Herod the Great: Statesman, Visionary, Tyrant
Norman Gelb
Language: English
Pages: 228
ISBN: 1442210656
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Herod the Great, king of ancient Judea, was a brutal, ruthless, vindictive and dangerously high-strung tyrant. He had many of his subjects killed on suspicion of plotting against him and was accused of slaughtering children in Bethlehem when informed that a new king of the Jews had been born there. Among the victims of the murderous paranoia that ultimately drove him to the brink of insanity were his three oldest sons and the wife he loved most. But there was a crucial aspect to Herod’s character that has been largely ignored over the centuries. Norman Gelb explores how Herod transformed his formerly strive-ridden kingdom into a modernizing, economically thriving, orderly state of international significance and repute within the sprawling Roman Empire. This reassessment of Herod as ruler of Judaea introduces a striking contrast between a ruler’s infamy and his extraordinary laudable achievements. As this account shows, despite his horrific failings and ultimate mental unbalance, Herod was a fascinatingly complex, dynamic, and largely constructive statesman, a figure of great public accomplishment and one of the most underrated personalities of ancient times. History buffs and those interested in popular ancient history can are introduced to this ruthless tyrant and his victims.
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Malichus as appropriate punishment for the assassination of Antipater. But in a rare defiant ges- Beginnings 27 ture, he indicated approval of what were, in effect, infectious acts of insurrection against Phaesal and Herod. Phaesal chastised him for not doing more to help him deal with a situation that could have bloomed into an organized rebellion. It was only a mild scolding, considering it was Hyrcanus’s single bid to reclaim authority in Judaea from the Idumaeans. But Phaesal, with the
forebodings, Phaesal and Hyrcanus left their secure positions to meet with the Parthians and were taken prisoner. Believing he would be made a hostage for the surrender of Jerusalem, Phaesal killed himself or was killed trying to escape. He and their late father had been the only figures able to tame Herod’s brash, impulsive reflexes. Phaesal’s death deprived him of the only remaining counsel that could later have provided an element of comfort and restraint in his emotionally charged life.
almost four centuries until destroyed by invading Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Ark of the Covenant went lost then, never to be seen again. A second temple rose in Jerusalem after Cyrus, king of Persia, permitted Jews to return to their ancestral homeland from Babylonia to which they had been exiled. Its construction, on the spot where the first temple had stood, was probably completed early in the fifth century BCE. Like its predecessor, it became the central focus of Jewish worship. It also
with Alexander, though such a relationship between a courtier and a prince of the royal blood was natural and usual. Fearful of what anyone might be saying about them in that climate of intrigue, some at court sought to secure immunity to charges of disloyalty to the king by slandering others. Others seized the opportunity to put long-standing rivals in peril by insinuating they were guilty of secret transgressions. Some who had been close friends “were become wild beasts to one another, as if a
adapt himself to his surroundings and to changing situations—a man who anticipated the future and had his two feet planted firmly on the ground.” Byron McCane dismisses the idea that Herod was a man for whom the description “renowned for his ruthless exercise of power” is adequate. More than most in Palestine during the late first century BCE, he correctly understood which way the winds were blowing. Recognizing that old political, religious, and cultural patterns were passing away, and that a