The Chaotic Herodian Dynasty
Lies, Power, and Incest
Introduction
In the Bible, marriages between first cousins were allowed, but not between aunts and nephews or uncles and nieces (Leviticus 18:10). Though few people today choose marriage within the family, there were some royal perks to marrying within the bloodline. The family of Herod the Great, like many family dynasties, married to consolidate power and wealth, and they weren't shy in choosing unions between blood relatives – even marriages that were against the laws of the people they were ruling.
Add to this crazy menagerie of marriages a dash of murder, a sprinkling of deceit, and a whole lot of jealousy, and you truly have the makings of a first-century soap opera. The dynasty started with a celebrated war hero and ended with strong rumors of an incestuous relationship between brother and sister.
This short article will explore select members of the Herodian Family and their insatiable thirst for power! It is not intended to be a complete history of the Herodian Dynasty / Hasmonean Kingdom. For a more detailed review of the subject, consider The Herods: Murder, Politics, and the Art of Succession by Bruce Chilton (ISBN-10: 1506474284; ISBN-13: 978-1506474281).
The Confusion Around Herod’s Family Tree
Trying to explain the intertwining of the Herodian marriages without a chart is nearly impossible, so please refer to the included family tree throughout this article. Please note, this family tree is incomplete showing only selected family members. The descent of ruling power is traced and marriages between family members are signified with different colored hearts.
Admittedly, there are some difficulties in recreating Herod’s family tree.
A lengthy record of this family can be found in the writings of Josephus (Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War), but historians sometimes debate his accuracy when comparing him to other ancient historians.
Repeat and/or alternate names are often used in this family. That alone is confusing for both historians and casual inquirers.
In the historical documents, names are sometimes absent, or only part of a name is used, or people on one list are left off another.
Antipater and His Five Children
Antipater I the Idumean had four sons and a daughter through his wife Cypros, a Nabatean. Through political strategies and generally making himself useful to the current Roman ruler, he became the governor of Judea. He appointed his son Phasaelus the governor of Jerusalem and his son Herod the ruler of Galilee.
Antipater I and several of his descendants came to rather tragic ends.
Antipater I (the Idumean) was not a Jew, a big no-no for someone wanting to rule the people of Israel. He was from a neighboring country, northeast of the Sea of Galilee. He had a knack for choosing the right side, and for giving help at just the right time. He showed up with an army at a key moment of battle, and Julius Caesar awarded him Roman citizenship and gave special favors to the Jews, including some religious freedoms. Antipater I saw which way the wind was blowing, and at the crucial moment, dropped Julius Caesar to side with Mark Antony. He was poisoned by a man named Malichus who bribed the cupbearer because he found Antipater I's quest for power threatening to his own ambitions.[1] Mark Antony gave Phasael and Herod the Great joint power over the Jews.
Phasael was captured in battle and imprisoned. Disarmed, he killed himself by smashing his head against a rock rather than be handed over for torture and execution by the Parthians.[2]
Joseph was killed along with an entire Roman cohort when he tried to seize grain in Jericho, defying his brother Herod the Great's orders that he not make trouble.[3]
Pheroras lived for many years as the right-hand man of his brother Herod the Great, but he was involved in several conspiracies that resulted in family deaths. He displeased his brother the king by not putting aside his wife, a former maidservant, to marry a political ally. He may have been poisoned by Herod the Great, but Josephus dismisses that as a rumor.[4]
Salome I first married Joseph, whom she accused of familiarities with Mariamne, wife of Herod the Great. Along with her brother Pheroras, she helped to bring about the deaths of her husband, her sister-in-law, and two of her nephews. She had three children by her second husband Costobarus, Antipater IV (who married Cypros II, Herod's daughter by Mariamne I), Berenice (who married first Aristobulus IV, Herod's son by the same mother, and second Theudion, brother of Herod's first wife Doris) and an unnamed daughter (who married Salome I’s third husband Alexas I's son Alexas II, the Temple Treasurer).
Salome I outlived all her siblings.[5] Upon the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, she was given a toparchy including the cities of Iamnia, Azotus, Phasaelis, and 5000 drachmae. The Roman emperor Augustus supplemented this with a royal habitation at Ascalon. While nominally queen of these areas, they were ultimately subject to the Judaean prefect. After Salome I's death, Iamnia fell to Livia, the Roman empress, and then to her son Tiberius.
Herod I (also known as Herod the Great) became the first king to rule all the promised land since Solomon (2 Chronicles 10:16-19). Mark Antony named Herod the 'King of the Jews' in 40 BC. Despite how grand the title sounds, he was still subject to Rome. It took Herod the Great three years to wrestle control and begin to rule. Once he had power, he actually did some great things for the economy. Herod the Great shared his father's political cunning. When he saw the change in the wind, he transferred loyalties from Mark Antony to Octavian during a civil war. (Octavian won, and changed his name to Augustus Caesar).
