Details

Subject(s)

• Herod I King of Judea 73 B.C.-4 B.C. [Browse]
• Jews—History—168 B.C.-135 A.D. [Browse]
• Jews—Kings and rulers—Biography [Browse]
• Judaea (Region)—History [Browse]

Series

• Jewish lives (New Haven, Conn.) [More in this series]
• Jewish lives

Summary note

"Herod the Great (73?4 BCE) was a phenomenally energetic ruler who took advantage of the chaos of the Roman revolution to establish himself as a major figure in a changing Roman world and transform the landscape of Judaea. Both Jews and Christians developed myths about his cruelty and rashness: in Christian tradition he was cast as the tyrant who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents; in the Talmud, despite fond memories of his glorious Temple in Jerusalem, he was recalled as a persecutor of rabbis. The life of Herod is better documented than that of any other Jew from antiquity, and Martin Goodman examines the extensive literary and archaeological evidence to provide a vivid portrait of Herod in his sociopolitical context: his Idumaean origins, his installation by Rome as king of Judaea and cultivation of leading Romans, his massive architectural projects, and his presentation of himself as a Jew, most strikingly through the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. Goodman argues that later stories depicting Herod as a monster derived from public interest in his execution of three of his sons after dramatic public trials foisted on him by a dynastic policy imposed by the Roman emperor." -- book jacket.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-214) and index.

Other title(s)

Jewish king in a Roman world

ISBN

• 9780300228410
• 0300228414 ((hardcover ; : alk. paper))

LCCN

2023941995

OCLC

1395422175

Statement on language in description

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