Herod’s Successors

The death of Herod the Great around 4 BCE brought a period of relative peace and stability in Judaea to an end. Herod initially bequeathed kingship over Idumaea, Judaea, and Samaria to his oldest surviving son, Antipas, but subsequently changed his mind and granted it to Antipas’ full brother, Archelaus, giving Antipas the title of tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea and making their half-brother Philip tetrarch over the northernmost part of his kingdom. Antipas contested Archelaus’ rule, bringing the case before Augustus, who ultimately sided with Archelaus but made him ethnarch rather than king. Meanwhile, revolts against Archelaus erupted in Judaea. In 6 CE, Augustus deposed Archelaus, and Judaea came under direct Roman control.

In 41 CE, Judaea again came under the rule of a descendant of Herod the Great, when Marcus Julius Agrippa (also called Agrippa I or Herod Agrippa I) was made king by Emperor Claudius. His son, Agrippa II, supported Rome during the First Jewish Revolt and was driven from Jerusalem in 66 CE, bringing the Herodian dynasty to an end. (See Herodian Family Tree.)