ne, whom Herod the Great had sacrificed in jealousy--the last
scion of the Asmonaean princes. It was for her that John the Baptist was
put to death. But this marriage proved unfortunate, since it involved him
in difficulties with Aretas, king of Arabia, father of his first and
repudiated wife. He ended his days in exile at Lyons, having provoked the
jealousy or enmity of Caligula, the Roman emperor, through the intrigues
of Herod Agrippa, the brother of Herodias, and consequently, a grandson of
Herod the Great and Mariamne. The Herodian family, of Idumean origin,
never was free from disgraceful quarrels and jealousies and rivalries.

(M259) The dominions of Herod Antipas were transferred to Herod Agrippa,
who had already obtained from Caligula the tetrarchate of Ituraea, on the
death of Philip, with the title of king. The fortunes of this prince, in
whose veins flowed the blood of the Asmonaeans and the Herodians, surpassed
in romance and vicissitude any recorded of Eastern princes; alternately a
fugitive and a favorite, a vagabond and a courtier, a pauper and a
spendthrift--according to the varied hatred and favor of the imperial
family at Rome. He had the good luck to be a friend of Caligula before the
death of Tiberius. When he ascended the throne of the Roman world, he took
his friend from prison and disgrace, and gave him a royal title and part
of the dominions of his ancestors.

(M260) Agrippa did all he could to avert the mad designs of Caligula of
securing religious worship as a deity from the Jews, and he was moderate
in his government and policy. On the death of the Roman tyrant, he
received from his successor Claudius the investiture of all the dominions
which belonged to Herod the Great. He reigned in great splendor,
respecting the national religion, observing the Mosaic law with great
exactness, and aiming at the favor of the people. He inherited the taste
of his great progenitor for palace building, and theatrical
representations. He greatly improved Jerusalem, and strengthened its
fortifications, and yet he was only a vassal king. He reigned by the favor
of Rome, on whom he was dependent, and whom he feared, like other kings
and princes of the earth, for the emperor was alone supreme.

(M261) Agrippa sullied his fair fame by being a persecutor of the
Christians, and died in the forty-fourth year of his age, having reigned
seven years over part of his dominions, and three over the whole of
Palestine. He d