Costobarus

Costobarus was an associate of Herod the Great: who made Costobarus governor of Idumea, and second husband of Herod's sister Salome I. He is known also as Costobar. There is another also named Costobar, who is the brother of Saul.

Costobar(us), husband of Salome

Costobarus was an associate of Herod b. Antipater during the latter’s rise to power. Following the capitulation of Jerusalem - in the campaign by Mark Antony and Herod against the Hasmonean king Antigonus - Costobar controlled the exits from the city. At about this time, in c.37 BC, Antony appointed Herod as Tetrarch of Judæa: and Herod appointed Costobarus as Governor of Idumæa and Gaza. Soon afterwards, c.34 BC, Herod gave his sister Salome in marriage to Costobarus.

While Costobarus “gladly accepted these favours, which were more than he had expected”, he was never “Herods’ man”: his focus was always towards Idumæa and his own ambitions in that direction. Costobarus was from a noble and priestly family in Idumæa; and he resented that the Hasmonean John Hyrcanus had made the Idumæans adopt the customs and laws of the Jews. He “did not think ... it ... proper for him to carry out the orders of Herod , or for the Idumæans to ... be subject to them.” He also had ambitions to rule Idumæa himself, and “to achieve greater things”. These attitudes led him to three acts which aroused Herod against him, and eventually led to his execution.