Herod the Great rebuilt the small Jerusalem Temple into a magnificent marble and gold structure with a vast complex of courtyards and buildings, a project that took decades, and wasn't completed until after his death. This won him some begrudging praise from his Jewish subjects. He took up the Jewish religion (to some extent), but he was never considered a “true Jewish king” by most of his subjects, who were still waiting for a king from David's line.
Herod the Great also built pagan temples for his Gentile subjects. He loved the popular Greek culture and added a theater and a hippodrome (a place for chariot races) and a fancy palace to Jerusalem. He improved many other cities and ports creating harbors, aqueducts, and theatres.
Herod the Great married 10 women and fathered at least 14 children by them, but possibly more.[6] He was very power-hungry and cruel. He killed two of his own sons, and one of his wives when he suspected an adulterous affair and treason. He was the ruler who was visited by the Magi and massacred the babies in Bethlehem (Matthew 2). He died a painful death from a lingering disease and knew that his people would not mourn him, so he planned a mass execution to follow his imminent demise – which his family canceled after his death.[7]
When Herod the Great died in 4 BC, his once united rule was divided up between three of his sons (Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip) and his sister Salome I.
Herod The Great's Wives (5 of the 10) and Children (7 of the 14+)
There is so much intermarriage between the next two generations, please see the family tree to see who married who! Here are some fascinating facts that help to demonstrate the lies, quests for power, murders, and marriages.
Doris was sent into exile with her son Antipater II when Herod the Great wanted to marry Mariamne, a Hasmonean princess. Antipater II was imprisoned when his father, Herod the Great, became convinced Antipater II sought to usurp him, and the son was executed five days before his father died from a painful disease.[8]
Mariamne I (also called Mariamne the Hasmonean) princess had a difficult life after her marriage. Both her grandfather and her brother were killed by her husband, Herod the Great. Her sister-in-law, Salome I, stirred up a controversy that Mariamne I was unfaithful, even when that threw Salome I's husband Joseph under the executioner's blade. Herod the Great had both Mariamne I and Joseph executed, but he quickly regretted killing Mariamne I, his favorite wife.[9] Her two sons, Aristobulus IV and Alexander were sent away to Rome to be educated at a young age. The half-Hasmonean princes were very popular with the Jewish people on their return home. Because of their ill-timed insults and proud ways, the family (led by their aunt Salome I and their uncle Pheroras) schemed against them for years, pitting them against their father. When Herod the Great appealed to Rome for advice, they were eventually sentenced to die, and their father had them strangled.[10]
Mariamne II (also called Mariamne of Jerusalem) had a son named Herod II (also called Herod Boethus or Herod Philip I). He lived in Rome. He married his relative, Herodias, who later divorced him to marry Herod Antipas.[11] The marriage between Herod II and Herodias produced a daughter, Salome III.
Malthace the Samaritan had two sons who went on to rule. Herod Archelaus ruled Judea briefly, and not well. He married his deceased brother's wife, Glypha, though she had three children already. (Not acceptable in Jewish law.) In his tenth year, his cruelty had him banished by Rome a few years later (Matthew 2:22).[12] Herod Antipas, meanwhile, was named tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. He was granted power in 4 BC and held it for some forty years, through the reigns of two Roman Emperors: Augustus and Tiberias. Herod Antipas was, in general, a successful ruler, with much of his father's shrewd diplomacy. He also inherited his father's love for Greek culture and building projects. His divorce from the unnamed Nabatean princess (Phasaelis) to marry his living brother's wife, Herodias, is recorded in the gospels. He is the ruler who beheaded John and participated in the trials of Jesus (Matthew 14:3-11 and Luke 23:8-11). His love-life led him to battle with the insulted Nabatean king, which he lost.[13] He was eventually exiled by the Emperor when he caved to Herodias' desire and tried to wrest ruling power away from Herod Agrippa I. Herodias, to her credit, went into exile with him.[14]
Cleopatra of Jerusalem's son, Philip (also known as Herod Philip II), became the tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis while his brother, Herod Antipas, was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea.[15] He eventually married Herodias' daughter, Salome III. By all accounts, he ruled well. When he died (peacefully), Salome III went on to marry her cousin Aristobulus V, king of Chalchis.[16]
Herod The Great's Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren
The son of Aristobulus IV, Herod Agrippa I (also known as Herod II or Agrippa I), was sent away to Rome for his education, and lived a life of a rich aristocrat. His fortune rose when he became friends with the future emperor, Caius Caligula. This friendship showed its fruit when Caligula became Emperor of Rome. In 37 AD Caius set his buddy in power in Israel, giving him the late Philip's tetrarchy, and then, with a few well-placed words from Herod Agrippa I, Herod Antipas' territories as well. Herod Antipas is sent into exile. Herod Agrippa was the last Herodian with any real ruling power.
