Origins Family Herod Agrippa was born in
Caesarea Maritima around 11 BC. He was the son of
Aristobulus IV, one of the children that
Herod the Great had with
Mariamne the Hasmonean. His mother was
Berenice, daughter of
Salome, daughter of
Antipater the Idumaean and sister of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was therefore both the paternal grandfather and the maternal great-uncle of Agrippa, and Agrippa thus descends from both the
Hasmonean and
Herodian dynasties. In 29 BC, Herod executed his wife Mariamne (Agrippa's grandmother). In 7 BC, when Agrippa was just three or four years old, Herod had two of his sons (Agrippa's father Aristobulus IV and his uncle
Alexander) executed following more palace intrigues. These events also led to the executions of
Antipater, a son Herod had with Doris, and
Costobarus, Agrippa's maternal grandfather, three years later. Herod was responsible for the deaths of many members of the
Hasmonean dynasty and its supporters, almost wiping them out entirely. He was supported there by his mother's friend
Antonia Minor (sister-in-law of
Tiberius – who would become emperor in 14 – and mother of the future emperor
Claudius) as well as by Empress
Livia, who was the friend of his grandmother. Agrippa I went into debt as a result of this sumptuous life But Agrippa I's future darkened with the death of Drusus in 23, isolating him and leaving him helpless in the face of his creditors, especially since Berenice probably died at the same time.
Return to Judea Agrippa I squandered the rest of his fortune trying to win the favor of the
freedmen of Tiberius, and he hastily left Rome for the
province of Judaea. Agrippa I and Cypros lived in a fortress in Malatha of
Idumea where they led a modest existence, far from the splendor of the imperial court.
Back to Rome Agrippa I borrowed the sum of 20,000
drachmas to embark at
Anthedon for
Alexandria,—300,000 drachmas but in book II of
The Jewish War, his first account, published between 75 and 79, Josephus was more direct. It was "to accuse the tetrarch" Herod Antipas, that Agrippa I decided to go "to Tiberius", and it was because Agrippa I had been ousted from his pretensions to obtain the tetrarchy of Antipas that he would have started plotting against the emperor. The accession to the throne of his friend began Agrippa I's fortune. Caligula offered Agrippa I a gold chain "of the same weight as the chain of his captivity". "This completely exceptional reversal of the situation seems to have greatly impressed Agrippa's contemporaries." Agrippa I showed no eagerness to take charge of the affairs of his kingdom, and it was only in the summer of 38 that he went to Batanea for a short stay. In 36, the armies of two kings who were clients of the Romans,
Aretas IV and Herod Antipas, clashed around the territory of
Gamla, causing a crushing defeat for Antipas. According to
Movses Khorenatsi, as well as several sources in Syriac and Armenian, King
Abgar V of
Edessa provided auxiliary forces to Aretas. However, the historicity of this mention is disputed by Jean-Pierre Mahé. It is possible that Aretas took advantage of Antipas' participation in the great conference on the Euphrates, to conceal peace and the Roman victory over Artabanus (autumn 36), to launch his offensive. The territorial claim of the
Nabataeans was revived by Antipas' will to repudiate
Phasaelus, the daughter of Aretas, to marry
Herodias, the sister of Agrippa I. Antipas' goal was dynastic. Antipas attempted to silence his opposition by executing
John the Baptist.
