Tetrarchy (Judea)
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The Tetrarchy of Judea was formed following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, when his kingdom was divided between his sons as an inheritance. It was dissolved in 6 CE when Rome formed the Province of Judea by joining together Judea proper (biblical Judah), Samaria, and Idumea (biblical Edom).[1]
The Tetrarchy
At the time of his death Herod ruled over most of the South Western Levant, as a client-state of the Roman Empire; after his death the kingdom was divided between three of his sons.
- Archelaus, his son by his fourth wife Malthace the Samaritan, received the lion's share of the kingdom; Idumaea, Judea and Samaria, and the title of Ethnarch ("ruler of the people"; in this case, the Jews, Samaritans, and Idumeans).
- Herod Antipas, Archelaus’ brother, became Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea.
- Philip, Herod’s son by his fifth wife Cleopatra of Jerusalem, became Tetrarch of the northern part of Herod’s kingdom. Luke the evangelist lists Philip’s territories as Iturea and Trachonitis: Josephus gives his territories variously as Batanea, Gaulanitis, Trachonitis and Paneas ( Antiquities XVII, 8 : 1) and Batanea, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and "a certain part of what is called the House of Zenodorus" (Ant XVII , 11 : 4). A number of these names refer to the same places; they are all to be found now in modern-day Syria and Lebanon.
In a turbulent period of history, the rule of the tetrarchs was relatively uneventful. The most trouble fell to Archelaus, who was faced with sedition by the Pharisees at the beginning of his reign, and crushed it with great severity. After ruling for 10 years he was removed by the emperor Augustus in 6 CE, following complaints about his cruelty and his offences against the Mosaic law. He was replaced by a Roman prefect, and his territory re-organized as the Roman province of Iudaea.
Philip ruled Ituraea and Trachonitis until his death in 34 CE when he was succeeded as tetrarch by Herod Agrippa I, who had previously been ruler of Chalcis. Agrippa surrendered Chalcis to his brother Herod and ruled in Philip’s stead. On the death of Herod Antipas in 39 CE Herod Agrippa became ruler of Galilee also, and in 41 CE, as a mark of favour by the emperor Claudius, succeeded the Roman prefect Marullus as ruler of Iudaea. With this acquisition, a Herodian Kingdom of the Jews was nominally re-established till 44 CE though there is no indication that status as a province was suspended.
Three or four?
The word Tetrarch suggests four rulers (“ruler of a quarter “); however Josephus, in the context of describing Herod’s legacy, only mentions three. He refers to Archelaus, who had “one half of that which had been subject to Herod”, and for Philip and Antipas “the other half, divided into two parts”. (Antiquities XVII , 11 : 4) On the other hand, Luke the Evangelist refers to Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene, in his list of rulers at the time of John the Baptist, alongside Pontius Pilate (one of a series of Roman governors who replaced Archelaus), Herod (Antipas) and Philip (Luke 3 : 1). Josephus’ reference to one half the kingdom may signify two quarters, that Archelaus was ruler of two tetrarchies. This would suggest that division into quarters was already established, and that Lysanias’ quarter was part of a different tetrarchy in Syria; this is credible, as Herod III, brother of Herod Agrippa I, was tetrarch of Chalcis, which was to the north, outside Herod’s kingdom. Or it may be that Josephus, in describing the inheritances of Herod’s sons, omitted to mention Lysanias, or his predecessor, as they were not Herodians. The reference to “one half of the kingdom” could then be understood as a geographical, rather than a political observation; Archelaus’ share of the kingdom covered about half the territory, and more than half the revenue, owned by Herod. It is the view of W Smith, referring to Abilene, that Abilene,or part of it, was subject to Herod before his death, and held by Lysanias as a tetrarchy from him. The territory was returned later to the Herodians, the first part by Caligula to Herod Agrippa I, the remainder by Claudius to Herod Agrippa II.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–57). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray. This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.
- ^ H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, ISBN 0-674-39731-2, page 246: "When Archelaus was deposed from the ethnarchy in 6 CE, Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea were converted into a Roman province under the name Iudaea."
External links
- Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, "Abilene", London, (1854)
