The Building Program of Herod the Great - Hardcover

Roller, Duane W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520209346 ISBN 13: 9780520209343

Publisher: University of California Press, 1998

Synopsis

Herod the Great, King of Judaea from 444 B.C., is known as one of the world's great villains. This notoriety has overshadowed his actual achievements, particularly his role as a client king of Rome during Augustus's reign as emperor. An essential aspect of Herod's responsibilities as king of Judaea was his role as a builder. Remarkably innovative, he created an astonishing record of architectural achievement, not only in Judaea but also throughout Greece and the Roman east. Duane W. Roller systematically presents and discusses all the building projects known to have been initiated by Herod, and locates this material in a broad historical and cultural context.

Bringing together previously inaccessible material, Roller enriches our understanding of the enigmatic Herod and provides new insights into Roman architecture. Herod was instrumental in the diffusion of the Augustan architectural revolution into the provinces and was the first to build outside Italy such Italian architectural forms as the basilica, amphitheater, villa, and Italian temple. Herod's legacy provided a groundwork for the architectural Romanization of the east, influencing the construction of the great temple complexes and palaces so familiar from later Roman architecture.

Herod, like Augustus himself, was not only interested in architecture but also in diplomatic and financial contacts among cities of the region. In addition to providing a repertorium of the building projects, this study is also an exploration of international relations in the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the Roman imperial period.

About this title

About the Author

Duane W. Roller is Professor of Classics at Ohio State University. He is the author of many archaeological and historical publications, including Tanagran Studies (1989).

From the Back Cover

"Roller has brought together the evidence for Herod's buildings in a convenient compass and interprets it as a whole in order to enrich our understanding of the enigmatic king himself."―Glen Bowersock, Institute for Advanced Study

From the Inside Flap

"Roller has brought together the evidence for Herod's buildings in a convenient compass and interprets it as a whole in order to enrich our understanding of the enigmatic king himself."—Glen Bowersock, Institute for Advanced Study

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Building Program of Herod the Great

By Duane Roller

University of California Press

Copyright © 1998 Duane Roller
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0520209346
Introduction

Herod the Great, the son of Antipatros and Kypros, was born around 73 B.C. His family was Idumaean and had been in the service of the rulers of Judaea for at least two generations: his grandfather, who died about the time Herod was born, had been governor of Idumaea in the early first B.C. 1 His father, who inherited the governorship, married a Nabataean, possibly the daughter of King Aretas III, and this alliance between Idumaea and Nabataea formed the fragile basis of the power their son was to develop. Antipatros was an early, if reluctant, supporter of Roman expansion, one of the first dynasts in the region to seek out Pompey when the latter was advancing through Syria in 64 B.C. Antipatros's position was strengthened during Aulus Gabinius's eastern command in the 50's B.C. , a period that would have seen young Herod's introduction both to politics and to Roman commanders.

Herod's career rose with that of his father, who received Roman citizenship from Julius Caesar after Pharsalos; thus Herod also became a citizen. Caesar was to exercise a profound influence on the direction of Herod's architectural endeavors. By 47 B.C. , Herod was strategos of Galilee. Yet his ethnic background was offensive to many Jews, and difficulties with the Synhedrion in Jerusalem caused him to flee to the governor of Syria, Sextus

On the background of Herod's family, see Schürer (NEV), 1: 234; Tessa Rajak, "Justus of Tiberias," CQ , n.s., 23 (1973): 366–67. It has recently been suggested that Herod's "Idumaean" origins are of little significance, given the mixed nature of the population of Hellenistic Idumaea, and that the obscure tradition that Herod's family was Askalonian (see further infra, p. 217) makes more sense. This would mean that his ethnic background was more likely Hellenized Phoenician, perhaps making him more acceptable to the Romans and more Roman in his outlook. See Nikos Kokkinos, "The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society, and Eclipse" (Ph.D. diss., Oxford University, 1993).

Julius Caesar, thereby beginning a lifelong tradition of seeking Roman protection from domestic political problems. Sextus offered Herod a position in Koile-Syria, but he soon had difficulties of his own and was killed in the summer of 46 B.C. Herod then sought the support of Sextus's relative Julius Caesar, but he too was soon murdered, whereupon Herod effortlessly attached himself to C. Cassius Longinus. Shortly thereafter, Herod's father Antipatros was also assassinated, a result of increasing instability in Judaea after the death of Julius Caesar. Cassius assisted Herod in avenging Antipatros's death and proposed that Herod be named king of Judaea, an office that had been vacant for twenty years.

