making himself outright ruler of the empire. Antipater and Craterus accordingly conclude peace with the Aetolians and went to war against Perdiccas, allying themselves with Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt. Antipater crossed over to Asia in 321 BC. While still in Syria, he received information that Perdiccas had been murdered by his own soldiers. Craterus fell in battle against Eumenes (Diodorus xviii. 25-39).

Regent of the Empire[link]

In the treaty of Triparadisus (321 BC) Antipater participated in a new division of Alexander's great kingdom. He appointed himself supreme regent of all Alexander's empire and was left in control of Greece as guardian of Alexander's son Alexander IV and brother Philip III. Having quelled a mutiny of his troops and commissioned Antigonus to continue the war against Eumenes and the other partisans of Perdiccas, Antipater returned to Macedonia, arriving there in 320 BC (Justin xiii. 6). Soon after, he was seized by an illness which terminated his active career, and died, leaving the regency to the aged Polyperchon, passing over his son Cassander, a measure which gave rise to much confusion and ill-feeling.

Alexander's assassin?[link]

Though the debate surrounding the cause of Alexander's sudden death has never been clearly resolved, all of our ancient sources—even those who reject the notion of murder and assign the death to natural causes—mention that rumours abounded in the late fourth century BC that Antipater had been responsible for poisoning the great king. Shortly before Alexander's demise, Antipater's position had recently come under threat, as Alexander's mother Olympias had been writing to her son that Antipater was fomenting unrest and disloyalty in Macedon. Alexander had summoned him to Babylon to answer these charges, but, citing his fear of an uprising in Greece, he had sent his son Cassander in his place. Cassander—so the rumour goes—then had his younger brother Iollas, Alexander's butler, poison the king. Plutarch, who does not believe that Alexander was murdered, cites as the authority behind these rumours one Hagnothemis, who overheard Antigonus discuss the matter.

Literary works[link]

Antipater was a student of Aristotle and Aristotle named him as executor-in-charge of his will, when he died in 322 BC. According to Suidas, Antipater left a compilation of letters in 2 books and a history, called The Illyrian Deeds of Perdikkas.(Περδίκκου πράξεις Ιλλυριακαί)^[7]

References[link]

1. ^ Livius.org Antipater article at Livius org
2. ^ Ptolemaic Dynasty - Affiliated Lines: The Antipatrids
3. ^ Heckel, Who’s who in the age of Alexander the Great: prosopography of Alexander’s empire, p.35
4. ^ Theocritus (17.61)
5. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy: Berenice I, Footnote 3
6. ^ Heckel, Who’s who in the age of Alexander the Great: prosopography of Alexander’s empire, p.p.35&79
7. ^ A History of Macedonia by N. G. L. Hammond, F. W. Walbank, Google Books

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Further reading[link]

• Lane Fox, Robin (2004). Alessandro il Grande. Einaudi. ISBN 88-06-17250-6. 
• Phillips, Graham (2004). Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-134-5. 
• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Antipater", Boston, (1867)
• Waterfield, Robin (2011) (hardback). Dividing the Spoils - The War for Alexander the Great’s Empire. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 273 pages.. ISBN 978-0-19-957392-9. 

External links[link]

• Encyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition (1911)
• Antipater from Livius.org (Jona Lendering)
• Wiki Classical Dictionary: Antipater

v t e Kings of Macedon Argeads Karanus Koenus Tyrimmas Perdiccas I Argaeus I Philip I Aeropus I Alcetas I Amyntas I Alexander I Alcetas II Perdiccas II Archelaus I Craterus Orestes and Aeropus II Archelaus II Amyntas II Pausanias Argaeus II Amyntas III Alexander II Perdiccas III Amyntas IV Philip II Alexander the Great Philip III Alexander IV Regents Ptolemy of Aloros Antipater Polyperchon Cassander Antipatrids Cassander Philip IV Alexander V Antipater II Antipater Etesias Sosthenes Antigonids Demetrius I Antigonus II Demetrius II Antigonus III Philip V Perseus Philip VI (pretender) Non-dynastic Lysimachus Pyrrhus Ptolemy Keraunos Meleager

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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (January 2012)

Herod (Hebrew: הוֹרְדוֹס‎, Hordos, Greek: Ἡρῴδης, Hērōdēs), also known as Herod the Great (born 73 or 74 BCE, died 4 BCE in Jericho^[1]), was a Roman client king of Judea.^[2][3][4] His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis."^[5][6][7] He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple) and the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima. Important details of his biography are gleaned from the works of the 1st century CE Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius.

