d by Funk and Wagnalls
Co., 1909:--Herod I, the son of Antipater, was early given office by his
father, who had been made procurator of Judea. The first office which
Herod held was that of governor of Galilee. He was then a young man of
about twenty-five, energetic and athletic. Immediately he set about the
eradication of the robber bands that infested his district, and soon was
able to execute the robber chief Hezekiah and several of his followers.
For this he was summoned to Jerusalem by the Sanhedrin, tried and
condemned, but with the connivance of Hyrcanus II [the high priest and
ethnarch] he escaped by night.--He went to Rome where he was appointed
King of Judea by Antony and Octavius.--For the next two years he was
engaged in fighting the forces of Antigonus, whom he finally defeated,
and in 37 B.C. gained possession of Jerusalem.--As king, Herod
confronted serious difficulties. The Jews objected to him because of his
birth and reputation. The Asmonean family regarded him as a usurper,
notwithstanding the fact that he had married Mariamne. The Pharisees
were shocked at his Hellenistic sympathies, as well as at his severe
methods of government. On the other hand the Romans held him responsible
for the order of his kingdom, and the protection of the eastern frontier
of the Republic. Herod met these various difficulties with
characteristic energy and even cruelty, and generally with cold
sagacity. Although he taxed the people severely, in times of famine he
remitted their dues and even sold his plate to get means to buy them
food. While he never became actually friendly with the Pharisees, they
profited by his hostility to the party of the Asmoneans, which led at
the beginning of his reign to the execution of a number of Sadducees who
were members of the Sanhedrin.

From Smith's _Comprehensive Dictionary of the Bible_: The latter part
"of the reign of Herod was undisturbed by external troubles, but his
domestic life was embittered by an almost uninterrupted series of
injuries and cruel acts of vengeance. The terrible acts of bloodshed
which Herod perpetrated in his own family were accompanied by others
among his subjects equally terrible, from the number who fell victims to
them. According to the well-known story, he ordered the nobles whom he
had called to him in his last moments to be executed immediately after
his decease, that so at least his death might be attended by universal
mourning. It was at the time of hi