Herod went to Rome to back another man, and came home king
In 40 BCE Herod fled to Rome hoping to restore his patron Hyrcanus II to the Judean throne. Instead the Senate unexpectedly declared Herod himself King of the Jews. He spent the next decades as Rome's client, doubling the Temple platform in Jerusalem and ruling with a bodyguard of 2,000 soldiers.
Herod came into the world around 72 BCE in Idumea, the land just below Judea. His father Antipater, whose second son he was, served the ruler Hyrcanus II; his mother was Cypros, a Nabatean princess from Petra. His father's Edomite ancestors had been made to convert to Judaism, and Herod was raised Jewish, though historians still argue over how far his heritage was Arab. Some Jews doubted his religious commitment, especially given the lavish lifestyle of his family.
Rome made his career. Julius Caesar trusted his father, and around 47 BCE Herod became governor of Galilee, where he collected taxes for Rome and cleared out bandits, although the Sanhedrin condemned his harshness. Mark Antony named him a tetrarch in 41 BCE. After the Senate crowned him, he fought for three years to take Jerusalem from the Hasmonean Antigonus, capturing it in 37 or 36 BCE and ending that dynasty. He married Mariamne, a Hasmonean princess, sending away his first wife Doris.
Keeping power meant constant manoeuvring. Fearing a rival, he had the young Aristobulus III assassinated in 35 BCE. When his ally Antony lost at Actium in 31 BCE, Herod met Octavian at Rhodes and persuaded him that a loyal Judea was a useful link to Syria and Egypt. At home he reportedly used informers, banned protests and eventually executed several relatives, among them Mariamne. Josephus, the main source, is kinder in The Jewish War than in his later Antiquities of the Jews.
His monuments outlasted his reputation. From around 19 BCE he rebuilt the Second Temple and enlarged its platform to twice the size; the Western Wall was part of its retaining wall. He built a harbour at Caesarea Maritima with hydraulic cement laid underwater, refuges such as Masada and Herodium, and pagan cities like Sebaste. Heavy taxes paid for it all, yet the work created jobs, and he fed his people during a famine in 25 BCE. After his death Rome divided the kingdom among three sons and his sister Salome.
Source: Herod the Great
