Herod the Great

Herod the Great was the Roman-backed king who ruled Judaea in the late first century BC. He gained power through civil war and Roman support, undertook major building projects including expansion of the Jerusalem Temple, and secured his throne through ruthless dynastic politics.

In Margaret George’s The Memoirs of Cleopatra, the narrative follows their eastern campaigns, diplomatic bargains, marriage, children and worsening confrontation with Rome, including Antony’s ties to Octavia and Cleopatra’s relations with Herod the Great. Robert Graves’s King Jesus places Herod the Great within a narrative shaped by court politics and dynastic power, religion, belief and institutional authority, and social change and the pressures of ordinary life. Other novels featuring Herod the Great include James A. Michener’s The Source.

In non-fiction, Herod the Great is discussed in Lindsay Powell’s Marcus Agrippa. Lindsay Powell’s Marcus Agrippa approaches the subject through military command and battlefield decision-making, family, marriage and personal loyalty, and court politics and dynastic power.