of regarding the command as a proof of his jealous love, abhorred it as another instance of the cruelty which had not spared so many of her nearest relatives. A horrible tragedy ensued: Mariamne openly expressed her disgust ; and Herod, furious with rage, jealousy, and rejected love, ordered her death. The violence of his feelings threw him into a dangerous malady, and even drove him to the verge of insanity. His mind never recovered its healthy tone, and in later years the avenger again overtook him. In the meantime his government was marked by the greatest magnificence and apparent success. His turbulent subjects were kept tolerably quiet in spite of heavy taxes. He managed to gratify his love for Greek and Roman life; and yet he avoided wounding too deeply the susceptibilities of the Jews. The magnificent buildings which he raised were the most brilliant products of his reign. He rebuilt Samaria, calling it Sebaste, from the Greek name for Augustus. He converted the small town of Strato’s Tower into a magnificent seaport with an artificial harbour, under the name of Ceesarea. These and other towns which he built were furnished with temples, theatres, aqueducts, and all the other ornamental and useful appliances of Greek and Roman life. In the city of Jerusalem even he built a theatre, and an amphitheatre outside of it. A more patriotic work was the rebuilding of the temple (begun 20b.c.), which had suffered greatly during the late troubles; it was on a very magnificent scale, and lasted nine years and a half, even then being unfinished. Equally necessary and equally significant of his relation to his subjects was the construction of strong fortresses in various parts of the country. The last years of Herod’s life were darkened by the return of those family troubles which had previously overcast it. His two sons by Mariamne had been educated at Rome, and returned, 17b.c., to Judea. Their Asmonean descent, their youth, beauty, and accomplishments, and their too interesting history gained them the most enthusiastic popularity among the Jews. Their father himself was proud of them. But Pheroras and Salome, brother and sister of Herod, did all they could to sow jealousy and suspicion. Herod’s mind was too painfully open to dark insinuations, and he recalled his eldest son Antipater to counterbalance the influence of the Asmonean princes. After the arrival of Antipater, who was a most unscrupulous plotter, there was no more peace or security at the court of Herod ; things went from bad to worse, till after many years of the darkest intrigue and the bitterest domestic contention, the two sons of Mariamne were strangled at Sebaste. Soon after the clearest proof was discovered of a conspiracy which Antipater had formed with Pheroras against the life of Herod himself. The order for the death of Antipater was given by Herod from his death-bed. His health had long been failing ; after the cruellest torments of both mind and body, he died 4b.c. The birth of Christ took place in the same year as Herod’s death, but this, as is well known, occurred four years before the date fixed as the beginning of the Christian era. The massacre of the little children at Bethlehem is not mentioned by Josephus among the horrors of Herod’s last days. He was buried with great magnificence. His will, by which the greater part of his dominions was bequeathed to his sons by Malthace, a Samaritan, was confirmed by Augustus.
Herod’s name is doubtless one of the most repulsive in history. He was a man of wonderful energy and sagacity. He saw clearly that Rome was the hinge on which everything turned, and that no policy could be successful which did not depend upon her leading men. His skill in understanding these men, in conciliating them, and making himself useful to them, was very great. Thus he made the successive masters of the world his willing friends, and out of all the crises of his fate emerged victorious. But his hands were red with the blood of his own household ; when his position or his interests were touched no scruple could arrest him. All that can be said in his favour is that many of his cruel measures cost him unspeakable agony of mind, and that he was simply more expert than his rivals at the weapons which were in common use in the political life of the time.
The great source for the life of Herod is Josephus; but such writers as Strabo or Dion Cassius are of service in further illustra- ting it. Useful modern works are Hausrath, Neutestamentliche Zcitgeschichte ; the work of the same name by Schiirer; Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. iv.; Keim, Geschichte Jesu ron Nazara, vol. i.; and Milman’s History of the Jews, vol. ii.
(t. k.)
HEROD ANTIPAS, son of Herod the Great by the Samaritan Malthace, and full brother of Archelaus, received as his share of his father’s dominions the provinces of Galilee and Perea. Like his father, Antipas had a turn for architecture: he rebuilt and fortified the town of Sepphoris; he also fortified Betharamptha, and called it Julias after the wife of the emperor. Above all he founded the important town of Tiberias on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee, with institutions of a distinctly Greek character. Antipas is mentioned more than once in gospel history under the name of Herod. He it was who was called a “fox” by Christ. He is erroneously spoken of as a king in Mark vi. 14. It was to him that Jesus was sent by Pilate to be tried. But it is in connexion with his wife Herodias that he is best known, and it was through her that kis misfortunes arose. He was married first of all to a daughter of Aretas, the Arabian king; but, making the acquaintance of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (not the tetrarch), during a visit to Rome, he was fascinated by her and arranged to marry her. Meantime his Arabian wife discovered the plan and escaped to her father, who made war on Herod, and completely defeated his army. John the Baptist condemned his marriage with Herodias, and in consequence was put to death in the way described in the gospels and in Josephus. When Herodias’s brother Agrippa was appointed king by Caligula, she was determined to see her husband attain to an equal eminence, and persuaded him, though naturally of a quiet and unambitious temperament, to make the journey to Rome to crave a crown from the emperor. Agrippa, however, managed to influence Caligula against him. Antipas was deprived of his dominions, and banished to Lyons, Herodias voluntarily sharing his exile.
HEROD PHILIP, son of Herod the Great by Cleopatra of Jerusalem, received the tetrarchate of Iturea and other districts to the N.E. of the Jordan. He is a different person from the first husband of Herodias, also called Philip by St Mark (vi. 17), and was married to Salome the daughter of Herodias. Philip is described as an excellent ruler, who loved peace, and was careful to maintain justice, and spent his time in his own territories. He was also a builder of cities, one of which was Casarea Philippi, and another was Bethsaida, which he called Julias. He died after a reign of thirty-seven years; and his dominions were incorporated in the province of Syria.
HERODIANS (‘Hpwé:avot), a sect or party mentioned in Scripture as having on two occasions—once in Galilee, and again in Jerusalem—manifested an unfriendly disposi- tion towards Jesus (Mark iii. 6; xii. 13; Matt. xxii. 6; cf. also Mark viii. 15). In each of these cases their name is coupled with that of the Pharisees. According to many interpreters the courtiers or soldiers of Herod Antipas (“‘ Milites Herodis,” Jerome; “Diener Herodis,” Luther) are intended; but more probably the Herodians were a public political party, who distinguished themselves from the two great historical parties of post-exilian Judaism by the fact that they were and had been sincerely friendly to Herod the Great and to his dynasty (cf. such formations as “ Ceesariani,” “ Pompeiani”). For the evidence which goes
