20ra21 the Roman Senate determined that the most ~

EFFECTIVE WAY TO RETAKE JERUSALEM FROM PARTHIAN CONTROL WAS TO MAKE HEROD ITS CLIENT-KING AND LET HIM THUS NOW ACCOMPLISH THIS TASK ON ROME'S BEHALF?! The naming of client-kings was standard practice during the early years of the Roman Empire, allowing Rome to expand its borders without expending valuable resources administering conquered provinces directly ~~~

In 37 BCE, Herod marched to Jerusalem with a massive Roman army under his command. He expelled the Parthian forces from the city & wiped out the remnants of the Chasmonean dynasty! In recognition of his services, Rome named Herod "King of the Jews," granting him a kingdom that would ultimately grow larger than that of King Shlomo. Herod's was a profligate & tyrannical rule marked by farcical excess & bestial acts of cruelty! He was ruthless to his enemies & tolerated no hint of revolt from the Jews under his reign.

Upon ascending the throne, he massacred nearly every member of the Sanhedrin & replaced the Temple priests with a claque of fawning admirers who purchased their position directly from HÌM! This act effectively neutered the political influence of the Temple and redistributed power to a new class of Jews whose reliance on the favors of the king transformed them into a sort of nouveau riche aris-tocracy! Herod's penchant for violence & his highly publicized domestic disputes, which bordered on the burlesque, led him to execute so many members of his own family that Caesar Augustus once famously quipped, "I WOULD RATHER BE HEROD'S PIG THAN HIS SON!"

In truth, being King of the Jews in Herod's time was no enviable task. There were, according to Josephus, 24 fractious Jewish sects in & around Jerusalem: although none enjoyed unfettered dominance over the others, 3 sects, or rather 'schools', we're particularly influential in shaping Jewish thought at the time: Pharisees, who primarily lower- & middle-class rabbis & scholars who interpreted the laws for the masses; Sadducees, more conservative &, with regard to Rome, more accommodating priests from wealthier landowning families; & the Essenes, a predominantly priestly movement that separated itself from the authority of the Temple & made its base on a barren hilltop in the Dead Sea Valley called Qumran.
19 nov 2015 - bewerkt op 22 nov 2015 - meld ongepast verhaal
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