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Herod Agrippa II

Herod Agrippa II (28-92 AD) was King of Judea from 53 to 66 AD, succeeding Herod of Chalcis; he was the last ruler of the Herodian dynasty, and he was overthrown during the First Jewish-Roman War.

Biography[]

Herod Agrippa was the son of Herod Agrippa and the brother of Berenice and Drusilla (the wife of Antonius Felix). He was educated at the court of the Roman emperor Claudius, and, as he was only seventeen years old when his father died, he was kept in Rome while Judea was placed under direct Roman rule. On the death of Herod of Chalcis in 48 AD, Agrippa became a tetrarch, and he became the Roman client king of Judea in 53 AD; he was infamous for having an incestuous relationship with his sister Berenice. In 59 AD, Paul the Apostle pleaded his case before Herod, Berenice, and Porcius Festus, and he was ultimately transferred to Rome, having angered Agrippa by insinuating that he should become a Christian. Agrippa invested in beautifying Jerusalem and Beirut, and his preference for the gentile city of Beirut and his tyrannical depositions of high priests angered the Jewish public. In 66 AD, the Jews rose up against Roman rule in the First Jewish-Roman War, and Agrippa and Berenice were expelled from Jerusalem by a Judean provisional government. Agrippa sent 2,000 soldiers to support the Roman general Vespasian in crushing the revolt, and he became a praetor while in exile in Rome. He died childless in 92 AD.

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