The Romans made Herod's son Herod Archelaus ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea (biblical Edom) from 4 BCE to 6 CE, referred to as the tetrarchy of Judea. Archelaus was judged incompetent by the Roman emperor Augustus who then combined Samaria, Judea proper and Idumea into Iudaea province^[8] under rule of a prefect until 41. Herod's other son Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee from 4 BCE – 39 CE.

Biography[link]

Copper coin of Herod, bearing the legend "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΗΡΩΔΟΥ" ("Basileōs Hērōdou") on the obverse

Herod was born around 74 BCE in the south (Idumea was the most southern region).^[9][10] He was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high-ranked official under Ethnarch Hyrcanus II, and Cypros, a Nabatean. Herod was a practicing Jew, as the Edomites and many Nabateans had been converted to Judaism by the Hasmoneans.^[11] A loyal supporter of Hyrcanus II, Antipater appointed Herod governor of Galilee at 25, and his elder brother, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem. He enjoyed the backing of Rome but his brutality was condemned by the Sanhedrin.^[12]

In 43 BCE, following the chaos caused by Antipater offering financial support to Caesar's murderers, Antipater was poisoned. Herod, backed by the Roman Army, executed his father's murderer. After the battle of Philippi towards the end of 42 BCE, he convinced Mark Antony and Octavian that his father had been forced to help Caesar's murderers. After Antony marched into Asia, Herod was named tetrarch of Galilee by the Romans.

Two years later Antigonus, Hyrcanus' nephew, took the throne from his uncle with the help of the Parthians. Herod fled to Rome to plead with the Romans to restore him to power. There he was elected "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate.^[13] Josephus puts this in the year of the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio (40 BCE), but Appian places it in 39 BCE.^[10] Herod went back to Judea to win his kingdom from Antigonus and at the same time he married the teenage niece of Antigonus, Mariamne (known as Mariamne I), in an attempt to secure a claim to the throne and gain some Jewish favor. However, Herod already had a wife, Doris, and a three-year-old son, Antipater, and chose therefore to banish Doris and her child.

Three years later, Herod and the Romans finally captured Jerusalem and executed Antigonus. Herod took the role as sole ruler of Judea and the title of basileus (Gr. Βασιλευς, king) for himself, ushering in the Herodian Dynasty and ending the Hasmonean Dynasty. Josephus reports this as being in the year of the consulship of Agrippa and Gallus (37 BCE), but also says that it was exactly 27 years after Jerusalem fell to Pompey, which would indicate 36 BCE. (Cassius Dio also reports that in 37 "the Romans accomplished nothing worthy of note" in the area.^[14]) According to Josephus, he ruled for 37 years, 34 years of them after capturing Jerusalem.

Model of Herod's Temple

As Herod's family had converted to Judaism, his religious commitment had come into question by some elements of Jewish society.^[15] When John Hyrcanus conquered the region of Idumaea (the Edom of the Hebrew Bible) in 140–130 BCE, he required all Idumaeans to obey Jewish law or to leave; most Idumaeans thus converted to Judaism, which meant that they had to be circumcised.^[16] While King Herod publicly identified himself as a Jew and was considered as such by some,^[17] this religious identification was undermined by the decadent lifestyle of the Herodians, which would have earned them the antipathy of observant Jews.^[18]

Herod later executed several members of his own family, including his wife Mariamne.^{[citation needed]}

Architectural achievements[link]

Herod's most famous and ambitious project was the expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

In the eighteenth year of his reign (20–19 BCE), Herod rebuilt the Temple on "a more magnificent scale".^[19] Although work on out-buildings and courts continued another eighty years,^[19] the new Temple was finished in a year and a half. To comply with religious law, Herod employed 1,000 priests as masons and carpenters in the rebuilding.^[19] The finished temple, which was destroyed in 70 CE, is sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple. Today, only the four retaining walls remain standing, including the Wailing Wall or Western Wall. These walls created a flat platform (the Temple Mount) upon which the Temple was then constructed.