Cassius did not live long enough to implement the idea, and when the victor of Philippi, Marcus Antonius, arrived in the East late in 42 B.C. , he named Herod tetrarch. But the Parthians, ever active along the eastern limits of the Roman sphere of influence, invaded Syria in 40 B.C. and put forward their own candidate for king of Judaea, the Hasmonean claimant Antigonos II. This brought about civil war in Judaea, resulted in the death of Herod's brother Phasael, and encouraged Herod to seek the protection of Cleopatra in Egypt. By the end of the year, however, he decided that going direct to Rome was in his best interest. On his way, he aided in the reconstruction of Rhodes.

In Rome, Herod successfully exploited his previous association with Antonius and other important Romans, and he was promptly named king of Judaea. However, he spent the next three years in a continuing civil war there, which was not settled until 37 B.C. , and then only with extensive Roman assistance. Herod's early years as king also coincided with the final stages of the Roman civil war. He attempted to remain neutral while Antonius became more involved with Cleopatra and even gave parts of Herod's kingdom to her. There were also continued problems with other claimants to his throne: Antigonos II had been eliminated in 37 B.C. , but the Hasmoneans instigated a revolt in 35 or 34 B.C. , and there was war with the Nabataeans in 32-31 B.C. This war and an earthquake in Judaea in the spring of 31 B.C. fortunately prevented Herod from personally aiding Antonius and Cleopatra at Actium late that summer. When Octavian came to Rhodes early the following year, Herod quickly appeared and successfully persuaded him of his future loyalty. He assisted Octavian logistically on his way to Egypt and saw his own kingdom expanded in return. Despite the chaos of these early years of Herod's kingship, his internal architectural program was already well under way, with fortifications ringing his kingdom and palaces erected at Masada and Jerusalem.

The following decade finally saw Herod's external political position secure and the Roman civil war over. His kingdom was never free of conspiracies and claimants to the throne, but these were not yet the problem they would be later in the reign. He had been involved in architectural

construction since before he was king, but Octavian's ascendancy after the demise of Antonius and Cleopatra and the devastation of the earthquake of 31 B.C. provided the impetus for an intensive architectural program, which especially flourished in the twenty years between 29 and 9 B.C. , It began with the reconstruction of Samaria, renamed Sebaste to honor (in Greek) Octavian's new name of Augustus. Throughout the 20's B.C. , there was extensive building inside his kingdom, especially at Jerusalem, Herodeion, and Caesarea. Herod also built in the Greek world, including at the Roman victory city of Nikopolis near Actium. His friendship with Augustus's heir apparent Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa—and the architectural influence it implied—was solidified during Agrippa's residency in Mytilene beginning in 23 B.C. Augustus continued to enlarge Herod's kingdom, especially in 22 B.C. , and after the two met in Syria in 20 B.C. , Herod regularly sent his sons to Rome to be educated (some of them were housed with Augustus himself) and also encouraged scholars to reside at his own court, especially those set adrift by the collapse of Antonius and Cleopatra. His children were married to other eastern rulers, creating a dynastic network that spread as far as Armenia and lasted until at least the second century A.C.

The peak of Herod's career came in the decade following 20 B.C. That year he began his greatest architectural achievement, the new Temple in Jerusalem. After the dedication of the still-unfinished building, probably in 18 B.C. , he made his first trip to Rome as king, to visit his sons and to be received by Augustus. In 15 B.C. , Marcus Agrippa made a state visit to Judaea and saw firsthand the romanization of the kingdom; at this time he asked for Herod's assistance on an expedition to the Kimmerian Bosporos. Herod joined Agrippa, and together they made a triumphal tour across Asia Minor. In 12 B.C. , Herod was named agonothetes of the Olympic Games, in response to generous financial support, and presided at the games while on the way to Rome for the third and last time. In early 9 B.C. , Caesarea, his most expansive architectural creation, was dedicated.

