Herod (born 73bce—died March/April, 4bce,Jericho, Judaea) was the Roman-appointedking ofJudaea (37–4bce), who built many fortresses,aqueducts, theaters, and other public buildings and generally raised the prosperity of his land but who was the center of political and family intrigues in his later years. TheNew Testament portrays him as a tyrant, into whose kingdomJesus of Nazareth was born.

Family and early life

Herod was born in Idumaea, an area in southern Palestine between the Judaean Hills and Nabataea. His father,Antipater, was an Edomite, a people that at the time was Jewish in faith but Arab byethnicity. Antipater was a man of great influence and wealth who increased both by marrying the daughter of a noble fromPetra (in southwestern Jordan), at that time the capital of the rising ArabNabataean kingdom. Thus, Herod was of Arab origin, although he was a practicing Jew.

When Pompey (106–48bce) invadedPalestine in 63bce, Antipater supported his campaign and began a long association with Rome, from which both he and Herod were to benefit. Six years later Herod metMark Antony, whose lifelong friend he was to remain.Julius Caesar also favored the family; he appointed Antipater procurator of Judaea in 47bce andconferred on him Roman citizenship, an honor that descended to Herod and his children. Herod made his political debut in the same year, when his father appointed him governor ofGalilee. Six years later Mark Antony made himtetrarch of Galilee.

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King of Judaea and all of Palestine

In 40bce theParthians invaded Palestine, civil war broke out, and Herod was forced to flee to Rome. The senate there nominated him king ofJudaea, traditionally the southern region of Palestine, and equipped him with an army to make good his claim. In the year 37bce, at the age of 36, Herod became the unchallenged ruler of Judaea, a position he was to maintain for 32 years. To furthersolidify his power, he divorced his first wife, Doris, sent her and his son away from court, and marriedMariamne, a Hasmonean princess. Although the union was directed at ending his feud with theHasmoneans, a priestly family of Jewish leaders, he was deeply in love with Mariamne.

During the conflict between the two triumvirsOctavian and Antony, the heirs to Caesar’s power, Herod supported his friendAntony. He continued to do so even when Antony’s mistress,Cleopatra, the queen ofEgypt, used her influence with Antony to gain much of Herod’s best land. After Antony’s final defeat at Actium in 31bce, he frankly confessed to the victorious Octavian which side he had taken. Octavian, who had met Herod in Rome, knew that he was the one man to rule Palestine as Rome wanted it ruled and confirmed him king. He also restored to Herod the land Cleopatra had taken.

Herod became the close friend of Augustus’s great ministerMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa, after whom one of his grandsons and one of his great-grandsons were named. Both the emperor and the minister paid him state visits, and Herod twice again visited Italy. Augustus gave him the oversight of theCypruscopper mines, with a half share in the profits. He twice increased Herod’s territory, in the years 22 and 20bce, so that it came to include areas to the east of theJordan River and theSea of Galilee. He had intended tobestow the Nabataean kingdom on Herod as well, but, by the time that throne fell vacant, Herod’s mental and physical deterioration made it impossible.

Construction of the Second Temple and role in the story of Jesus

Herod endowed his realm with massive fortresses and splendid cities. On behalf of the Romans, he built up the port ofCaesarea Palaestinae on the coast between Joppa (Jaffa) andHaifa, which was afterward to become the capital of Roman Palestine; and Sebaste on the former site of ancientSamaria. At Herodium in the Judaean desert Herod built a great palace, which archaeologists in 2007 tentatively identified as the site of his tomb. InJerusalem he built the fortress of Antonia, portions of which may still be seen beneath the convents on the Via Dolorosa, and a magnificent palace (of which part survives in the citadel). His most grandiose creation was theTemple, which he wholly rebuilt. The great outer court, 35 acres (14 hectares) in extent, is still visible as part of theTemple Mount. The enclosure around theCave of the Patriarchs inHebron was built during or soon after his reign and stands as the only fully intact Herodian structure in modern times. Herod also embellished foreign cities—Beirut,Damascus,Antioch,Rhodes—and many towns. Herodpatronized theOlympic Games, whose president he became. In his own kingdom he could not give full rein to his love of magnificence, for fear of offending thePharisees, the leading faction ofJudaism, with whom he was always in conflict because they regarded him as a foreigner. Herod undoubtedly saw himself not merely as the patron of grateful pagans but also as the protector of Jewishcommunities outside of Palestine, whose Gentile hosts he did all in his power to conciliate.

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Unfortunately, there was a dark and cruel streak in Herod’s character that showed itself increasingly as he grew older. His mental instability, moreover, was fed by the intrigue and deception that went on within his own family. Despite his affection for Mariamne, he was prone to violent attacks of jealousy; his sisterSalome (not to be confused with her great-niece,Herodias’s daughterSalome) made good use of his natural suspicions and poisoned his mind against his wife in order to wreck the union. In the end Herod murdered Mariamne, her two sons, her brother, her grandfather, and her mother, a woman of thevilest stamp who had often aided his sister Salome’s schemes. Besides Doris and Mariamne, Herod had eight other wives and had a total of 14 children by six of them.

In his last years Herod suffered fromarteriosclerosis. He had to repress a revolt, became involved in a quarrel with his Nabataean neighbors, and finally lost the favor of Augustus. He was in great pain and in mental and physical disorder. He altered his will three times and finally disinherited and killed his firstborn,Antipater. TheGospel According to Matthew recounts that, after the birth ofJesus that took place near the end of his life, Herod ordered the slaying of the infants ofBethlehem (see alsoFeast of the Holy Innocents), although this claim is notcorroborated by any other contemporary witness. After an unsuccessful attempt atsuicide, Herod died. His final testament provided that, subject to Augustus’s sanction, his realm would be divided among his sons: Archelaus should be king ofJudaea andSamaria, with Philip andAntipas sharing the remainder astetrarchs.