Very Jerusalem News Today

When King Herod claims Jerusalem from the Hasmoneans, he angers Cleopatra, who wants to reclaim Judea. Despite this conflict, Herod the Great manages to...

When King Herod claims Jerusalem from the Hasmoneans, he angers Cleopatra, who wants to reclaim Judea. Despite this conflict, Herod the Great manages to...

When King Herod claims Jerusalem from the Hasmoneans, he angers Cleopatra, who wants to reclaim Judea. Despite this conflict, Herod the Great manages to...

>> i think herod the great realizes that the only way hes ever going to be able to be accepted as really jewish is if he takes jerusalem and sets himself up on the throne of david. >> he understands that the key to the crown of judaea, to the throne of jerusalem, is rome. >> the romans want to control the entire mediterranean. >> and they need an ally. they need a client king in jerusalem. >> herod was trained in rome. his classmates were the students who, later on, grew to be the caesars. so he...

Ah, theres no place like panera. enjoy the toasty, saucy chipotle chicken avocado melt on freshly baked bread. panera. order on the app today. herod has convinced octavian to allow him to remain in control of jerusalem. but when he returns to the holy city, he finds the royal family in turmoil. >> mariamne and members of her family are sequestered under armed guard while herod is away. and when herod comes back, some other members of the family start spreading rumors that

You have this princess of the grandest, royalest family. its like a kardashian marrying a windsor. >> so he marries into the hasmonean dynasty, and mariamne knows that herod is only marrying her for political purposes. but she also fears that hes going to begin getting rid of her relatives, killing all hasmonean heirs to the jewish throne. and hes got so many roman troops with him that this shouldnt be that difficult. >> with 40,000 roman soldiers under his command, herod sets his sights on jeru...

>> herod uses the threat of his army to force a hasmonean princess into a ketubah, a jewish marriage contract. >> and he chooses mariamne, who is young, beautiful, cultured, generally loved by everybody. >> herods relationship with mariamne would have made really good reality television. on the one hand, herod deeply loved mariamne and expressed his love in grandiose gestures. on the other hand, she constantly berated him about his lowly status, and he always felt a sense of inferiority around h...

Arrogant, and they think they can appoint anyone they like king of anywhere, not unlike certain other great powers today. >> so they decide that herod is going to be their person, and they say to him, well provide an army. you take jerusalem, and you will be king of judaea. and off he goes. >> but because herod is aware that he has what many jews would call a mixed-blood ancestry, proving his jewishness is a motivation for many of the actions that he takes. >> and one of those things is he could...

Persians to the east of the area of syria palestine. >> and when you look at a map, what you can see is that the sort of natural meeting place of conflict between these two powers is the land where jerusalem sits. >> jerusalem is now ruled by the hasmoneans, a revered jewish dynasty. >> the hasmonean dynasty was the jewish dynasty that was established by a group of jewish conservative rebels that overthrew greek rule in jerusalem and in israel. >> that revolt in 167 b.c. is commemorated by the m...

The great involving jonathan fails, cleopatra is furious. >> the egyptian queen works at convincing mark antony to turn on his close friend. >> cleopatra uses her huge influence with mark antony to undermine herod whenever possible. she tells tales about herods treatment of his wife, his treatment of the jews in jerusalem, his ruthlessness. but mark antony aspires to run the whole roman empire. his interest is not to have his client kings, even such a powerful monarch as cleopatra, his partner a...