Did Herod really order the massacre of thousands of infants? Tristan Hughes revisits the scandalous and captivating story of the discovery of King Herod's Tomb.He's joined by Professor Jodi Magnus as they delve into the archaeological and literary significance of one of history's most infamous figures, King Herod. Together they explore the construction of Herodium, its symbolic connections to both Greek traditions and Judaic heritage and discuss the dark tales of Herod's rule, including his ruthless actions and the controversies surrounding his death.Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here:https://uk.surveymonkey.com/r/6FFT7MKTheme music from Motion Array, all other music from Epidemic Sound
Chapter 1: What is the story behind King Herod's Tomb?
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It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and it is Christmas on the Ancients. I wish you all a fantastic Christmas and festive holiday season. Now, the Ancients team, they've been working hard all year and they deserve a well-deserved break. So over the Christmas period until the new year, we are re-releasing a few of our favourite early episodes.
Back when I was barely a year into hosting The Ancients and I had no idea just how far this podcast would go. It has been an amazing journey. The best project I've ever worked on in my life and long may it continue. Now, this episode of The Ancients was released three years ago in December 2021.
It is an amazing archaeological discovery story, and it does have a link to Christmas, albeit an infamous one, because it's the story of Big Bad King Herod and the discovery of his tomb in the early 2000s. King Herod is, I would argue, one of the most interesting figures from ancient history because of the amount of literature and archaeology surviving for this ancient king of Judea.
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Chapter 2: Who was King Herod and why is he significant?
Now our guest for this episode, explaining all about Herod's tomb, from its discovery to what it looked like and how elaborate it was, its dominant placement in the landscape too, is one of our most popular ancients interviewees, Professor Jody Magnus. This is a fascinating story, and I hope you enjoy. King Herod. We've all heard the name.
We have this great combination of literature and archaeology surviving about him. I mean, Jodie, he surely has to rank among one of the most interesting figures to study in ancient history.
Yeah, I would actually agree with that assessment. He's definitely interesting. He's probably, I guess you could say, infamous because of the report in the Gospel of Matthew about the massacre of the innocents. That's basically how he's become known. That's the association and sort of the popular imagination. Among archaeologists who work in Israel, he is...
known as the greatest single builder in the history of the country. He left more of a lasting imprint on the landscape of the country than any other single person in history. And that's how, as an archaeologist, we know him.
As a fact, that's amazing. That's an amazing way to kick it all off. I mean, let's set the background first before we go into, let's say, the Massacre of the Innocents and his building program. Because I know it's a huge question, but to set the scene, really, Jodie, I mean, who was King Herod?
Right. So in order to understand who Herod was, you have to understand first a little bit of what happened before his time. And so basically, in sort of the couple of centuries before Herod was born, the land of Israel or Palestine, whatever you want to call that territory, had come under the rule of Alexander the Great and his successors.
And then in the middle of the second century BCE, and I'll just use BCE instead of BC and CE instead of AD, but whatever. So in the middle of the second century BCE, thanks to a Jewish revolt, the Jews gained independence from Alexander's Greek successors.
This revolt, by the way, is celebrated by the modern Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which at the moment, now we're taping, we're right in the middle of Hanukkah. So that revolt is celebrated by this holiday of Hanukkah. And as a result of that revolt, an independent Jewish kingdom was created in the land of Israel, which was ruled by the leaders of that revolt and their successors.
And that family is called the Hasmonean family. The leaders of the revolt were called the Maccabees. But the family is the Hasmonean family and the kingdom is the Hasmonean kingdom. So basically, you have this independent Jewish kingdom in the land of Israel from about the middle of the second century BCE for about 100 years.
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Chapter 3: What archaeological discoveries have been made about Herod?
And, you know, like flying past lots of historical detail here, eventually what happens is that the Romans appoint Herod to be client king of this territory, Judea, this is called Judea, on their behalf. And Herod then rules this kingdom, this client kingdom, on behalf of the Romans from 40 BCE until his death in the year 4 BCE.
And one of the things that's important to remember or understand is why the Romans appointed Herod to be client king. In other words, who was Herod? So Herod was a sort of, I hate to use this term, but he was kind of half Jewish. He was a man whose mother was not Jewish. His mother was an Abatean woman, meaning she was an Arab woman.
