empt, and to hate Aristobulus and his ambitious sons.
His religion was loyalty to Rome, for this meant wealth and success. He
delighted in public approval, and his ambition was to be known as a great
builder. As is true with this type of man, he was a natural tyrant. Power
was his ruling passion, and he regarded with extreme suspicion any who
might take it from him. In this respect the contemporary rulers of the
Roman Empire set an example which he was not slow to follow. His Idumean
and Arabian blood coursed hot and fierce through his veins. It was an age
when moral standards were exceedingly low, and Herod never learned to rule
his passions. The Oriental institution of the harem gave him full license,
and he lived and loved as he fought and reigned--vehemently. Such a man is
especially susceptible to the weaknesses and crimes that come from
jealousy, and the influences of his family and court intensified these
fatal faults.

Herod is not without his attractive qualities. A man who is able to
execute on a large scale and win the title Great is never commonplace.
In giving Palestine the benefits of a strong and stable government he
performed a real service. In his love for Mariamne and for the sons she
bore him he was mastered by a passion that for a time ennobled him.
Like every man, moreover, who fails to taste the joys of disinterested
service for his fellow-men, Herod paid the bitter penalty for his own
unrestrained selfishness. He awakes pity rather than denunciation. He
never found life, because he never learned to lose his life in the service
of his people.

II. His Attitude toward Rome. Herod's policy was loyalty at any cost to
the man who at the moment ruled Rome. During the first part of his reign
Antony's power on the eastern Mediterranean was still in the ascendancy.
Notwithstanding the powerful intrigues of Cleopatra, Herod succeeded in
retaining the favor of his patron. When the battle of Actium in 32 B.C.
revealed Antony's weakness, Herod forthwith cast off his allegiance, and
his treachery was one of the chief forces that drove Antony to suicide.
Octavian, who henceforth under the title of Augustus attained to the
complete control of Rome, recognized in Herod a valuable servant. Herod's
title as king of the Jews was confirmed, and Augustus gradually increased
his territory until it included practically all of Palestine with the
exception of certain Greek cities along the coast and east of the Jordan.
He