A History of Judaism author Martin Goodman returns with a vivid account of the political triumphs and domestic tragedies of Herod, the phenomenally energetic ruler who took advantage of the chaos of the Roman revolution.
Both Jews and Christians developed myths about his cruelty; cast as the tyrant who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents and, despite fond memories of his glorious Temple in Jerusalem, recalled in the Talmud as a persecutor of rabbis.
In Herod the Great Oxford’s emeritus professor of Jewish Studies examines the extensive literary and archaeological evidence to explore his Idumaean origins, his installation by Rome as king of Judaea and his presentation of himself as a Jew. In conversation with Armand D’Angour.
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