Some of Herod's other achievements include the development of water supplies for Jerusalem, building fortresses such as Masada and Herodium, and founding new cities such as Caesarea Maritima and the enclosures of Cave of the Patriarchs and Mamre in Hebron. He and Cleopatra owned a monopoly over the extraction of asphalt from the Dead Sea, which was used in ship building. He leased copper mines on Cyprus from the Roman emperor.

Discovery of quarry[link]

On September 25, 2007, Yuval Baruch, archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced his discovery of a quarry compound which provided King Herod with the stones to renovate the Second Temple. Coins, pottery and iron stakes found proved the date of the quarrying to be about 19 BCE. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer confirmed that the large outlines of the stone cuts is evidence that it was a massive public project worked on by hundreds of slaves.^[20]

New Testament references[link]

Herod the Great appears in the Gospel according to Matthew (Ch. 2), which describes an event known as the Massacre of the Innocents. According to this account, after the birth of Jesus, Magi from the East visited Herod to inquire the whereabouts of "the one having been born king of the Jews", because they had seen his star in the east and therefore wanted to pay him homage. Herod, as King of the Jews, was alarmed at the prospect of a usurper. Herod assembled the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the "Anointed One" (the Messiah, Greek: Ο Χριστός (ho christos)) was to be born. They answered, in Bethlehem, citing Micah 5:2. Herod therefore sent the Magi to Bethlehem, instructing them to search for the child and, after they had found him, to "report to me, so that I too may go and worship him". However, after they had found Jesus, the Magi were warned in a dream not to report back to Herod. Similarly, Joseph was warned in a dream that Herod intended to kill Jesus, so he and his family fled to Egypt. When Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he gave orders to kill all boys of the age of two and under in Bethlehem and its vicinity. Joseph and his family stayed in Egypt until Herod's death, then moved to Nazareth in Galilee in order to avoid living under Herod's son Archelaus.

Regarding the Massacre of the Innocents, although Herod was certainly guilty of many brutal acts, including the killing of his wife and two of his sons, no other known source from the period makes any reference to such a massacre.^[21] Since Bethlehem was a small village, the number of male children under the age of two might not exceed 20. This may be the reason for the lack of other sources for this history,^[22] although Herod's order in Matthew 2:16 includes those children in Bethlehem's vicinity making the massacre larger numerically and geographically. Modern biographers of Herod tend to doubt the event took place.^[23]

Death[link]

Coin of Herod the Great

Since the work of Emil Schürer in 1896^[24] most scholars have agreed that Herod died at the end of March or early April in 4 BCE. ^[25] However, Schürer's consensus has not gone unchallenged in the 20th century, with several scholars endorsing 1 BCE as the year of Herod's death.^[26][27]

Evidence for the 4 BCE date is provided by the fact that Herod's sons, between whom his kingdom was divided, dated their rule from 4 BCE,^[28] and Archilaus apparently also exercised royal authority during Herod's lifetime.^[29] Josephus states that Philip the Tetrarch's death took place after a 37-year reign, in the 20th year of Tiberius (34 CE).^[30]

Josephus tells us that Herod died after a lunar eclipse.^[31] He gives an account of events between this eclipse and his death, and between his death and Passover. A partial eclipse^[32] took place on March 13, 4 BCE^[33], about 29 days before Passover, and this eclipse is usually taken to be the one referred to by Josephus.^[34] There were however three other, total, eclipses around this time, and there are proponents of both 5 BCE^[35]– with two total eclipses,^[36][37] and 1 BCE.^[10]

Bronze coin of Herod the Great, minted at Samaria.