His father was an Idumean Jew, meaning his father was from a territory just south of Judea and Jerusalem called Idumea in antiquity, kind of the area of the modern northern Negev desert. This area had been Judaized by the Hasmoneans before Herod's time. So when the Hasmoneans had ruled this territory, they had foretold. forcibly converted the inhabitants of Idumea to Judaism.
And Herod's grandfather was one of those forcibly converted Jews. So Herod was Jewish on his father's side of the family, the Idumean side, through forced conversion. So Herod's grandfather and father had worked, or well, more accurately, his father had worked in the Roman administration before Herod's time. And so Herod was kind of a good choice for the
that had experience in dealing with the local administration, the native administration. He was sort of Jewish, right, on his father's side of the family, but he wasn't fully Jewish and he wasn't Hasmonean. From the Roman point of view, this was important because they feared that the Hasmoneans would not be loyal to them, that the Hasmoneans would want to regain their independence.
So they didn't want to choose somebody who was a Hasmonean. So Herod kind of fit the bill nicely for the Romans. But on the other hand, this also made him very unpopular among a lot of the Jewish population, which considered him a usurper to the throne because he was not Hasmonean and he was not fully Jewish.
So one of the factors that Herod had to deal with throughout his lifetime was sort of a perceived threat among at least part of his Jewish population because of his unpopularity that he would be killed or assassinated in some kind of a revolt. And this was not helped by the fact that Herod was also a very cruel person who did have a lot of people put to death when he thought they were a threat.
Which is so interesting because you think of this period in ancient history with the end of the Roman Republic, quite a turbulent period for the Roman Empire or for late Republican Rome. But it sounds as if Herod, as you say, rather than this big exterior potential threat on his doorstep, actually the biggest threat to him is more of an internal threat during his reign.
Yes, that's partly true that, you know, a lot of the threat or perceived threat to Herod was from within his kingdom and especially from the Jewish part of his kingdom. You know, there were parts of Herod's kingdom that were not Jewish or Judaized, but the core part, sort of the central part, was Jewish.
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Chapter 4: What does the Gospel say about the Massacre of the Innocents?
This is basically an episode where Herod orders all of these boys in the area of Bethlehem who are two years old or younger to be put to death after being informed that the Messiah had been born and fearing that one of these children was the Messiah. And so that's basically the story. There's a little bit of a continuation afterwards. In Matthew, when Herod heard this, he was frightened.
This is when he hears about this report that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. He inquired of them, the wise men, where the Messiah was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea. So for so it has been written by the prophet. Right. So basically, there's this report that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. And Herod orders all of these boys put to death, right? That's the account.
And so I think that Herod's notoriety throughout history in many ways has been connected to this story, right? The ironic thing is that we have no evidence that this actually happened, that Herod actually did this. I guess it's possible, but many scholars believe that it's not an historical account. Herod had a reputation for having his own sons put to death.
He had several of his own sons put to death because he thought they were trying to usurp the throne while he was still alive. And so there are scholars who think that this story basically is influenced by Herod's reputation for having young children and even his own sons put to death. So the problem is, of course, that there's no independent confirmation of this story.
So it only occurs in the Gospel of Matthew. There's no other literary or historical source that tells it. And so we have no way to independently verify whether it actually ever occurred or not.
No, I mean, Jodie, it's important to mention, and like there is some key words there, such as Bethlehem and Messiah figure, which we will definitely be coming back to as we talk about the tomb of King Herod. I've also got my notes here. We can talk about this briefly before we move on to the archaeology. He's also mentioned in the Psalm of Solomon 17 too.
Yeah, that's a little bit more obscure. But yeah, it's more or less the same kind of a thing. You know, there are scattered references to Herod in other places. I don't have the reference to it. But anyway, yes, there are scattered references, but they don't really give us a lot of information about, you know, Herod the person.
Which is in contrast to many of his building projects, if I'm not mistaken, Jodie.
Yeah. And so, as I said at the beginning, you know, More than any other individual in the history of the land of Israel, Herod left a lasting impression on the landscape because he built so much and his buildings were so monumental. Probably the one building project that most people would be familiar with is Herod's reconstruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.
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Chapter 5: How did Herod influence the architecture of his time?
He built a series of fortified desert palaces on the eastern frontier of his kingdom, the most famous of which is Masada. But there's a whole bunch of other ones along that same line. So, yeah, he built all over the place. And he had a big palace complex at Jericho, which we have the remains of. The list just goes on and on.
