Antiquities History of King Herod the Great

Almost immediately, he sent envoys to the Parthian king to get Hyrcanus back from Babylon. The Parthian king was happy to let the old man go, because he was becoming dangerously popular among the Jews living in Babylonia. Although Hyrcanus was unfit to become high priest again, Herod kept his father-in-law in high esteem. The support of the old monarch gave an appearance of legality to his own rule. The new king started an extensive building program: Jews could take pride in the new walls of Jerusalem and the citadel which guarded its Temple.

This fortress was called Antonia, in order to please Herod's patron Mark Antony. Coins were minted in his own name and showed an incense burner on a tripod, intended to signify Herod's care for the orthodox Jewish cult practices. And the new king continued to please the Romans, to make sure that they would continue their support.

He sent lavish presents to their representative in the East, Mark Antony, and to his mistress, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. These gifts almost were Herod's undoing. The relations between on the one hand Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the East and on the other hand Octavian and the Senate in the West became strained, and civil war broke out in It did not last very long: For the first time in his life, Herod had aligned himself with a loser.

Herod the Great

He managed to solve this problem, however. First, he had Hyrcanus executed, making sure that no one else could claim his throne. Then, he sailed to the island of Rhodes, where he met Octavian. In a brilliant speech, Herod boasted of his loyalty to Mark Antony, and promised the same to the new master of the Roman Empire. Octavian was impressed by the man's audacity, confirmed Herod's monarchy, and even added the coast of Judaea and Samaria to his realm.

Actually, Octavian did not have much choice: As it turned out, Mark Antony and Cleopatra preferred death to surrender, and Octavian became the only ruler in the Roman world. Under the name Augustus , he became the first emperor. He rewarded his ally with new possessions: Jericho and Gaza, which had been independent. Herod's position was still insecure. He continued his building policy to win the hearts of his subjects. A severe earthquake in 31 BCE had destroyed many houses, killing thousands of people. In Jerusalem, the king built a new market, an amphitheater, a theater, a new building where the Sanhedrin could convene, a new royal palace, and last but not least, in 20 BCE he started to rebuild the Temple.

And there were other cities where he ordered new buildings to be placed: Jericho and Samaria are examples.

New fortresses served the security of both the Jews and their king: Herodion, Machaerus, and Masada are among them. But Herod's crowning achievement was a splendid new port, called Caesarea in honor of the emperor the harbor was called Sebastos , the Greek translation of "Augustus". This magnificent and opulent city, which was dedicated in 9 BCE, was built to rival Alexandria in the land trade to Arabia , from where spices, perfume and incense were imported.

It was not an oriental town like Jerusalem; it was laid out on a Greek grid plan, with a market, an aqueduct, government offices, baths, villas, a circus, and pagan temples. The most important of these was the temple where the emperor was worshipped; it commanded the port. The port was a masterpiece of engineering: Although Herod was a dependent client-king, he had a foreign policy of his own. The Romans did not like this independent behavior, but on the whole, they seem to have been very content with their king of Judaea.

Herod the Great - Wikipedia

After all, he sent auxiliaries when they decided to send an army to the mysterious incense country modern Yemen; 25 BCE. In 23, Iturea and the Golan heights were added to Herod's realms, and in 20 several other districts. With building projects, the expansion of his territories, the establishment of a sound bureaucracy, and the development of economic resources, he did much for his country, at least on a material level.

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The standing of his country -foreign and at home- was certainly enhanced. However, many of his projects won him the bitter hatred of the orthodox Jews, who disliked Herod's Greek taste - a taste he showed not only in his building projects, but also in several transgressions of the Mosaic Law.

The orthodox were not to only ones who came to hate the new king. The Sadducees hated him because he had terminated the rule of the old royal house to which many of them were related; their own influence in the Sanhedrin was curtailed. The Pharisees despised any ruler who despised the Law. And probably all his subjects resented his excessive taxation. According to Flavius Josephus , there were two taxes in kind at annual rates equivalent to Learn more about Amazon Giveaway.

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