Josephus wrote that Herod's final illness – sometimes named as "Herod's Evil"^[38] – was excruciating.^[39] From Josephus' descriptions, some medical experts propose that Herod had chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier's gangrene.^[40] Modern scholars agree he suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia.^[41] More recently, others report that the visible worms and putrefaction described in his final days are likely to have been scabies; the disease might have accounted for both his death and psychiatric symptoms.^[42] Similar symptoms attended the death of his grandson Agrippa I in CE 44.

Josephus also stated that Herod was so concerned that no one would mourn his death, that he commanded a large group of distinguished men to come to Jericho, and he gave order that they should be killed at the time of his death so that the displays of grief that he craved would take place ^[43]. Fortunately for them, Herod's son Archilaus and sister Salome did not carry out this wish ^[44].

After Herod's death, his kingdom was divided among three of his sons by Augustus. Augustus "appointed Archilaus, not indeed to be the king of the whole country, but ethnarch or one half of that which had been subject to Herod, and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter, if he governed his part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into two parts, and gave it to two other of Herod's sons, to Philip and to Herod Antipas, that Herod Antipas who disputed with Archilaus for the whole kingdom. Now, to him it was that Perea and Galilee paid their tribute, which amounted annually to two hundred talents, while Batanea with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of what was called House of Lenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, and Judea, and the country of Samaria, paid tribute to Archilaus, but had now a fourth part of that tribute taken off by the order of Caesar, who decreed them that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude."^[45] Archilaus became ethnarch of the tetrarchy of Judea, Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, and Philip became tetrarch of territories east of the Jordan.

Tomb discovery[link]

Aerial photo of Herodium from the southwest

The location of Herod's tomb is documented by Josephus, who writes, "And the body was carried two hundred furlongs, to Herodium, where he had given order to be buried."^[46] Josephus provides more clues about Herod's tomb which he calls Herod's monuments:

So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.^[47]

Professor Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University, read the writings of Josephus and focused his search on the vicinity of the pool and its surroundings at the Winter Palace of Herod in the Judean desert. An article of the New York Times states,

Lower Herodium consists of the remains of a large palace, a race track, service quarters, and a monumental building whose function is still a mystery. Perhaps, says Ehud Netzer, who excavated the site, it is Herod's mausoleum. Next to it is a pool, almost twice as large as modern Olympic-size pools.^[48]

It took 35 years for Netzer to identify the exact location, but on May 7, 2007, an Israeli team of archaeologists of the Hebrew University led by Netzer, announced they had discovered the tomb.^{[49][50][51][52]} The site is located at the exact location given by Flavius Josephus, atop of tunnels and water pools, at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to Herodium, 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem.^[53] The tomb contained a broken sarcophagus but no remains of a body.

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Gush Etzion Regional Council intend to recreate the tomb out of a light plastic material.^[54]

Chronology[link]

30s BCE[link]

• 39–37 BCE– War against Antigonus. After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over Antigonus, Mark Antony executes Antigonus.
• 36 BCE– Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law, Aristobulus III, high priest, fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III "King of the Jews" in his place.
• 35 BCE– Aristobulus III is drowned at a party, on Herod's orders.
• 32 BCE– The war against Nabatea begins, with victory one year later.
• 31 BCE– Israel suffers a devastating earthquake. Octavian defeats Mark Antony, so Herod switches allegiance to Octavian, later known as Augustus.
• 30 BCE– Herod is shown great favor by Octavian, who at Rhodes confirms him as King of Judea.

