Agrippa II exhibited the Herodian partiality for build- ing. He much enlarged the city of Ca;sarea PhUippi, and in honor of Nero called it Neronias. He also sup- plied large sums of money towards beautifying Jerusa- lem (wliich he encircled with the " third wall") and Bery- tus, transferring almost everything that was ornamental from his own kingdom to this latter place. These acts rendered Mm most unpopular (Josephus, Ant. xx, 9, 4). In A.D. 60 king Agrippa and Beremce (q. v.) his sister, concerning the nature of whose equivocal intercourse with each other there had been much grave conversa- tion (Juvenal, Sat. vi, 155 sq.), and who, in consequence, persuaded Polemo, king of Cilicia, to marry her (Jose- phus, A nt. XX, 7, 3), came to Cajsarea (Acts xxv, 13). It was before him and his sister that the apostle Paul made his defence, and somewhat (Iv oXiyi-j) " persuaded Mm to be a Christian." Agrippa seems to have been ulti- mate with Fcstus (Josephus, yl ?»^ xx, 7, 11), and it was natural that the Roman governor should avail himself of his judgment on a question of what seemed to be Jew- ish law (Acts xxv, 18 sq., 26 ; comp. Josephus, A nt. xx, 8, 7). The "pomp" (ttoXXi) (pavraaia) with which the king came into the audience chamber (Acts xxv, 23) was accordant with his general bearing.
The famous speech which Agrippa made to the Jews, to dissuade them from waging war with the Romans, is recorded by Josephus ( War, ii, 16, 4), At the com- mencement of the war he sided n-ith the Romans, and was wounded by a sling-stone at the siege of Gamala (Josephus, War, iv, 1, 3). After the faU of Jerusalem he retired with his sister Berenice to Rome, and there died in the seventieth year of his age, and in the third year of Trajan (A.D. 100), He was on intimate teniis >vith Josephus, who gives two of his letters {Life, 65), and he was the last Jewish prince of the Herodian line.
As regards his coins, Eckhel gives two with the head of Nero, one with the legend ECI 13A2IAE APPmnA NEPQNIE, confirmmg the account of Josephus as re- gartls the city of Ccesarea-Philippi, and the other bear- ing the priEuomen of Marcus, which he may have re- ceived on accomit of his family being indebted to the triumvir Antony, or else, as Eckhel thinks, more likely from Marcus Agrippa (Eckhel, Boot. Num. Vet. iii, 493, 494 ; comp. Akemian, Xian. C/iron. ix, 42). There are other coins witli the heads of Vespasian, Titus, and Do- mitian. See IMoney. Compare Agrippa.
Coin of Herod Agrippa II, with the Head of Titus, and a figure of Victory.
9. Berenice (q. v.).
10. Drusilla (q. v.).
HERODIAN
211
He'rodian (only in the plur. 'Hpuciavoi), the des- I ignation of a class of Jews that existed in the time of ! Jesus Christ, evidently, as the name imports, partisans of Herod, but whether of a political or religious descrip- tion it is not easy, for want of materials, to determine. The passages of the New Testament which refer to them are the following : ISIark iii, 6 ; xii, 13 ; Matt, xxii, 16 ; Luke XX, 20. From these it appears that the ecclesias- tical authorities of Judrea held a council against our Saviour, and, associating with themselves the Herodi- ans, sent an embassy to him with the express but co^'ert design of ensnaring him in his speech, that thus they might compass his destruction, by embroiling him. But what additional difficidty did the Herodians bring? Herod Antipas was now tetrarch of GalDee and Penua, which was the only inheritance he received from his father, Herod the Great. As tetrarch of GaUlee he was specially the ruler of Jesus, whose home was in that province. The Herodians, then, may have been sub- jects of Herod, Galilseans, whose evidence the priests were desirous of procuring, because theirs would be the evidence of feUow-countrj^men, and of special force with Antipas as being that of his own immediate subjects (Luke xxiii, 7). Herod's relations Avith Eome were in an misafe condition. He was a weak prince, given to ease and luxury, and his wife's ambition conspired with his own desires to make him strive to obtam from the emperor Caligula the title of liing. For this purpose he took a journey to Rome, but he was banished to Lyons, in Gaul. The Herodians may have been favorers of his pretensions; if so, they would be partial hearers, and eager mtnesses against Jesus before the Eoman tribu- nal. It woidd be a great service to the Romans to be the means of enabling them to get rid of one who as- pired to be king of the Jcavs. It would equally gratify their own lord should the Herodians give effectual aid in putting a period to the mysterious yet formidable claims of a rival claimant of the crown. If the Herodi- ans were a Galiliean political party who were eager to procure from Rome the honor of royalty for Herod (Mark vi, 14, the name of king is merely as of courtesy), they were chosen as associates by the Sanhedrim with especial propriety. This idea is confirmed by Jose- phus's mention of a party as " the partisans of Herod" (oi ra 'UpwSov (pavovvric, Ant. xiv, 15, 10). The dep- utation were to " feign themselves just men," that is, men whose sympathies were entirely Jewish, and, as such, anti-heathen : they were to intimate their dislike of paying tribute, as being an acknowledgment of a for- eign yoke ; and by flattering Jesus, as one who loved truth, feared no man, and would say what he thought, they meant to inveigle him into a condemnation of the practice. In order to carry these base and hj-pocritical designs into effect, the Herodians were appropriately associated with the Pharisees; for as the latter were the recognised conservators of Judaism, so the former were friends of the aggrandizement of a native as against a foreign prince. (Comp. Fritzsche and Walch, ad loc. Other hypotheses may be found in Paulus on the pas- sage in Matt.; in Wolff, Curm Phil, i, 311 sq.; see abo Kocher, Analect. in loc. Matt.; Zorn, IJist.fisci. Jud. p. 127 ; Otho, Lex. Rahh. p. 275. Monographs on this sub- ject are those of Stench, Diss, cle Herod. Lund. 1706; Floder, Diss, de Herod. Upsal, 176-t; Schmid, Jipisf. de Herod. Lipsia?, 1763; Leuschner, De Sectn Hei-adianor. Hirschberg, 1751 ; StoUberg, De Herodianis,yiteh. 1666 ; Jensius, id. Jen. 1G88.) — Kitto. See Sects, Jewish.