Herod Archelaus

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Herod Archelaus (23 BC–c. 18 AD) was the ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea from 4 BC to 6 AD. He was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace, the brother of Herod Antipas, and the half-brother of Herod Philip.

Archelaus received the kingdom of Judea by the last will of his father, though a previous will had bequeathed it to his brother Antipas. He was proclaimed king by the army, but declined to assume the title until he had submitted his claims to Caesar Augustus in Rome. Before setting out, he quelled with the utmost cruelty a sedition of the Pharisees, slaying nearly three thousand of them. In Rome he was opposed by Antipas and by many of the Jews, who feared his cruelty; but in 4 BC Augustus allotted to him the greater part of the kingdom (Samaria, Judea, and Idumea) with the title of ethnarch.

He married Glaphyra, the widow of his brother Alexander, though his wife and her second husband, Juba, king of Mauretania, were alive. This violation of the Mosaic law and his continued cruelty roused the Jews, who complained to Augustus. Archelaus was deposed in the year 6 and banished to Vienne in Gaul; Judea became a Roman province.

In the Bible, Archelaus is mentioned in the story of the Flight into Egypt of the Gospel of Matthew, and the Parable of the talents in the Gospel of Luke probably refers to his journey to Rome. His slaughter of the 3000 may also have been the source for the narrative of the Massacre of the Innocents, confusing Archelaus with his father, Herod the Great.