I. HEROD, surnamed THE GREA1 was the second son of Antipater and Cypros, an Arabian lady of noble descent (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 7. 3)• In B.C. 47 Julius Cmsar made Antipater Procurator of Judma, and the latter divided his territories among his four sons, assigning the dis trict of Galilee to Herod (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 9. 3 ; yucl. i. to. 4). At the time when he was invested with the government he was fifteen years of age according to Josephus (Andy. xiv. 9. 2) ; but it must be a mistake. Herod died, aged sixty-nine, in B.C. 4, consequently he must have been twenty-six or twenty-five in the year B.C. 47. when he was made governor of Galilee (rIvre Kat akaat, given by Dindorf in the ed. Didot, but no stated authority). One of his first acts was to repress the brigands who were infesting his pro vinces, and to put many of their leaders to death upon his own authority. This was made known to Hyrcanns, and Herod was summoned to take his trial before the Sanhedrim for his deeds of violence. Herod, instead of appearing before the Sanhedrim clothed in mourning, came in purple, attended by armed guards, and bearing in his hand a letter from the Roman commander Sextus Caesar for his ac quittal. This overawed the assembly, but Sameas, a just man (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 9. 4), stepped for ward, and boldly addressing the assembly, pre dicted that should the offender escape punish ment, lie would live to kill all those who were his judges, and would not grant the pardon which the assembly seemed inclined to extend to him. He, however, escaped, and took refuge with Sextus Cmsar, who soon appointed him governor (arpa Twos) of Coele-Syria. He then determined to march against Jerusalem, and would have done so, had not his father Antipater and his family re strained him from committing any fresh acts of violence. In B.C. 44, after Cmsar's death, Cas sius took the government of Syria. Herod and his father Antipater willingly assisted Cassius in obtaining the taxes levied upon the Jews for the support of the troops. For this Herod was con firmed in the government of Coele-Syria (Joseph. Bell. yita'. 4). In B.C. 41 Antony came to Syria, and Herod, by making him valuable presents, soon formed with him a close personal intimacy (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 12. 2). Hyrcanus, to whose beautiful granddaughter Mariamne IIerod was betrothed, induced Antony to make Herod and his brother Phasael tetrarchs of Judaea (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 13. 1; Bell. yinl. i. 12. 5). The invasion of the Parthians, who sided with Antigonus the As monman, compelled Herod to give up Judaea and fly to Rome. Antony was then in great power, and took Herod under his protection, and seeing that he might prove useful to him, obtained a de cree of the senate appointing him king of Judma, to the extinction of all the living Asmonman princes (Joseph. Antiy. xiv. 9-4; Bell. "zed. io-4; Dion Cass. xlviii.) These events took place in B.C. 4o, and Herod, only staying seven days at Rome, returned speedily to Jerusalem within three months from the time he had first fled.
It was not, however, so easy for Herod to ob tain possession of Jerusalem or to establish himself as king of Judma, as it had been to obtain this title from the Romans. The Jews still held firmly to Antigonus as the representative of the Asmonman line, and it was not for several years that Herod made any material advance whatever. With the assistance of the Romans Herod made preparations to take Jerusalem. He had endeavoured to con ciliate the people by marrying Mariarnne, thinking that by so doing the attachment of the Jews to the Asmonman family would be extended to him. After six months' siege the Romans entered the city (u.c. 37), and to revenge the obstinate resist ance they had received, began to ransack and plunder, and it was no easy task for Herod to purchase from the conquerors the freedom from pillage of some part of his capital. Antigonus was taken and conveyed to Antioch, where, having been previously beaten, Ile was ignominiously executed with the axe by the order of Antony, a mode of treatment which the Romans had never before used to a king (Dion Cass. lxix. 22 ; Joseph. Antiy. xv. 2). Thus ended the government of the Asmonmans, 126 years after it was first set up (Joseph. Aniiq. xiv. 6. 4). Immediately on as cending the throne IIerod put to death all the members of the Sanhedrim, excepting Pollio and Sameas,* who had predicted this result, and also all the adherents of Antigonus who could be found. Having confiscated their property, he sent presents to Antony to repay him for his assistance and to further secure his favour. He then gave the office
