174
                       HEROD RISES TO POWER                                  
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   This sparked off a number of risings which seriously threatened the sta-  
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bility of the whole region. These risings occurred when Rome was involved    
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in a life and death struggle between the forces of the old republic led by   
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Pompey and those of progress led by Julius Caesar.                           
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   By 48 B.C. Caesar had defeated Pompey and started to round up his allies. 
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Hyrcanus II lent military support to Caesar. The Roman responded by in-      
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creasing Hyrcanus' power in Judea and even restoring some of the lands taken 
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from him by the Pompeian settlement.                                         
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   When Caesar was murdered in Rome in 44 B.C., the Jews who lived in the    
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city and had been well treated by him regarded Rome's loss as theirs.        
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   In about 37 B.C. after a confused period of civil disorder, Herod, the son
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of Antipater, emerged as king of Judea with the sanction of Rome. Herod was a
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an extremely able man, cold, cruel and cunning, but also cultivated and      
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dignified. His first act was to arrange the assasination of practically      
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the entire Pharisee Sanhedrin. Then he had Hyrcanus, whom he had deposed to  
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get to the throne, put to death. A few years later, Herod ordered his own    
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wife's execution, followed by her mother's.                                  
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