Life and Marriage
Herod the Great's execution of his Hasmonean sons, Alexander and Aristobulus IV in 7 BC, left the latter's daughter Herodias orphaned and a minor. Herod engaged her to Herod II, her half-uncle, and her connection to the Hasmonean bloodline supported her new husband's right to succeed his father.
As Josephus reports in Jewish Antiquities (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):
Herodias, was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne II, the daughter of Simon the High Priest. had a daughter, Salome...
This marriage led to opposition to the marriage from Antipater III, Herod the Great's eldest son, and so Herod demoted Herod II to second in line to the succession. Antipater's execution in 4 BC for plotting to poison his father seemed to leave Herod II, now Herod I's eldest surviving son, as first in line, but his mother's knowledge of the poison plot, and failure to stop it, led to his being dropped from this position in Herod I's will just days before he died.
Read more about this topic: Herod II
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or marriage:
“You have nothing more to fear. Not death nor decay. Here in this cup is my gift of life to you. I’m going to make you immortal. And I, too, shall drink and be immortal. We will not return to Egypt. Our world shall be wide, our time shall be without end. Has any man before offered a gift of eternal life to his bride?”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Yousef Bey (John Carradine)
“In ‘70 he married again, and I having, voluntarily, assumed the legal guilt of breaking my marriage contract, do cheerfully accept the legal penalty—a life of celibacy—bringing no charge against him who was my husband, save that he was not much better than the average man.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)