20s BCE[link]

• 29 BCE– Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his wife, Mariamne I. She learns of Herod's plans to murder her, and stops sleeping with him. Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery. His sister, Salome I, was chief witness against her. Mariamne I's mother Alexandra made an appearance and incriminated her own daughter. Historians say her mother was next on Herod's list to be executed and did this only to save her own life. Mariamne was executed, and Alexandra declared herself Queen, stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve. Josephus wrote that this was Alexandra's strategic mistake; Herod executed her without trial.
• 28 BCE– Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar^[55] (husband of Salome, father to Berenice) for conspiracy. Large festival in Jerusalem, as Herod had built a theatre and an amphitheatre.
• 27 BCE– An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled. To honor Augustus, Herod rebuilt Samaria and renamed it Sebaste.
• 25 BCE– Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid programme to combat the widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought. He also waives a third of the taxes.
• 23 BCE– Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea. He married his third wife, Mariamne II, the daughter of the priest Simon Boethus; immediately Herodes deprived Jesus the son of Phabet, of the high priesthood, and conferred that dignity on Simon.^[56]
• 22 BCE– Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbour. The Roman emperor Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis, Batanaea and Auranitis to the northeast.
• Circa 20 BCE– Expansion started on the Temple Mount; Herod completely rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herod's Temple).

10s BCE[link]

• Circa 18 BCE– Herod travelled for the second time to Rome.
• 14 BCE– Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene. Owing to the prosperity in Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes.
• 13 BCE– Herod made his first-born son Antipater (his son by Doris) first heir in his will.
• 12 BCE– Herod suspected both his sons (from his marriage to Mariamne I) Alexander and Aristobulus of threatening his life. He took them to Aquileia to be tried. Augustus reconciled the three. Herod supported the financially strapped Olympic Games and ensured their future. Herod amended his will so that Alexander and Aristobulus rose in the royal succession, but Antipater would be higher in the succession.
• Circa 10 BCE– The newly expanded temple in Jerusalem was inaugurated. War against the Nabateans began.

First decade BCE[link]

Tomb of Herod the Great

• 9 BCE–Caesarea Maritima was inaugurated. Owing to the course of the war against the Nabateans, Herod fell into disgrace with Augustus. Herod again suspected Alexander of plotting to kill him.
• 8 BCE– Herod accused his sons by Mariamne I of high treason. Herod reconciled with Augustus, who also gave him the permission to proceed legally against his sons.
• 7 BCE– The court hearing took place in Berytos (Beirut) before a Roman court. Mariamne I's sons were found guilty and executed. The succession changed so that Antipater was the exclusive successor to the throne. In second place the succession incorporated (Herod) Philip, his son by Mariamne II.
• 6 BCE– Herod proceeded against the Pharisees.
• 5 BCE– Antipater was brought before the court charged with the intended murder of Herod. Herod, by now seriously ill, named his son (Herod) Antipas (from his fourth marriage with Malthace) as his successor.
• 4 BCE– Young disciples smashed the golden eagle over the main entrance of the Temple of Jerusalem after the Pharisee teachers claimed it was an idolatrous Roman symbol. Herod arrested them, brought them to court, and sentenced them. Augustus approved the death penalty for Antipater. Herod then executed his son, and again changed his will: Archelaus (from the marriage with Malthace) would rule as ethnarch over the tetrachy of Judea, while Antipas (by Malthace) and Philip (from the fifth marriage with Cleopatra of Jerusalem) would rule as tetrarchs over Galilee and Peraea (Transjordan), also over Gaulanitis (Golan), Trachonitis (Hebrew: Argob), Batanaea (now Ard-el-Bathanyeh) and Panias. Salome I was also given a small toparchy in the Gaza region. As Augustus did not confirm his will, no one received the title of King; however, the three sons were granted rule of the stated territories.

Marriages and children[link]

It is very probable that Herod had more children, especially with the last wives, and also that he had more daughters, as female births at that time were often not recorded.^[57]

Family trees[link]

Marriages and descendants[link]

Herod the Great + Doris
                |
            Antipater II
             d. 4 BCE?

