PROUD RULER OF THE JEWS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 922, 12 April 1957, Page 13

PROUD RULER OF THE JEWS

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HEROD THE | GREAT, by Stewart Perowne; Hodder and Stoughton, English price 21/-, Herod then with fear was filled, "A Prince,"’ he said, "In Jewry!" All the little boys he killed At Bethlehem in his fury. HAT is about all that remains as common knowledge of one who was probably the greatest ruler of Judaea and Palestine between King Solomon and the present day. Stewart’ Perowne has performed a worthwhile task in rescuing this Arabian-born king of the Jews from the obliterating sands of Christian abhorrence. Herod’s supreme fault, in Perowne’s view, was that he lived ten years too long. In his dotage he developed a loathsome disease, and under its influence peopled his palace with fancied intrigues, providing an opportunity for his real enemies, particularly among the women of his own royal household. Fear and his own suffering were the cause of his atrocities, of which the Massacre of the Innocents was only one instance. Herod was a foreigner, and a friend of Rome. All his life he had to beware of offending the Jews, and it was the Jewish nationalists who, at the end, brought him near to destruction. Son of Antipater, the Nabatean (Arab) ruler whose ability at "negotiating" made him

the first ruler of Judaea under Roman control, Herod was himself an astute diplomat, if a loyal supporter of his patrons. His private wealth, subsidised by an expanding economy in a growing kingdom, made it possible, by outbidding his rivals, to persuade successive Roman Emperors to support his policies. He had no scruples about diverting his alleciance from the

defeated Mark Antony to his victorious rival Octavian. He became successively the intimate friend of both, and later of Agrippa. He had only one foreign policy-to please Rome. Perowne displays a masterly grip of the political struggles of the time, but he is no less successful in describing the domestic affairs of the Judaean king, particularly his successive marital alliances. A significant part of the book deals with the building activity of Herod, who is described as "the most passionate builder of antiquity" with the possible exception of the Emperor Hadrian. The crown of Herod’s labours was the erection of the Temple in Jerusalem, where later Christ preached, and where a few years later still Jewish nationalism met its doom in the complete destruction of the city. A chronological table and maps add

to the value of the book.

G.

D.