The last years of Herod's life were marked by increasingly stormy relations with his family and repeated attempts to involve Augustus in these dynastic problems. As a typical Hellenistic monarch, Herod had complex and often violent family relationships. He was married at least ten times and had over a dozen children, and different parts of his vast family rotated in and out of favor. Executions began with his wife Mariamme in 29 B.C. and eventually included his three eldest sons; the younger ones fared better and survived their father. Augustus—no stranger to family problems—became increasingly displeased at requests for mediation of Herod's domestic difficulties. Herod's original plan was to have his sons by Mariamme, Aristoboulos and Alexandros, succeed him, and although both survived long enough to produce their own dynasties of eastern kings, they

were executed for conspiracy in 7 B.C. Favor then passed to the neglected eldest son, Antipatros, but he lost out and was executed in the last months of Herod's life. Herod's violence toward his own children may have given rise to the biblical tale of the Massacre of the Innocents. He then settled on three of his surviving sons, Archelaos (who was to be king), his brother Antipas, of biblical fame (who was to be tetrarch of Galilee), and their half-brother Philippos (as tetrarch of Peraia), as well as bequeathing some territory to his sister Salome. But he also left a conflicting will that named Antipas king.2

In the spring of 4 B.C. , when he was nearly seventy, Herod died, one of the few members of his family to do so naturally. Quarrels immediately broke out between his sons over the succession. Soon the Judaean religious party was involved, demanding the abolition of the kingship. All appealed to Augustus, who, however, had no patience with any of the petitioners and dissolved Herod's kingdom, giving autonomous powers to Antipas and Philippos, as well as to Archelaos, to whom he denied the title of king, making him merely an ethnarchos . Roman military intervention under the command of the legate of Syria, P. Quinctilius Varus, was necessary. The territories of Antipas and Philippos became the nucleus of the kingdom Claudius established in A.D. 41 under the rule of Herod's grandson, Agrippa I. Archelaos proved so incompetent, both internally and in his relations with Rome, that after a decade of increasing impatience Augustus, now totally disgusted, deposed him in A.D. 6 and sent him into obscure retirement at Vienna in Gaul. His territory was turned into the Roman province of Judaea, governed from Herod's Caesarea by a procurator.

The extant literary source material for the buildings of Herod the Great consists almost entirely of Flavius Josephus's two major works, the Jewish War and the Jewish Antiquities . Josephus, who was born around A.D. 37, came to Rome at the beginning of the reign of Vespasian and spent the rest of his life there. He first wrote the Jewish War , which was finished late in Vespasian's reign.3 The Jewish Antiquities was written during the latter year of Domitian, and completed in A.D. 93/94.4 The tone of the two works differs, the Jewish Antiquities being less favorable toward Roman policy and ideas

On the several conflicting wills of Herod, see Harold W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph 17 [Cambridge, 1972]), 269–76; David Braund, Rome and the Friendly King: The Character of Client Kingship (London, 1984), 139–43.

BJ 7.158; Life 363.

AJ 20.267. Josephus was fifty-six at this time.

and more nationalistic. Josephus's attitude toward the master romanizer, Herod, is therefore also more negative in it.5

Josephus was thus born forty years after Herod's death and wrote a century or more after his great building program. Yet he relied heavily on material contemporary with Herod's reign, especially the works of Herod's confidant Nikolaos of Damaskos, who was mentioned frequently by Josephus, both as a participant in the events of Herod's career and as a source of information about them. Although the actual citations are few—no more than a dozen fragments of the works of Nikolaos were preserved by Josephus—it is probable that Nikolaos was Josephus's major source of information on the Herodian period.

Nikolaos was Herod's most trusted advisor and essentially his ambassador to the Roman government. A brief discussion of his career appears later in the present work.6 His literary output was extensive, including, in addition to philosophical and scientific works, a biography of Augustus (written some time in the 20's B.C. ),7 and an autobiography, perhaps the earliest work of that genre.8 His great work was a History in 144 books, perhaps the longest universal history written, which by the late second century A.C. was famed as polybiblos .9 Herod persuaded Nikolaos to write it, and Nikolaos was at work by 12 B.C. ,10 but it was not completed until after Herod's death. It covered all human history, beginning with the Assyrians and Babylonians and the Trojan War. The latest datable fragment is from 14 B.C. , when Nikolaos traveled with Herod in Ionia,11 but the history continued for another twenty books, almost certainly to the end of Herod's reign, and probably to the succession struggles after his death. Nikolaos may thus have devoted as

See Shaye J. D. Cohen, Josephus In Galilee and Rome: His Vita and Development as a Historian (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, 8 [Leiden, 1979]), 56–57; John R. Bartlett, Jews in the Hellenistic World: Josephus, Aristeas, the Sibylline Orations, Eupolemus (Cambridge Commentaries on the Writings of the Jewish and Christian World, 1.1 [Cambridge, 1985]), 102–3; Seth Schwartz, Josephus and Judaean Politics (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, 18 [Leiden, 1990]), 4–22.