of high-priest, which had become vacant by the death of Antigonus, and the mutilation of Hyr. canus, whose ears had been cat off by Antigonus (cf. Lev. xxi. 16-24), to an obscure priest from Babylon, named Ananel. At this insult Alex andra, the mother of Mariamne and Aristobu lus, to whom the office of high-priest belonged by hereditary succession, appealed to Cleopatra to use her powerful influence with Antony, and IIerod was thus compelled to depose Ananel, and to elevate Aristobulus to the high-priesthood. The increasing popularity of Aristobulus, added to the further intrigues of Alexandra, so excited the jealousy of Herod, that he caused him to be drowned while bathing, and expressed great sor row at the accident. Alexandra again applied to Cleopatra, who at last persuaded Antony to summon Herod to Laodicea to answer for his con duct. Herod was obliged to obey, but was dis missed with the highest honours (Joseph. Antiq. xv. 3. 1-8 ; cf. Bell. yita'. i. 22. 2). After the defeat of Antony at Actium in B.C. 31, Herod had an audience at Rhodes with Octavius, who did not think that Antony was quite powerless while Herod continued his assistance to him (Joseph. Bell. Yua'.i. zo. 1). Herod so conciliated him that he obtained security in his kingdom of Judma, to which Octavius added Gadara, Samaria, and the maritime cities Gaza and Joppa. Shortly after the regions of Trachonitis, Batanea, and Auranitis, were given him (Joseph. Antiq. xv. 5. 6, 7 ; to. t; Bell. Ylea'. i. 20. 3, 4 ; comp. Tac. Hist. v. 9). Herod's domestic life was troubled by a long series of bloodshed. Hyrcanus, the grandfather of his wife Mariamne, was put to death before his visit to Octavius, and Marianme, to whom he was pas sionately attached, fell a victim to his jealousy soon after his return. His remorse for the deed is well described by Josephus, who says that Herod com manded his attendants always to speak of her as alive (Antiq. xv. 7. 7 ; yatd. i. 22. 5). In B. C. 20, when Augustus visited. Judxa in person, another extensive addition was made to his terri tories. The district of Paneas was taken away from its ruler Zenodorus for leaguing himself with the Arabs, and given.to Herod. In return Herod adorned this place by erecting a temple, which he dedicated to Augustus (Joseph. Antiy. xv. ro. 3 ; 7ud. i. 2o. 4 ; Dion Cass. liv. 9). Not long after this, the death of his wife was followed by other atrocities. Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Mariamne, were put to death, and at last, in B.C. 4, Herod ordered his eldest son, Antipater, to be killed. Herod's painful disease no doubt maddened him in his later years, and in anticipa tion of his own death he gave orders that the prin cipal Jews, whom he had shut up in the Hippo drome at Jericho, should immediately after his decease be put to death, that mourners might not be wanting at his funeral (Joseph. A ntiq. xvii. 6. 5). On his deathbed, too, he must have ordered the murder of the infants at Bethlehem, as recorded in St. Matthew (ii. 16-18). The number of children in a village must have been very few, and Josephus has passed this story over unnoticed ; yet it is worthy of re:nark that he has given an account of a massacre by Herod of all the members of his family who had consented to what the Pharisees foretold, viz., that Herod's government should cease, and his posterity be deprived of the kingdom (Antiqi. xvii. 2. 4.). A confused account of the massacre of the children and the murder of Antipater is given in Macrobius-` Augustus cum audisset inter pueros, quos in Syria', Herodes, rex Judceorum, intra bima turn jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait : Menus est Herodis porcum (r6v tip ?) esse quam filium (nip v161, r) (Sat. ii. 4). Macrobius lived in the 5th century (c.A.D. 420), and the words intro 6imatum bimatu et infra, Matt. ii. 16, Vulg.) seem to be borrowed ; the story, too, is wrong, as Antipater was of age when he was executed (Alford, in loc.) Macrobius may have made some mistake on account of Herod's wish to destroy the heir to the throne of David. Herod died in the thirty seventh y-ear of his reign (dating from his being made king by Antony), and in the seventieth year of his age, B. c. 4. His body was conveyed by his son Archelaus from Jericho, where he died, to Herodium, a city and fortress zoo stadia distant ; and he was there buried with great pomp (Joseph. Antiq. xvii. 8. 2 ; Bell. Yud. i. 38. 9).