Including his tomb.
Right.
So Herodium, so like the construction of this monumental tomb, is this something that Herod, he constructs when he's alive, or does it happen after his death? What do we know about the background to this tomb?
So a lot of things about Herodium. So first of all, the name. Herodium is the Latin version of the name. Sometimes you see it spelled Herodion with O-N at the end, and that's the Greek version of the name, but they're both the same thing. Herodium is located to the south of Jerusalem, very close to Bethlehem, about five kilometers from Bethlehem. So that's about three miles from Bethlehem.
So very close to Jerusalem, but really directly overlooking Bethlehem. And it's actually one in the line of fortified desert palaces that Herod built on the eastern frontier of his kingdom. So it actually belongs to that same group of fortified palaces as Masada, for example. But in contrast to all of the others, so Masada, Machairus, Alexandria and Sartaba, Horkania.
In contrast to all the others, Herodium is a de novo foundation, meaning it was built from scratch. It was not built on the site of a pre-existing Hasmonean fortress. All the others had been fortresses built by the Hasmoneans, which Herod then comes along and rebuilds and expands. Herodium is the only one that was not a Hasmonean fortress previously. And what Herod does at Herodium is...
he basically creates a mountain. There was some sort of a preexisting hill there, but Herod built on top of it to create what we call a massive tumulus, so a massive sort of artificial mountain or hill. And this mountain or hill had several different focal points. At the base of it was a large palatial complex with an enormous pool
that was used both for swimming and boating and also storing water that was supplied by aqueduct brought in from a great distance. The palace complex at the foot of the mountain also included a hippodrome, which is sort of a horse racing course. It included gardens. It was used as an administrative center. And then at the top of the mountain, there's another palace.
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Chapter 6: Why is Herodium an important site for understanding Herod?
But one of the things that nobody had ever explained is why the structure on top of the square podium in his mausoleum is circular rather than square, which is odd because generally those kinds of structures, when you have them on top of like that square podium, they're generally not circular. And that's odd.
But even more interesting is that that circular structure at Herodium, the tholos, is surrounded by 18 ionic columns. Ionic is the kind of capital that has the little curly Qs at the top. And there are 18 of them. And that's what struck me because at Olympia, which is this ancient sanctuary of Zeus in the Peloponnese, at Olympia in Greece,
You have a sacred precinct dedicated to Zeus, and inside the sacred precinct is a circular structure called the Philippian. It's named after Philip II, who was the father of Alexander the Great. In the year 338 BCE, Philip II defeated the other Greek city-states in battle, and by way of extension, then became ruler of Greece. And he built the Philippian to celebrate that victory.
The Philippian is a really interesting monument because, first of all, it's constructed inside the sacred precinct, which automatically suggests a connection with the divine. So it's important to remember that up until the time of Alexander, Greek kings... were not considered divine. They weren't worshipped as gods.
That's different from the tradition in the ancient Near East, where, for example, pharaohs and so on. So in Greece, before the time of Alexander, there was no tradition of worshipping a mortal ruler as a god, even after their death. So in placing the Philippian inside the sacred precinct, Philip II was making a statement that
And inside that Philippian building were statues of himself and his family, including Alexander. And in doing that, then also making a statement about connecting them to divinities, to gods. Now, the Philippian, and we know that it was the Philippian was then visited in Alexander's lifetime and afterwards and viewed in that way.
The Philippian at Alexandria is a circular structure that is surrounded by 18 ionic columns. Now, what's even more interesting, though, is that in the year 12 BCE, Herod went to Rome, visited Rome, and on his way during his trip, he also made a visit to Olympia, where he made a huge donation of money, so much money that the locals voted him president for life of the Olympic Games.
And then after his trip, he returns to his kingdom. And so I... And it's all around this time that, according to Afenetzer's excavations, that the mausoleum is built. And I think that the mausoleum is inspired not only by the mausoleum of Augustus at Rome and also by the lost Sema of Alexander at Alexandria, but also by the Philippian because of the circular structure with 18 ionic columns.
And again, we know that Herod visited Olympia. So certainly what Herod is trying to do here is make a connection between between himself and Alexander, situating himself in the tradition of Alexander, and not just as sort of an Alexander-type figure, but as a heroic, divinized ruler figure in the Hellenistic tradition, right?
