The Herods : murder, politics, and the art of succession

"Until his death in 4 BCE, Herod the Great's monarchy included territories that once made up the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Although he ruled over a rich, strategically crucial land, his royal title did not derive from heredity. His family came from the people of Idumea, ancient antagonists of the Israelites. Yet Herod did not rule as an outsider, but from a family committed to Judaism going back to his grandfather and father. They had served the priestly dynasty of the Maccabees that had subjected Idumea to their rule, including the Maccabean version of what loyalty to the Torah required. Herod's father, Antipater, rose not only to manage affairs on behalf of his priestly masters, but to become a pivotal military leader. He inaugurated a new alignment of power: an alliance with Rome negotiated with Pompey and Julius Caesar. In the crucible of civil war among Romans as the Triumvirate broke up, and of war between Rome and Parthia, Antipater managed to leave his sons with the prospect of a dynasty. Herod inherited the twin pillars of loyalty to Judaism and loyalty to Rome that became the basis of Herodian rule. He elevated Antipater's opportunism to a political art. During Herod's time, Roman power took its imperial form, and Octavian was responsible for making Herod king of Judea. As Octavian ruled, he took the title Augustus, in keeping with his devotion to his adoptive father's cult of "the divine Julius." Imperial power was a theocratic assertion as well as a dominant military, economic, and political force. Herod framed a version of theocratic ambition all his own, deliberately crafting a dynastic claim grounded in Roman might and Israelite theocracy. That unlikely hybrid was the key to the Herodians' surprising longevity in power during the most chaotic century in the political history of Judaism." -- Forleggeromtale Cover Page 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Preface 8 Introduction 10 1. Antipater 20 Setting 21 The Maccabees 24 The Essenes 31 Antipater in the Maccabean Hegemony 35 2. Herod’s Debut 48 Caesar and Antipater in the Conquest of Egypt 49 Caesar’s Man in Judea 51 Jerusalem, Religious Politics, and the Sanhedrin 54 Herod’s Campaign in Galilee 62 Hybris 69 3. King Herod 76 Death, Revenge, and the Parthian Threat 77 Theoretical Monarch 88 King of the Jews 96 4. Mariamme 104 Marital and Priestly Strategies 105 Cleopatra 106 Octavian and the Imperial Transition 118 A Time to Build and a Time to Tear Down 122 5. Archelaus 136 Introduction 137 Archelaus’s Play for Power 138 Imperial Intervention 150 The End of Archelaus and the Sadducees’ Opportunity 159 6. Antipas, Herodias, and Philip 166 Salvaging the Dynasty: Antipas and Philip 167 Antipas’s Tiberian Breakout 171 Executing John the Baptist 175 Pontius Pilate, Jesus, and Antipas’s Ambitions 179 7. Agrippa I 194 Agrippa’s Revenge 195 The Edict of Caligula 202 The Claudian Settlement and Agrippa’s Glory 208 After Agrippa 219 8. Bereniké and Agrippa II 224 The Queen 225 The Neronian Opportunity, Confrontations in Jerusalem 229 Open War 238 Defeat and the Last Herodian Meteorite 249 Epilogue 254 Chronology 272 Dramatis personae 278 Notes 286 Bibliography of Sources 366 Index of Historical Figures 372 Index of Scholars 380 In The Herods, Bruce Chilton sets out the full sweep of Herodian rule, from the time of Herod the Great's father, Antipater, until the dynastic sunset, when Emperor Titus attempted to marry Bereniké, Herod's great-granddaughter. Throughout, the narrative brings out the theocratic aims that motivated Herod and his progeny, their competitors, Roman rulers, and the many different groups and factions within Judaism and Christianity that often defined themselves in opposition to the Herodian project. The Herods explores the Herodian rule from Herod the Great's father, Antipater, until the dynastic sunset with Bereniké, Herod's great-granddaughter, describing the theocratic aims that motivated Herod and his progeny, and the groups and factions within Judaism and Christianity that often defined themselves in opposition to the Herodian project.