HERODIAN FAMILY (he-ro'di-an fam1-15',), (Gr. 'HpcuStavoi, hay-ro-dee-an-oy').
Josephus introduces us to the knowledge of the Herodian family in the fourteenth book of his Antiquities. He there tells us (ch. i, sec. 3) that among the chief friends of Hyrcanus the high priest was au Idumxan, named Antipatcr, dis tinguished for his riches, and no less for his tttrbu lent and seditious temper. He also quotes an au thor who represented him as descended from one of the best of the Jewish families which returned from Babylon after the captivity, but adds that this statement was founded on no better grounds than a desire to flatter the pride and support the pretensions of Herod.
(1) Herod the Great was the son of Antipater and Cypros and bore the titles of "Herod the King," "King of Judea," and "Herod the Great." In 47 B. C. Julius Cwsar gave the procuratorship of Judea to Antipater, who divided the territory among his four sons, giving Herod Galilee. He was then only about twenty-five years of age.
His first act was to repress the brigands who were infesting his province, many of whom he executed. Sextus Cwsar appointed him governor of Ccele-Syria, which he also held under Cassius, and for some time was very efficient in raising money for military purposes. In 41 B. C., when Antony came to Syria, Herod made him valuable presents and gained his favor. He and Phasael were appointed tetrarchs of Judea ; but war brcaking out, Herod fled to Rome, where, by the aid of Antony, he was made king of Judea. He was not acceptable, however, and the As monean family contested his right to their king dom. Herod made preparations to take Jerusa lem, and after six months' siege, the Romans entered the city, and the Asmonean dynasty passed away. Herod executed all the members of the Sanhedrim except two, conficated their property, and put a new priest in power.
After the defeat of Antony at Actium, Herod obtained an audience with Octavius, and obtained assurances of security in his realm; and nearly all of Palestine was added to his territory.
In his domestic life Herod had endless trouble. His father died by poison. The poisoner was as sassinated. His brothers Phasael and Joseph fell in. wars. His satanic sister Salome urged him to crime. His brother Pheroras, while plotting with Antipater against Herod, was poisoned by his own wife. When Herod went to meet Mark Antony,
and again to meet Octavian, he gave orders to put his wife Mariamne, the Asmonean, to death if he should not return. His uncle Joseph in one case, and his minister Sohemus in the other, let the woman worm the secret from them. Both were executed for that. He murdered but one of his wives ; others he cast aside. Doris was cast off, recalled, again stripped of honors and wealth, and banished. The first NIariamne learned of his murderous orders concerning her, and of his crafty murder of her brother Aristobulus, a pretended accident. She hated him and flouted him. In a frenzy he charged her with adultery, for he dared not dispose of her secretly. She marched to death with the proud dignity of a Maccabean. Her two sons, Aristobulus and Alex ander, were educated at Rome in the imperial family of Augustus. Herod brought them home. He admired them, but found them too popular. A charge of treason put the strangler's cord upon their necks. Antipater, eldest son, had much rea son to hate his father, for his mother's sake and his own. He laid plots for assassination. The Roman judge condemned him. Augustus left final sentence to Herod. The son was put to death' five days before the father died. The emperor is said to have made the remark, "I had rather be Herod's sow than Herod's son." His diseased body,.no doubt, helped to make him the monster of crime that he was.
At the visit of the Magi, and the announcement of the birth of some great personage in his king dom, Ile was greatly stirred. and all Jerusalem with him. The massacre of the children in Beth lehem was no strange act for a man who had murdered so many of his own household. When nearing death he gave orders that the principal Jews, whom he had shut up in the hippodrome at Jericho, should be killed immediately after Ws death; but they were released, and the day was celebrated as a deliverance rather than as a funeral. He died, aged sixty-nine, a few days before the Passover, B. C. 4, and the death scene, as reported, was awful, both as regards his mind and body. "And so, choking as it were with blood, desiring massacres, as in its very delirium, the soul of Herod passed forth into the night"— Farrar.