See infra, pp. 22–23, 61–62; FGrHist , # 90; Richard Laqueur, "Nikolaos" (# 20), RE , 33 (1936): 362–424; Wacholder, Nicolaus ; Bowersock, Augustus , 134–38; Nikolaos of Damaskos, Life of Augustus , ed. Jane Bellemore (Bristol, 1984); Emilio Gabba, "The Historians and Augustus," in Caesar Augustus: Seven Aspects , ed. Fergus Millar and Erich Segal (Oxford, 1984), 61–66; Ben Zion Wacholder, "Josephus and Nicolaus of Damascus," in Josephus, the Bible, and History , ed. Louis H. Feldman and Gohei Hata (Detroit, 1989), 147–72.

Nikolaos, ed. Bellemore (supra, n. 6), xxi–xxii; Wacholder, Nicolaus , 25–26; Mark Toher,"The Date of Nicolaus' ," GRBS 26 (1985): 199–206.

Wacholder, "Josephus" (supra, n. 6), 148–49.

Athenaios 6.54.

Nikolaos, fr. 135; Menahem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (Jerusalem, 1974–80), 1: 250–60.

Bk. 124 = fr. 81 (AJ 12.125–27).

many as thirty books to Herod's era and career,12 providing an exceedingly detailed account of the southern Levant in the second half of the first century B.C. Yet virtually none of this portion of the history remains: most of the 102 extant fragments concern events of the fifth century B.C. or earlier, and fewer than 10 can be dated to the first century B.C. Nevertheless, it is clear that Josephus used Nikolaos's History extensively and critically, often without citation, and corrected him where he deemed necessary.13

Other sources offer insights into particular aspects of the Herodian program. John Malalas made detailed comments on Herod's work at Antioch.14 Moses Khorenats'i discussed Herod and Armenia.15 There are occasional comments in book 16 of Strabo's Geography , but little detail. Strabo's lost History was evidently more informative, and it was used by Josephus, although generally for periods previous to Herod's reign.16 Traditional historians of the Augustan period rarely mentioned Herod: there are slight references, inevitably political, by Appian, Dio, Plutarch, and Tacitus,17 but only Tacitus commented on Herodian architecture. Some details concerning the Temple in Jerusalem were provided by Philon of Alexandria.18 Christian texts are equally deficient architecturally, as the familiar nativity story of Matt. 2 demonstrates.19 Rabbinic literature provides a number of details about the Temple in Jerusalem, but little about other Herodian constructions.20

Wacholder, Nicolaus , 61–62.

For example, at AJ 14.8–10.

Malalas 223–24.

Moses Khorenats'i, History of Armenia , 2: 25–26. For the value of this source, see infra, Appendix 1.

FGrHist # 91, frs. 4, 6, 7, 10–18. In the present work, citations of Strabo's lengthy extant Geography are numerous and are given without title; citations of the lost History are rare and are always with title.

Appian, Civil War 5.75; Dio 49.22, 54.9; Plutarch, Antonius 61, 71–72; Tacitus, Histories 5.9–12. There is also a reference to the area of Jericho by Horace (Epistles 2.2.184), and to Caesarea by Pliny (Natural History 5.69).

Philon, Special Laws 1.71–75, 273; Embassy to Gaius 294–300.

Christian sources that briefly mention the building program include Sextus Julius Africanus, Chronography 17.4 (Sebaste, Caesarea, Antipatris); the Chronikon Paschale (Migne, PG , 92) 181, 186, 191, 193 (Sebaste, Askalon, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Paneion, Agrippias); Hegesippos (Migne, PL , 66) 67 (Jerusalem, Sebaste); Ioannes Lydus, De magistratibus populi Romani 3 (Nikopolis); Itinera Hierosolymitana (Migne, PL , 39) 110 (Herodeion?); Stephanos of Byzantion (s.vv. "Antipatris," "Phasaelis"); Synkellos, Ekloga chronographika 548–49, 581, 594 (Sebaste, Jerusalem, Antipatris, Paneion, Agrippias, Herodeion, Gaba). None of these adds anything of significance.

