What Did Herod Learn As An Animal

Herod the Great: Friend of the Romans and Parthians?

Jason M. Schlude explores how King Herod manipulated his position between 2 regional powers

Jason M. Schlude March 01, 2017 20 Comments 14172 views

King Herod is remembered as a Friend of the Romans. Jason Schlude suggests that Herod exploited the broader geopolitical circumstances of the mean solar day. Photo: Hulton-Annal/Getty Images.

Oftentimes nosotros think of Herod the Neat in relation to ancient Rome. We understand the male monarch as steadfast in his loyalty to this western imperial power—and rightly then. Herod's behavior routinely betrayed his Roman interests, and inscriptions attest to and advertise this allegiance by identifying him with such titles as "Friend of the Romans." It is entirely advisable then to employ the modern characterization "Roman customer king" to Herod, as scholars have done for and then long.

Some other view of Herod, even so, complicates this picture. Herod was not simply a passive subject of Rome. In fact, if we only view Herod against the Roman backdrop, we take a chance misunderstanding the circumstances of his ascension to power and underestimating his accomplishment. While the Romans were indeed a key source of Herod's authority, he rose to power and maintained his position through timely manipulations of the contentious geopolitics that divers his twenty-four hours.

Rome was not the undisputed master of the Near Due east. The empire of Parthia stretched from modernistic Afghanistan through Islamic republic of iran to the Euphrates River in Iraq, encompassing territories once ruled by Persian kings and then past Alexander the Great and his successors. Existing for nigh 500 years (c. 250 B.C.East. to the 220s C.E.), the Parthian land was the only avant-garde civilization that bordered the Roman Empire. And the two states were not without trigger-happy encounters. In 53 B.C.E. the famed Crassus led Roman legions into the Parthian empire only to see his troops massacred and to dice violently himself about Carrhae. Later, betwixt forty and 39 B.C.E., the Parthian king Orodes Ii conquered and controlled the Roman Well-nigh East, including Israel, until Marking Antony organized a counter-offensive that drove his forces from the region. But for the Romans, the damage was done; henceforth, no i would see the Romans as invincible and their command of the Nearly East certain.

Herod faced this volatile situation and exploited it to his reward. Indeed it was no coincidence that the Romans entrusted the throne of Judaea to Herod the Keen at the close of 40 B.C.Eastward., the same year of the Parthian conquest. During the entrada the Parthians installed Antigonus, son of Aristobulus Two and scion of the Hasmonean dynasty, as rex of Judaea. Herod fled to Rome to use this event to brand a bid for kingship. He sought out Antony and underscored the Parthian threat (and threw in a bribe for skillful measure!). As the aboriginal sources brand clear, the strategy worked; the Parthian actions motivated the Senate to make Herod the Keen rex. In this situation, Herod is best seen equally a manipulator of Rome's confrontation with Parthia for his ain reward.

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Herod and then took the first opportunity to further his position by working with the Parthians. On the Roman side, Herod was in adept shape. After the Senate made him rex and Herod pacified his new kingdom, Antony had Antigonus executed in 37 B.C.East. and thus eliminated Herod's most potent rival. Merely Herod notwithstanding had a Parthian problem. He must have feared another Parthian invasion of the Roman Well-nigh Due east.

When the Parthians invaded Palestine in 40 B.C.E., they arrested Hyrcanus II, a high priest and member of the Hasmonean family, and cutting off his ears. The Parthians and so carried him dorsum to their empire in retreat from Roman troops. Despite the disfigurement, which disqualified him from property the high priesthood, Hyrcanus remained the ranking fellow member of the royal Hasmonean family. Might the Parthians not try to make Hyrcanus their own vassal rex in Judaea? Herod hedged his bets. He wanted to have Hyrcanus in his ain possession and to have the Parthians equally friends. To achieve these ends, subsequently Orodes perished in 37 B.C.E.—and with him, the worst of the bad blood between Herod and the Parthians—Herod immediately opened diplomatic relations with his successor Phraates 4 in 36 B.C.E. He sent the new king presents and pledges and requested permission for the return of Hyrcanus, which was granted. Though not explicitly mentioned in the sources, this exchange must take resulted in some level of official amicability between Herod and the Parthians. In short, it was to the reward of Herod to be friend of the Romans and the Parthians.

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Rex Herod is carried off by servants in a 17th-century German engraving. Hulton-Annal/Getty Images

It is ironic, notwithstanding, that non long after Herod was compelled to break with the Parthian king. In 31/thirty B.C.East. Herod'due south Roman state of affairs changed dramatically. Defeated at the battle of Actium, Antony took his own life, and Octavian (soon to be hailed "Augustus," the start Roman emperor) now controlled the Near East. Before embarking for his well-known meeting with Octavian, Herod executed Hyrcanus and thereby eliminated the last surviving Hasmonean heir. This act limited Octavian's choices and rendered Herod more than necessary, fifty-fifty if unsavory, to the Romans. Herod's judgment in this decision seems sound, at least in its effectiveness—he remained king. The high-profile murder, however, had its downside. It probable alienated Herod from Phraates IV, who would have been irritated by the political black centre Herod'southward action created for him. The male monarch'due south subjects, especially the Babylonian Jews who honored Hyrcanus, would have been displeased with him, thinking either that Phraates conspired with Herod to bring near the Hasmonean's death or that the plough of events reflected the male monarch's weakness of judgment and failure to control respect among regional dynasts. At the very least then Phraates would have had to cutting off public diplomatic engagement with Herod. We certainly hear no more of diplomatic exchanges betwixt the two monarchs. But perhaps for Herod there was a thin silver lining. Octavian at present could be bodacious of his loyalty. Where else could Herod turn?

To come up to a full appreciation of Herod the Neat, we must understand him as more than than a one-dimensional Roman front man. He actively and aggressively manipulated the complex imperial circumstances of his 24-hour interval to secure a position of dominance for himself. In the process, the "Friend of the Romans" also became a friend of the Parthians, even if the friendship appears short-lived. Later more than a century of intense scholarly scrutiny, there remains much more to larn well-nigh Herod the Great.^ane

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on March 29, 2013.

Jason Schlude is an Banana Professor of Classics at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's Academy and specializes in the relationships shared by aboriginal Rome, the Near East and the Parthian empire. He is an Acquaintance Director of the archaeological excavations at Omrit in northern State of israel.