Herod Agrippa I's sister, Herodias, is the one who married Herod Antipas. Long before he was king, he became broke, and Herodias appealed to her husband to give Herod Agrippa I money and make him magistrate of the city Tiberias. It was not enough for Herod Agrippa I, and he borrowed heavily from friends and family. He ended up on the wrong side of the emperor Tiberius and was arrested and kept in chains. When Tiberius died, Caligula gave Herod Agrippa I a tetrarchy, which worried Herodias, who didn't think it was right that her formerly poor brother should challenge her husband for dignity.[17] She made Herod Antipas go against Herod Agrippa I in Rome, which was their downfall and resulted in ruin for herself and her husband. When the emperor heard that she was Herod Agrippa I's sister, he offered to let Herodias remain with her brother, but she chose exile with her husband.
Herod Agrippa I is the king who killed James the apostle and had Peter imprisoned (Acts 12). He was struck with pains as he gave a speech during the opening of games dedicated to Claudius, and he died five days later being eaten by worms (Acts 12:21-23).
Herod Agrippa I's son, Herod Agrippa II, had just the pretense of power, which dwindled during his rule until it was nearly nothing. He was only seventeen when his father died, so the emperor sent a procurator to rule Judea in his stead until Herod Agrippa II took over in AD 53.[18] On the death of Herod V (also known as Herod of Chalcis, and listed by the Jewish Encyclopedia as Herod II) in AD 48, his small Syrian realm of Chalcis was given to Herod Agrippa II, with the right of superintending the Temple in Jerusalem and appointing its high priest, but only as a tetrarch. The Romans sought his advice on how to handle the Jews since they seemed to have had difficulty understanding the vastly different Jewish culture.
In AD 53, Herod Agrippa II was forced to give up the tetrarchy of Chalcis but in exchange Claudius made him ruler with the title of king over the territories previously governed by Philip, namely, Iturea, Trachonitis, Batanea, Gaulanitis, Auranitis and Paneas, as well as the kingdom of Lysanias in Abila. The tetrarchy of Chalcis was subsequently in 57 AD given to his cousin, Aristobulus V (Acts 25:13; 26:2,7). Herod Agrippa II celebrated by marrying off his two sisters Mariamne and Drusilla. Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, repeats the gossip that Herod Agrippa II lived in an incestuous relationship with his sister, Berenice. In AD 55, the Emperor Nero added to Herod Agrippa II's realm the cities of Tiberias and Tarichae in Galilee, and Livias (Iulias), with fourteen villages near it, in Perea.
Herod Agrippa II is seen in the trial of Paul, along with his sister, Berenice (Acts 25:13-26:32). Paul also has several audiences with Herod Agrippa II's brother-in-law, the governor of Judea, Felix, and his wife, Herod Agrippa II's sister, Druscilla (Acts 24:1-27). Herod Agrippa II was overthrown by the Jewish people in 66 AD, and he sided with Rome during the siege of Jerusalem. When Herod Agrippa II died in AD 92 or 93, the Herodians disappeared from history.
Aristobulus V of Chalcis, son of Herod V, did well for himself as the King of Chalchis, with Salome III, daughter of Herodias, at his side.
Understanding The Rank of The Herod Rulers
Proper titles were not used above because it can get confusing. So here they are now:
Herod I (also known as Herod the Great) was called a king, but he was still subject to Rome and paid tribute.
Archelaus was titled an ethnarch, which ranks below the king and just above a tetrarch.
Herod Antipas was a tetrarch.
Philip (also known as Herod Philip II) was a tetrarch.
Herod Agrippa I (also known as Herod II or Agrippa I) was called a king.
Herod Herod V (also known as Herod of Chalcis, and listed by the Jewish Encyclopedia as Herod II) was called the king of Chalcis.
Herod Agrippa II was called the king of Chalcis, but tetrarch of his other territories.
Aristobulus V of Chalcis was called the king of Chalcis.
Ethnarchs and tetrarchs both oversaw provinces within a country. They only held authority at the whim of Rome, paid tribute to Rome, and were charged with keeping the peace.
Conclusion
The Herodian family seems to have died out over a span of around 100 years. Between a lack of children, incest, and jealous rivalries, and perhaps divine punishment for their cruelty and treatment of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, they didn’t last long.
References
This information has been compiled using a variety of sources and was heavily influenced by the following articles from author Katrina D. Hamel: Herod’s Family Tree: Lies, Power, and Incest and A Who's Who of Herods which can both be found on her website, www.katrinadhamel.com.
Endnotes
[1] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.11.4
[2] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.13.10
[3] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.17.1
[4] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.24.5
[5] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.22.4-5
[6] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.28.4-5
[7] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 17. 6.5, 8.2
[8] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.33.7
[9] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.22.4-5
[10] Josephus, The Jewish War, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 1.27
[11] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 18.5.4
[12] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 17.13.1-5
[13] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 18.5.1
[14] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 18.7.1-2
[15] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 18.4.6
[16] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 18.5.4
[17] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 18.6.2, 11
[18] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, (Translated by William Whiston) Book 19.1-2