Specific references from the Babylonian Talmud regarding the Temple at Jerusalem include Yoma (entire tractate), Sukkah 51b, Baba Bathra 3a–4a, and, from the Mishna, Middot . BT 'Arakin 14a referred to Sebaste. On rabbinic literature generally, see Schürer (NEV), 1: 68–122. Generally, the texts are no earlier than the late second century A.C. and thus substantially later than most of the major historial sources. The Babylonian Talmud, in which some of the references to Herodian building occur, is a late as the sixth century A.C. But rabbinic literature relied on a lengthy oral tradition, which could be from as early as the period of Herod himself. Since practically all the above citations relate to the Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed before the end of the first century A.C. , one may assume that they refer to the time of Herod or not much later.

Additional sources may have been valuable in their day but have vanished virtually without trace. A certain Ptolemaios wrote On Herod ;21 whether the author was one of two men of that name at Herod's court is probable but cannot be determined.22 The first book contained a discussion of the differences between Jews and Idumaeans, and thus of Herod's ethnic background.

The role of the works of Justus of Tiberias is uncertain. Secretary to King Agrippa II, he was excoriated by Josephus not only for his role in the civil disturbances of the 60's A.C. but as a poor historian. He wrote a history of the Jews, or of the Jewish kings, no longer extant, but which would have been one of the earliest treatments of Herod: Josephus's Life was written in response to portions of Justus's work.23

Moreover, Herod's own memoirs were known to Josephus.24 He cited them by name only once, but other passages, especially in book 15 of the Jewish Antiquities , speak of actions by Herod in a personal tone that suggests that they are derived from his memoirs. Whether those memoirs were ever published is not known: Josephus may have drawn on them only from the writings of Nikolaos.25

Other memoirs were also available to Josephus. Those of Asinius Pollio provided information about events of the 40's B.C. 26 Quintus Dellius's memoirs were used by Strabo27 and Plutarch,28 and thus probably by Josephus, although he did not cite them. Yet it is doubtful whether any of these shed much light on the Herodian building program.

Two memoirs that may have provided interesting information do not

FGrHist , # 199. The only source for this work is the lexicographer Ammonios, of uncertain date; see Schürer (NEV), 1: 27–28.

Infra, pp. 63–64.

FGrHist , # 734; Life 345–60; Schürer (NEV), 1: 34–37; Rajak (supra, n. 1), 345–68.

AJ 15.164–74 (= Herod [FGrHist , # 236], fr. 1). The account concerns the death of the Hasmonean Hyrkanos II.

Schürer (NEV), 1: 26–27. Other possible places where Josephus may have used the memoirs are Herod's letter regarding his meeting with Antonius and Cleopatra and the rebuke of Cleopatra (AJ 15.74–79) and the famous speech to Octavian at Rhodes after Actium (AJ 15.187–93). See Otto, RE , 43–47, and commentary on FGrHist , # 236.

AJ 14.138. Josephus probably did not consult them directly, but used the citations in Strabo's History .

Strabo 11.13.3.

Plutarch, Antonius 59.

seem to have been used by Josephus. Those of Marcus Agrippa seem to have been little known even in Josephus's day, and may already have been completed previous to the greatest period of contact between Agrippa and Herod.29 And nowhere did Josephus hint that he used the memoirs of Augustus, which probably did not deal with the most intensive period of Herodian building either.

In summary, then, the works of Josephus, based largely on the History of Nikolaos of Damaskos and Herod's own memoirs, are the major, and almost the exclusive, extant literary source for information about the Herodian building program.30

There is no good collective toponym for the territory of Herod's kingdom. Although Herod was king of Judaea, his kingdom always included more than Judaea: Galilee, Samaria, Peraia, Idumaea, and parts of southern Syria were all within his borders at various times. The actual boundaries of his kingdom changed, being reduced by Antonius in the 30's B.C. and enlarged by Augustus several times in the 20's B.C. : this means that one cannot speak of "Herod's kingdom" without a temporal reference. Moreover, ancient sources tend to confuse the territorial and ethnic limits of Herod's kingship and are never quite clear—as perhaps the Romans themselves were not certain—as to whether Herod was king of Judaea or king of the Jews. Herod's son Archelaos became ethnarchos , an indication that political power could be exercised ethnically as well as territorially.