Herod the Great + Mariamne I, d. 29 BCE?, dt. of Alexandros.
                |
       —————————————————————————————————————————————
      |          |          |                       |
 Aristobulus   Alexander   Salampsio + Phasael II     Cypros
  d. 7 BCE?     d. 7 BCE?                |             m. Antipater(2)
 m. Berenice                       Cypros
      |
     ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
    |                |              |                |               |
Mariamne III      Herod V      Herodias     Herod Agrippa    Aristobulus V
m. her uncle   King of Chalcis      +         King of Judea              |
   Archelaus ?              m. 1. Herod II Boethus Herod Agrippa II
                                her uncle
                                2. Herod Antipas
                                her uncle

Herod the Great + Mariamne II, dt. of Simon the High-Priest.
                |
           Herod II
           Boethus

Herod the Great + Malthace (a Samaritan)
                |
    ————————————————————————————————————————————————
   |                                   |            |
 Herod Antipas                     Archelaus    Olympias
   b. 20 BCE?
   + Phasaelis,
   dt. of Aretas IV, king of Arabia
 "divorced" to marry:
   + Herodias,
   dt. of Aristobulus (son of Herod the Great)

Herod the Great + Cleopatra of Jerusalem
                |
       Philip the Tetrarch
             d. 34 CE

Notes.

• Herod's Family Tree^[58]
• Antipater(2) was the son of Joseph and Salome
• Dates with ? need verifying against modern findings

Ancestors[link]

Antipater the Idumaean + Cypros, Princess from Petra, Jordan in Nabatea.
                       |
    —————————————————————————————————————————————
   |              |            |        |        |
Phasael    Herod the Great  Joseph  Pheroras  Salome I
          (74-4 BCE)

Alexandros + Alexandra
           |
      ———————————————————————————————————
     |                                   |
Aristobulus III            Mariamne, dt.
(d. 35 BCE)                              m. Herod the Great
(last Hasmonean scion;
appointed high priest; drowned)

See also[link]

• Cultural depictions of Herod the Great
• Herod's Palace

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Brandon, S.G.F. (1962). "Herod the Great: Judaea’s Most Able but Most Hated King". History Today 12: 234–242. 
• Grant, Michael (1971). Herod the Great. New York: American Heritage Press. ISBN 0-07-024073-6. 
• Günther, Linda-Marie (hg.). Herodes und Jerusalem (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009).
• Guenther, Linda-Marie (hg.), Herodes und Rom (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007).
• Jacobson, David M. and Nikos Kokkinos (еds), Herod and Augustus: Papers held at the IJS Conference, 21st-23rd June 2005 (Leiden, Brill, 2009) (IJS Studies in Judaica, 6).
• Kokkinos, Nikos, The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse (Sheffield, Sheffield Academic, 1998).
• Marshak, Adam Kolman (2006). "The Dated Coins of Herod the Great: Towards a New Chronology". Journal for the Study of Judaism 37 (2): 212–240. 
• Netzer, Ehud, The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006).
• Perowne, Stewart (1956). The Life and Times of Herod the Great. New York: Abingdon Press. 
• Richardson, P., Herod the King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans (Edinburgh, 1999).
• Roller, Duane W. (1998). The Building Program of Herod the Great. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-91935-8. 
• Sandmel, Samuel (1967). Herod: Profile of a Tyrant. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 
• Witztum, Eliezer, King Herod: A Persecuted Persecutor. A Case Study in Psychohistory and Psychobiography (Berlin and New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2006).
• Zeitlin, Solomon (1963). "Herod: A Malevolent Maniac". Jewish Quarterly Review 54: 1–27. 
• Zeitlin, Solomon (1962-1978). The Rise and Fall of the Judean State. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. 

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (December 2009)

• Resources > Second Temple and Talmudic Era > Herod and the Herodian Dynasty The Jewish History Resource Center - Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Halachic Status of Herod
• Family trees
• Encyclopedia.com
• Outline of Great Books Volume I - King Herod: extracts from the works of Josephus
• Timeline 49 to 1 BCE
• Herod surnamed the Great in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Herod
• King Herod the Great
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Herod I

Tomb

• Tomb Found
• Herod's Tomb -images
• King Herod's Tomb Found Biblical Archaeology Review