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Chapter 7: What is the design and purpose of Herod's mausoleum?
So I think that episode in the Gospel of Matthew is responding to the claims made by Herod, including the very big visual statement of his tomb looming over Bethlehem.
I mean, that's so interesting, Jodie. And I mean, for those people who, let's say they believe that Herod was this Messiah figure, does Herodium, do we think Herodium becomes similar to, let's say, the tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria, in which it becomes a place of pilgrimage too?
Yeah. Well, that's really one of the very interesting questions. And there is an afterlife of Herodium, but it's clear that around the time of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, and maybe also afterwards, there was a lot of vandalism to Herod's tomb. And the sarcophagi, there were three sarcophagi, stone sarcophagi, which are big stone coffins that were found at the site of the mausoleum.
And they had been smashed into little bits. And The excavators hypothesize that this vandalism and damage was carried out by Jews in the decades after Herod's death and around the time of the First Revolt and maybe afterwards because Herod was so unpopular and his claim was so unpopular. So it's sort of hard to say. On the other hand, it could have remained a family dynastic monument.
We have some hints that Herod's son and grandson... Maybe it had some connection to the site of Herodium. It's kind of hard to know for sure. And there is also a long tradition of literary sources referring to a group called the Herodians. So there's actually a group in the Gospel accounts.
If you go through the different canonical Gospel accounts where they refer to groups like the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, but they also, in the Gospel authors, refer to a group called the Herodians. And most scholars have assumed that the Herodians were sort of a group of elite Jews who were sort of in the entourage of Herod, right? They were associated with Herod.
But there are then later Christian sources from about 200 CE on that also refer to the Herodians, a group called the Herodians, who they explicitly say are a Jewish sect who considered Herod to be Christ, who considered Herod to be the Messiah.
And so apparently there were Jews and probably there were groups among the elites, right, who were in the circle of Herod and after his death, who did consider Herod to be the Messiah, who considered his claims to be legitimate. And in my opinion, these people are the people who are called the Herodians.
Now, whether the Herodians in the gospel accounts are the same as the Herodians mentioned in the later sources, we don't know for sure. I think it's actually quite possible, but we don't know that for sure.
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Chapter 8: How does Herod's legacy reflect in modern history?
And the best example is this monument called the Tomb of Absalom, which is misnamed, which is in the Kidron Valley at the foot of the Temple Mount. Basically, it's at the foot of the slope of Mount of Olives. And it's still standing today. You can see it. And it's clearly... An imitation of the mausoleum at Herodium.
And that, by the way, is very interesting, too, because it's not just a fashion thing. I mean, there's no doubt that these Jewish families were aware of the symbolic significance of, you know, Herod's mausoleum and what it represented. And so by imitating that image, It's by way of extension sort of saying, yeah, well, fine with us, you know, and let's build a tomb like this for ourselves.
You know, so I do think that there were portions of the Jewish population and probably particularly among some of the elites who were in Herod's circle who would have accepted his claims as legitimate.
I mean, Jodie, good for you to get that link to our previous podcast in there with the rock-cut tombs in and around Jerusalem and that link to King Herod is interesting indeed.
Now, before we really start wrapping up with this topic, there is one last thing I'd like to ask about because it's sometimes, I think, overlooked sometimes with these tombs and that is the gardens or the garden of this tomb because there is quite a magnificent garden next to the mausoleum, isn't there, Jodie?
Yes, and actually, thank you for pointing that out, because we know that gardens were an important feature of many of these ancient tombs, particularly the monumental ones, right? So, you know, poorer people or simpler tombs didn't necessarily have gardens, but the big And even in the biblical tradition, there are gardens associated with tombs.
So we know, for example, that there were gardens associated with the Sema of Alexander at Alexandria. And the Mausoleum of Augustus at Rome was in the middle of a giant garden complex. So the Mausoleum of Herod at Herodium also was in a precinct that had gardens around it. So this is very typical.
I mean, yeah, brilliant. Once again, it's nice to bring that to light. As you say, the gardens, you've got to imagine this very colourful ancient world.
And Jodie, as we wrap up, from what we've been chatting about King Herod, especially this archaeology looking at the tomb, I mean, the whole design of Herodium, of this tomb complex, constructed whilst Herod was alive, it gives this amusing insight into... into the life of this figure.
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