Herod, King of the Jews

Herod was an Idumean, a half-Jew at best; a monster; a killer; a ruthless political operator. He was also his people’s great benefactor and the last Jew to rule all of Palestine in antiquity.

No other biography of Herod situates him within the Graeco-Roman milieu like this book does. It gives us the global perspective we need to understand the man, his country, his mindset, his intellectual milieu, his values, and his works. And it explains how and why what happened in provincial little Palestine impacted the grand politics of Rome.