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5 Herod prior to his appointment as king (73/2–40 BCE) What do we know about King Herod’s background? Herod came from a leading Idumaean family. The Idumaeans or Edomites were the native inhabitants of southern Palestine. His grandfather, Antipas, was appointed governor of Idumaea during the reign of the Jewish Hasmonaean High Priest, John Hyrcanus I (see Chapter 4). His father, Antipater, married Cypros, a girl who came from an illustrious Nabataean family. The Nabataeans were an Arab tribe settled in southern Jordan and spoke an Aramaic dialect. Antipater and Cypros had five children: Phasael, Herod, Joseph, Pheroras and a daughter called Salome.118 The parents and Herod bore Greek names, their other children, male and female, were given Semitic ones. As Herod was 25 years old in 47

BCE,

he must have been born in

73 or 72. He was pushing 70 when he died in the spring of 4

BCE,

shortly before

119

Passover.

Since his Idumaean forebears were converted to Judaism by the Jewish High Priest John Hyrcanus,120 Herod legally counted as a Jew, although in the eyes of his rival, the Hasmonaean prince Mattathias Antigonus, royal High Priest from 40 to 37

BCE,

this

Idumaean upstart was unfit to occupy the throne of Judaea as he was only a ‘half-Jew’ (hemi-Ioudaios).121 By contrast, Nicolas of Damascus, no doubt to gratify Herod, invented for him a phony pedigree. He described Herod as the progeny of distinguished Jews repatriated to Judaea after the Babylonian exile in the second half of the sixth century BCE.122

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Herod the Great

As will be shown further on, when in the Holy Land, Herod acted as a Jew and strictly observed the laws of the Torah. His reconstruction of the Temple out of his own pocket must also have been motivated by his attachment to, and appreciation of, Judaism.123 No doubt on account of his respect for Jewish opposition to the representation of human figures, he did not allow any statue of his to be set up in the Jewish territories.

Neither did he authorize the impression of his effigy or that of the Emperor on his coins, contenting himself with innocuous decorative motifs, palm branches, cornucopiae, tripods and the like. His later descendants, such as his grandson Agrippa I (37–44 CE) and great-grandson Agrippa II (50–c. 92/3 CE), were less shy and allowed their portraits to decorate their coinage.

Figure 5.1 Coin of Herod the King.

In the opinion of archaeologists, some of the pools discovered in the Herodian palaces were intended for ritual purification. Herod’s observance of the Mosaic dietary laws was also proverbial in the Roman world, and a Latin poet, Persius, even designated the Jewish Sabbath as ‘Herod’s day’.124 He strictly adhered to the Mosaic legislation governing mixed marriages and required circumcision of non-Jewish men before they were allowed to marry into his family. If they refused, the engagement was called off.

It is sheer bad luck that not a single statue of Herod has survived despite the large number of his building enterprises beyond the frontiers of Palestine. The closest we

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