HEROD THE GREAT (c. 73 B.c.-4 B.c.), the son of Antipater and king of Judaea (40-4 B.c.), was descended from a family of Idumaean origin. When he was 25, his father, who had served in Caesar's campaign against Egypt, appointed him ruler of Galilee. He at once arrested Hezekiah the arch-brigand, who had overrun the Syrian border, and put him to death. For this he was cited in the name of Hyrcanus to appear before the Sanhedrin, whose pre rogative he had usurped in executing Hezekiah. He appeared with a bodyguard, and the Sanhedrin was overawed. Only Sameas, a Pharisee, dared to insist upon the legal verdict of condemnation. But the governor of Syria had sent a demand for Herod's ac quittal, and so Hyrcanus adjourned the trial and persuaded the accused to abscond. Herod returned with an army, but his father dissuaded him from wreaking vengeance upon his enemies.
strategus of Coelesyria by the provincial governor. In 43 B.C. Antipater was poisoned at the instigation of one Malichus, who was perhaps a Jewish patriot. Herod, with the connivance of Cassius, who was in Syria to collect war-tax, had Malichus assassinated. The country was now in a state of anarchy, owing to the extortions of Cassius and the encroachments of neighbouring powers. Antony, who be came master of the East after Philippi, was ready to support the sons of his friend Antipater; but he was absent in Egypt when the Parthians invaded Palestine to restore Antigonus to the throne of his father Aristobolus (4o B.c.). Herod escaped to Rome, where
who had made him tetrarch, now persuaded the Senate to declare him king of Judaea.
B.C. Herod returned to Palestine and, when the presence of Antony put the reluctant Roman troops entirely at his disposal, he was able to lay siege to Jerusalem two years later. Secure of the support of Rome he endeavoured to legitimize his position in the eyes of the Jews by taking the Hasmonaean princess Mari amne to be his second wife. Jerusalem was taken by storm ; the Roman troops withdrew to behead Antigonus the usurper at Antioch. In 37 B.C. Herod was king of Judaea, being the client of Antony and the husband of Mariamne.
The Pharisees, who dominated the bulk of the Jews, were con tent to accept Herod's rule as a judgment of God. Hyrcanus re turned from his prison, and though his mutilation prevented him from holding office as high priest, he was able to exercise an in fluence favourable to the new dynasty. On the other hand, Herod's marriage with Mariamne brought some of his enemies into his own household. He had scotched the faction of Has monaean sympathizers by killing 45 members of the Sanhedrin and confiscating their possessions. But so long as there were representatives of the family alive, there was always a possible pretender to the throne which he occupied. Mariamne's mother used her position to further the overthrow of her son-in-law; and she found an ally in Cleopatra of Egypt, who was unwilling to be spurned by him.
of his different adversaries. His high-priest, a Babylonian, was deposed in order that Aristobulus III., Mariamne's brother, might hold the place to which he had some ancestral right. But the enthusiasm with which the people received him at the Feast of Tabernacles convinced Herod of the danger, and the youth was drowned by his order at Jericho. Cleopatra had obtained from Antony a grant of territory adjacent to Herod's domain and even part of it. She required Herod to collect arrears of tribute. So it fell out that, when Octavian and the Senate declared war against Antony and Cleopatra, Herod, preoccupied in obedience to her commands, was prevented from fighting against the future em peror of Rome.
He took in hand to deal with the Hasmonaeans, and in 25 B.C. the old intriguers, their victims like Mariamne, and all pretenders were dead. From this time onwards Herod was free to govern Palestine as a client-prince of the Roman empire should govern his kingdom. To put down the brigands and to check the raids of the Arabs on the frontier, he built or rebuilt fortresses, which were of assistance to the Jews in the great revolt against Rome. He restored the temple at Jerusalem, erected magnificent build ings, founded cities, and established games in honour of the emperor, who recognized his successful government by putting the districts of Ulatha and Fanias under him in 20 B.C.
Pheroras and sister Salome plotted for their own advantage and against the two sons of Mariamne. The people still cherished a loyalty to the Hasmonaean lineage, although the young princes were also the sons of Herod. The enthusiasm with which they were received aroused suspicion in their father's mind, and they were strangled at Sebaste. On his deathbed Herod discovered that his eldest son, Antipater, had been plotting against him. He accused him before the governor of Syria and obtained leave from Augustus to put him to death. The father died five days after his son in 4 B.C. He had done much for the Jews, thanks to the favour he had won from the successive heads of the Roman State ; and he had observed the Law publicly.
Josephus, Ant. xv., xvi., xvii.
B..I. i.
; Schiirer, Gesch. d. jiid. Volk. (4th ed., 1901-09) i., and bibliography in Herzog's Realencyklopddie.