This execution seems to have had important repercussions on the political situation in the region for several years. Thus the defeat of Antipas is considered within the Jewish population as a divine revenge against Antipas to punish him for having put John to death However, for some historians, the two Jesuses are one, the evangelists using a literary device to describe two faces of Jesus, while exempting the Romans from their responsibility in this execution, so that the Gospels cannot be suspected of containing the slightest criticism of the authorities in power. In 36, Pontius Pilate quickly suppressed a gathering of
Samaritans on
Mount Gerizim. The gathering had a messianic connotation whose leader—whom Josephus avoids naming—sought to appear as the eschatological prophet similar to
Moses, one of the three messianic figures found in the
Dead Sea Scrolls. A figure that has also been attributed to John the Baptist and
Jesus the Nazorean. At the end of 36, Vitellius used the complaints of the Council of Samaritans about this incident as a pretext to dismiss Pilate at the end of a ten-year term On the following Passover, he came in person to Jerusalem to dismiss the high priest
Caiaphas, who was too closely linked to Pilate, and restored to the priests of the temple the supervision of the ceremonies of the Jewish worship festivals. interrupted the march of his two legions against Aretas, considering that he could no longer wage war without orders from the new emperor. He made the people swear loyalty to Caligula
Establishment of the kingdom Agrippa I returned to his territories in the summer of 38. Josephus does not recount the conditions under which the Nabataean troops withdrew from the former tetrarchy of Philip, which constituted the bulk of the territories attributed to Agrippa I. In an agreement between Aretas and Caligula,
Damascus was transferred to Nabathean control. On the way to his new kingdom, Agrippa I passed through
Alexandria around July 38 where he probably lodged with the
alabarch Alexander Lysimachus, the brother of
Philo of Alexandria and the father of
Tiberius Alexander. whose daughter
Berenice would marry the son
Marcus Alexander a few years later. There was then an anti-Jewish atmosphere in the city that had lasted for some time. During festivities, Agrippa was the target of a popular anti-Jewish masquerade featuring an "idiot" nicknamed Karabas, foreshadowing the Jewish-Alexandrian conflict that agitated the city from 38 to 41. These troubles led the two parties—Jews and Alexandrian
Greeks—to each send three delegates to the emperor to settle the deeper conflict between the two communities. Philo was one of the Jewish delegation. The return of Agrippa I excited the jealousy of his sister Herodias who urged her husband Antipas to claim for himself the title of king in Rome. In the letter he accuses Antipas of fomenting a plot with the Parthians and of having accumulated, without informing the emperor, stocks of arms in his arsenals in Tiberias, probably with the intention of preparing his revenge against Aretas who had defeated him a few years earlier. While the second accusation is probably true, the first is doubtful. As a result of the letter, Caligula exiled Antipas to the south of
Gaul As for Agrippa I, he received the territories of Antipas—
Galilee and
Peraea—as well as all the property confiscated from Antipas and Herodias. Caligula's initiative horrified the Jewish subjects of the empire and caused unrest in the diaspora in Rome as well as in
Alexandria,
Thessaloniki,
Antioch and in
Judea, particularly in
Galilee. Caligula enjoined the
proconsul of Syria,
Publius Petronius, to place the statue willingly or by force in the "
Holy of Holies" of the
Temple of Jerusalem, violating Judaic
aniconism in the holiest place of this religion. Petronius disposes necessary armed troops—two Roman legions and auxiliaries—which he barracks at
Ptolemais in Phoenicia in the event of an uprising, and his mission was to accompany the procession of the statue—being made in
Sidon—through Judea. The population rushed in numbers to Ptolemais, supported by the Jewish religious authorities, then to
Tiberias where the troubles continued for about 40 days. Petronius met with
Aristobulus brother of Agrippa I (Agrippa I was in Rome at the time) in the presence and under the pressure of the crowd. Convinced of the imminence of a major revolt, Petronius tempered with the emperor by an exchange of letters exposing—at the risk of his life the inhabitants of Galilee were close to a revolt, it is possible he learned of the affair from Caligula, for Josephus, it was a discussion during a banquet; for Philo, it was a request addressed to the emperor, the content of which he reports, although in terms that reveal a certain exaggeration of the role of Agrippa. Agrippa I pleaded "that the ancestral institutions are not disturbed. For what of my reputation among my countrymen and other men? Either I must be considered a traitor to myself or I must cease to be counted among your friends; there is no other choice…”. At first, Caligula seemed to give in to his friend's pleas and instructed Petronius to suspend his action towards Jerusalem, while warning the Jewish populations not to take any action against the shrines, statues and altars erected in his honor, seems to attest. But the emperor seemed and it was the murder of Caligula that seemed to put a definitive end to the enterprise and put an end to the desire for a popular uprising. Josephus recounts how the emperor, suspecting Petronius of having been bribed to break his orders, ordered him to commit suicide, but this letter arrived after the announcement of Caligula's death, in which Josephus saw an effect of Providence. Caligula was assassinated by a large-scale conspiracy, notably involving the
