Herod Agrippa Ii, Marcus Julius Series

HEROD AGRIPPA II, Marcus Julius Herod Agrippa I, original name Marcus Julius Agrippa, (born c. 10 BCE—died 44 CE), king of Judaea (41–44 CE), a clever diplomat who through his friendship with the Roman imperial family obtained the kingdom of his grandfather, Herod I the Great. He displayed great acumen (insight) in conciliating the Romans and Jews. After Agrippa’s father, Aristobulus IV, was executed by his own father, the suspicious Herod, Agrippa was sent to Rome for education and safety. There he grew up in company with the emperor Tiberius’s son Drusus. After his mother’s death he quickly spent his family’s wealth and acquired serious debts. When Drusus died in 23 CE, Agrippa left Rome, settling near Beersheba, in Palestine. An appeal to his uncle Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, won him a minor official post, but he soon vacated it.

Herod Agrippa II

king in parts of Judea

Born 27/28 AD

Died c. 92 or 100

Names

Marcus Julius Agrippa

Dynasty

Herodian dynasty

Father Herod Agrippa I

Mother Cypros

Herod Agrippa II (Hebrew: AD 27/28 – c.?92 or 100), officially named Marcus Julius Agrippa and sometimes shortened to Agrippa, was the last ruler from the Herodian dynasty, reigning over territories outside of Judea as a Roman client. Agrippa II fled Jerusalem in 66, fearing the Jewish uprising and supported the Roman side in the First Jewish–Roman War.

Contents

• 1Early life

• 2Rise in power

• 3During Jewish-Roman War

o 3.1Relations with Josephus

• 4Death

• 5 History: Fact or Fiction?

Early life

Herod Agrippa II was the son of the first and better-known Herod Agrippa and the brother of Berenice, Mariamne, and Drusilla (second wife of the Roman procurator Antonius Felix). He was educated at the court of the emperor Claudius, and at the time of his father's death, he was only seventeen years old. Claudius kept him in Rome and sent Cuspius Fadus as procurator of the Roman province of Judaea. While at Rome, he voiced his support for the Jews to Claudius, against the Samaritans and the procurator of Iudaea Province, Ventidius Cumanus, who was lately thought to have been the cause of some disturbances there.

Rise in power

On the death of king Herod of Chalcis in 48, his small Syrian kingdom of Chalcis was given to Agrippa, with the right of superintending the Temple in Jerusalem and appointing its high priest, but only as a tetrarch.

In 53, Agrippa was forced to give up the tetrarchy of Chalcis. However, in exchange, Claudius made him ruler with the title of king over the territories previously governed by Philip, namely, Batanes, Trachonitis, and Gaulonitis, and the kingdom of Lysanias in Abila. The tetrarchy of Chalcis was subsequently, in 57, given to his cousin, Aristobulus (Acts 25:13; 26:2,7). Herod Agrippa celebrated by marrying off his two sisters, Mariamne and Drusilla. Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, repeats the gossip that Agrippa lived in an incestuous relationship with his sister, Berenice.

In 55, Emperor Nero added to Agrippa's realm the cities of Tiberias and Taricheae in Galilee, and Livias (Iulias), with fourteen villages near it, in Peraea.

It was before Agrippa and his sister Berenice that, according to the New Testament, Paul the Apostle pleaded his case at Caesarea Maritima, probably in 59 or 60 (Acts 26).

Agrippa spent large sums beautifying Jerusalem and other cities, especially Berytus (ancient Beirut), a Hellenised city in Phoenicia. His partiality for the latter rendered him unpopular amongst his subjects, and the changeable manner in which he appointed and deposed the high priests made him disliked by his coreligionists.

During Jewish-Roman War

In the seventeenth year of Agrippa's reign (corresponding with the 12th year of Nero's reign, or 65/66 AD), Agrippa tried desperately to avert a war with Rome when he saw his fellow citizens generally disposed to fight against Rome because of specific insults and abuses they had received under the Roman procurator, Gessius Florus. At this time, they had broken off the monasteries leading from Antonia Fortress to the Temple Mount, where Roman soldiers went to keep guard during the Jewish holidays, and they refused to pay the tribute due to Caesar. Agrippa convened the people and urged instead that they tolerate the temporary injustices done to them and submit themselves to Roman *hegemony. At length, Agrippa failed to prevent his subjects from rebelling. During a specific holiday, when the Roman governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus, had passed through Judea to quell the rebellion, he was routed by Jewish forces. By 66, the citizenry of Jerusalem expelled their king, Agrippa, and his sister, Berenice, from Jerusalem. During the First Jewish–Roman War of 66–73, he sent 2,000 men, archers, and cavalry, to support Vespasian, showing that, although a Jew, he was entirely devoted to the Roman Empire. He accompanied Titus on some campaigns and was wounded at the siege of Gamla. After the capture of Jerusalem, he went with his sister Berenice to Rome, where he was invested with the dignity of *praetor and rewarded with additional territory.