Queen Herodias



Herodias, also Herodiade (c. 15 B.C.E. – after 39 C.E.), was a Jewish princess of the Herodian Dynasty and queen of Galilee, best known for her portrayal in the New Testament as the wife of Herod Antipas who conspired in the death of John the Baptist.

The granddaughter of Herod the Great, Herodias was first married to her uncle Herod II, with whom she lived in Rome and Judea. While on a visit to Rome, her brother-in-law Antipas fell in love with her and proposed marriage, to which she assented. The couple then divorced their spouses and married each other.

The marriage also had important political advantages, as Antipas was the tetrarch of the Galilee, while Herod II had no position of rulership. Antipas, meanwhile, lacked the noble Hasmonean lineage which Herodias possessed. However, their union exacerbated tensions with Antipas' neighbor, King Aretas of Nabatea, who was the father of Antipas' first wife. It also provoked vocal criticism from the famed Jewish preacher John the Baptist, on grounds that the union violatedJewish law. John was consequently imprisoned and later beheaded at the behest of Herodias through the request of her daughter Salome.

When Caligula came to the imperial throne, Herodias urged Antipas to appeal to him for promotion to the title of king rather than tetrarch, an ambitious move which brought his downfall when her brother Agrippa I accused Antipas of treason. Although offered clemency if she separated from her husband, she followed Antipas into exile where she eventually died.