praetorian commander
Cassius Chaerea as well as several senators. The conspirators intended to return to a republic. Yet it was Claudius, Caligula's uncle, who was pushed to imperial power by the anti-republicans under curious conditions as well as his maneuvers, seem to have been decisive in his ascent to power. Josephus and Roman historian
Cassius Dio He then went to the
Capitol where the senators met in conclave and he persuaded them to wisely abandon their idea of a republic, arguing that a new emperor has been proclaimed by the praetorians—of whom he pointed out that 'they surround the meeting"—and expected nothing but their enthusiastic support. which took up the old treaties of friendship and Judeo-Roman alliance. Soon after his inauguration, Agrippa I embarked for Judaea.) and was honored in Rome with the title of praetor. and a second edict extended the Alexandrian privileges to the Jews of the diaspora throughout the whole empire. Agrippa I and his brother Herod of Chalcis played the role of intercessor in favor of the Jews with the emperor. He acted here as an
ethnarch of the Jews, since Dora was not located on his territory. Petronius, the
proconsul of
Syria immediately ordered the magistrates of Dora to remove the statue, referring to the edict of Claudius. perhaps in reaction to the agitation resulting from the rapid development of the movement of the followers of
Jesus and which would be evoked by the Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians. For
François Blanchetière, the writing of Philo Legation to Gaius "constitutes an apology for
Augustus, to be read a contrario as a criticism of the Judeophobic policy of Claudius (Legation to Gaius 155–158)". Internally, he tried to satisfy both his Jewish and pagan subjects and was divided between his religious capital, Jerusalem, and his "little Rome",
Caesarea. He continued the policy of
euergetism external to Judea of Herod the Great The Mishnah explains how the Jews of the
Second Temple era interpreted the requirement of that the king should read the Torah to the people. At the conclusion of the first day of
Sukkot immediately after the conclusion of the seventh year in the cycle, they erected a wooden dais in the Temple court, upon which the king sat. The synagogue attendant took a Torah scroll and handed it to the synagogue president, who handed it to the
High Priest's deputy, who handed it to the High Priest, who handed it to the king. The king stood and received it, and was to read while seated. King Agrippa stood and received it and read standing, and the sages praised him for doing so. When Agrippa I reached the commandment of that "you may not put a foreigner over you" as king, his eyes ran with tears, but they said to him, "Don't fear, Agrippa, you are our brother, you are our brother!" The king read from up through the
shema (), and then the portion regarding tithes (), the portion of the king (), and the blessings and curses (). The king would recite the same blessings as the High Priest, except that the king would substitute a blessing for the
festivals instead of one for the forgiveness of sin. (Mishnah Sotah 7:8 ; Babylonian Talmud Sotah 41a.) Agrippa I used his prerogative to appoint the high priests of the Temple three times during his short reign, choosing alternately from the priestly dynasties of the
Anan and the
Boethos. His short administration was thus placed under the domination of Rome, of which he was an instrument of control, and the marks of honor given as sovereign by the Jews to the Temple testify to the "generalized clientelism in which personal friendships administrative relations throughout the empire.
Regional ambitions Gaius Vibius Marsus, the governor of Syria who succeeded Petronius, was much less favorable to Agrippa I. He sent a series of letters to Claudius to express his fears of Agrippa I's rising power, reflecting the jealousy of the prince's Roman compatriots in the region. Marsus interrupted, on the orders of Claudius, (western facade), with the entrance to the Cave of Jehoshaphat (left) behind it; the tomb is dated to the 1st century AD. In a 2013 conference, Professor
Gabriel Barkay suggested that it could be the tomb of Agrippa I, based in part on the similarity to Herod the Great's newly discovered tomb at
Herodium.
Unexpected death Agrippa I died unexpectedly in 44, after only three years of reign over Judaea. The precise cause(s) of his death are unknown, but rumors of poisoning circulated. (According to
Mireille Hadas-Lebel, some sources agree that Agrippa was seized with violent abdominal pains after a similar incident and died following five days of agony, at age 53.) In any case, the reign of Agrippa did not last long enough take on a definitive and recorded political orientation. ==Succession==