The only ancient collective term for the area in question is Palestine, but this was anachronistic in Herod's day, and if used at all, tended to be limited to the southwestern coastal areas, the ancient Philistine territory. The best general term for the modern scholar is "southern Levant," which is used throughout this work to describe the territory between Syria and Egypt, on both sides of the Jordan river, although wherever possible ancient regional toponyms such as Judaea or Galilee are preferred.

Another problem occurs in creating a collective term for the period of Herod the Great. Using Herodian as a dynastic name makes little sense: a better one would be "Antipatrid," the name of Herod's father and probably of his grandfather, the latter being the earliest member of the dynasty who

They were cited only by Seneca (Epistles 94.46), Pliny (Natural History 7.148 = Agrippa, fr. 1; 36.121 = Agrippa, fr. 3), and in the scholia to Vergil (Georgics 2.162 = Agrippa, fr. 2): for the fragments of Agrippa, see Hermann Peter, Historicum Romanorum Reliquiae (Stuttgart, 1967), 1: 64–65. See also Horace, Odes 1.6; Reinhold, 142; Roddaz, 568–71.

Schürer (NEV), 1:43–63. One nonliterary source deserves mention: the mosaic map, dating to the sixth century A.C. , on the floor of a church in the city of Madaba in Moab, providing a visible record from late antiquity of a number of Herod's constructions. See Michael Avi-Yonah, The Madaba Mosaic Map (Jerusalem, 1954).

can be identified. Yet "Herodian" has consistently been used as the dynastic name. Unfortunately, it has tended to mean the entire period of the dynasty, from 40 B.C. (or even from 64 B.C. , a strange nomenclature, which would begin the "Herodian Period" with Pompey) to A.D. 66 or later, placing Herod and his successors (few of whom were named Herod) in one undifferentiated period, which is as if the time from Pompey to Nero in Roman history were treated as a unit. This is far too generalized, and causes serious problems in the interpretation of the physical remains of the southern Levant: the building program of Pompey had little similarity with that of Agrippa II over a century later.

In this work, "Herodian" refers specifically to the period of Herod the Great, from the 40's B.C. to 4 B.C. "Herodian dynasty" is used for Herod and his successors through Agrippa II. But wherever possible the name of the specific dynast or builder is used, in order to distinguish the programs of Herod the Great, his Roman predecessors, and his descendants who were also royal builders in the southern Levant.

With a certain amount of reluctance, the author has adopted the familiar English "Herod" for the client king of Judaea and his like-named descendants. This is even though the consistent English form of the name for anyone outside the Antipatrid family is "Herodes," directly transliterated (whether from Greek or Latin): examples include the fifth-century B.C. Athenian whose murderer was defended by Antiphon, and the members of the Athenian philanthropic family of the second century A.C. "Herod" came late to English: Chaucer used "Herodes,"31 and the Master of Wakefield used "Herode."32 The form "Herod" seems first to appear in the Tyndale Bible of 1525, but indiscriminately with "Herodes" and "Herode." Only with Shakespeare and the King James Bible did "Herod" become the common English form: Shakespeare may have chosen it for metrical reasons. Yet the contemporary popular image of "Herod" is so pervasive that it seems unreasonable to use any other form, despite the fact that doing so violates the author's own precepts concerning transliteration.33 Elsewhere, names are transliterated directly from Greek or Latin, except in a few cases (e.g., Jerusalem, Athens, Cleopatra), where common English forms exist.

Canterbury Tales 1.3384.

Slaughter of the Innocents (from the Corpus Christi Cycle produced at Wakefield in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries).

Herod is called "the Great" only at AJ 18.130–36, where the term appears three times. The passage is a complex discussion of the descendants of Herod and includes other people named Herod, so the sobriquet may be more a genealogical distinction between the first Herod and his descendants rather than a qualitative expression. Regardless, it has become almost universal.

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Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520209346
• ISBN 13: 9780520209343
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 370