Certified Authentic
Ancient Jewish Coin of
King Herod I the Great
40 B.C. - 4 A.D.

(click on image to enlarge i5077 )

Bronze 13mm Struck in the mint of Jerusalem
During the reign of Herod I the Great, king of Judaea, 40BC-4AD
Reference: Hendin 500 ($50 in 1996 edition)

Obverse:
Anchor; HPΩΔ BACI around.
 

Interesting authentic ancient coin from Jerusalem of king Herod I the Great. Significant role historically, and of biblical importance. Comes with certificate of authenticity. Don't miss your chance to bid today!

Herod I (the Great), 40 B.C.E. to 4 C.E.

Now when Jesus was bom in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king . . . (Matthew 2:1. See also Matthew 2:1-13 and 16-18)

Herod was made king in 40 B.C.E. by a declaration of the Roman senate and the approval of Octavian (Augustus). In reality, however, Mattathias Antigonus was ruler of Judaea at the time and remained so for more than two more years. There is little doubt that Herod's rule was contrary to the desires of the majority of the Jewish people, whose sympathies lay with Antigonus.

In 37 B.C.E., with help from the Roman general C. Sossius, Herod besieged Jerusalem and captured it, along with Antigonus and his backers. One of Herod's first official acts as king was to order death for 45 members of the Sanhedrin who had supported the Hasmoneans. This effectively reduced the power of the Sanhedrin to little more than that of a religious court.

Herod ruled Judaea completely by the grace of Rome. His administration was mainly Hellenistic in character and, indeed, one of Herod's continuing policy goals seemed to be to strengthen the foreign element in Israel and to bring the kingdom completely into line as a strong link in the Roman Empire.

The Romans had actually resurrected the title "King of Judaea" for Herod, since he was not of priestly family and therefore could not occupy the office of high priest, yet had to be given a title equal or better in prestige. Furthermore, Antigonus had styled himself "king" on his coins and nothing less would do for Herod.

Herod realized that being from a non-priestly family meant potential problems with the Jewish people. So, to strengthen his ties with the royal Hasmonean family, he married Mariamne, a granddaughter of Hyrcanus II. While he apparently loved his wife deeply, he was, unfortunately for her, paranoid about threats to his power. And this last remaining Hasmonean princess was a threat to him, although apparently more imagined than real.

When Herod took over the throne, therefore, he ignored the legal heir to the office of high priest even though he was Aristobulus III, his wife's brother. Instead he appointed Hananel, whom he brought back to Jerusalem from the Egyptian diaspora. This act caused Herod's mother-in-law to complain to Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, whose Roman ties enabled her to wield power over Herod. Cleopatra compelled Herod to dismiss Hananel and appoint Aristobulus. But the young Hasmonean's popularity with the people grew and Herod decided to have him killed, a fate he also proclaimed for the former king Hyrcanus II. These family murders caused severe tension between Herod and Mariamne, and in 29 B.C.E. Herod ordered his wife executed.

Not long after this Herod also sentenced his two sons by Mariamne, Antipater and Aristobulus, to death. When Augustus heard about the sentences he reportedly said, "It is better to be Herod's pig than his son." Still, the death sentence stood and the sons were executed, thus eliminating every member of the Hasmonean family who might threaten Herod's throne in the immediate future.

To advance his policy of Hellenizing the region, Herod embarked on many construction and cultural projects. He built a seaport on the Mediterranean with palaces, temples, amphitheaters, and aqueducts of gleaming white limestone. He named the city Caesarea after Augustus, and it became the country's largest port. He also built the city of Sebaste on the site of Samaria. Herod sponsored athletic contests and held forth in a royal court that clearly reflected his overall alienation from Judaism. Josephus goes so far as to complain that Herod was "sucking the blood" of the Jewish people in order to curry favor among the non-Jews.

Herod's pathologic suspicion caused him also to build a string of mountain fortresses leading toward Nabataea, which doubled as palatial resort homes for himself and his entourage. These fortresses were to serve Herod if he had to make a hasty retreat in case of insurrection. The sites included Herodium in Judaea, Herodion in Transjordan, and Masada on the Dead Sea.

Herod hoped he could partially mollify the Jews' feelings toward him by restoring the Temple. (Herod himself was a Jew, his father having been forcibly converted as a child when the lands in which he lived were conquered by the Hasmoneans.) He did it in a magnificent way: it took 10,000 commoners and 1,000 priests at least nine years to complete the project. They erected magnificent new walls of majestic stones—many of which can still be seen in Jerusalem today—doubled the Temple's size, and encircled it with beautiful columns, gates and courtyards. Herod also enlarged and strengthened the fortress adjoining the Temple Mount and renamed it Antonia, after Mark Antony.

In addition to rebuilding the Temple, Herod at certain times took great pains to enhance his image among the Jewish people. The fact that he did not eat pork was well known to Augustus, and the Roman poet Persius later referred to the Jewish Sabbath as "Herod's Day." Herod did not offend the Jews by bringing statues or other physical effigies into Jerusalem until late in his reign, when he affixed a golden eagle to the Temple gate.

With all of his building expenses and other costs of a lavish court, gifts and bribes to relatives and Roman allies, and heavy taxes to Rome, Herod amassed considerable debt. To pay it he taxed his people heavily. Josephus reports that "since he was involved in expense greater than his means, he was compelled to be harsh to his subjects . . . since he was unable to mend his evil ways without harming his revenues, he exploited the ill will of the people to enrich himself privately."

In anticipation of his death, Herod ordered that at the time of his demise the leading Jews of Jerusalem were to be murdered: thus there would be no lack of mourners at his funeral. This final act, more than any other, depicts the relationship between Herod and his fellow Jews.

The great offense of which Herod has been accused through the ages is the "slaughter of the innocents," in which he allegedly ordered the killing of all the male babies in the area of Bethlehem because he heard that a future "king of the Jews" (Jesus) had been born. However, there is a great deal of scholarly disagreement with this account. Historian Michael Grant offers the current view in his book Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels:

"About the date of Jesus' birth there are ... perplexing problems. The belief that he was born in C.E. 1 only came into existence in the 6th century C.E. when a monk from South Russia living in Italy, Dionysius Exiguus, made a mathematical miscalculation. His birthdate should be reassigned to 6 or 5 or 4 B.C.E., though some prefer 11 or 7.

"Matthew's story of the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great, because he was afraid of a child born at Bethlehem 'to be King of the Jews,' is a myth allegedly fulfilling a prophecy by Jeremiah and mirroring history's judgment of the great but evil potentate Herod, arising from many savage acts during the last years before his death in 4 B.C."

There has been considerable discussion over the monogram which appears on many of the early coins of Herod. B. Kanael has noted that it probably represents a combination of the Greek letters T P—a contraction for trito, or "third year." Says Kanael, "It is likely that Herod wanted to accentuate the fact that 37 B.C.E., which was in fact his first year as king, should be regarded as his third year, reckoned from 40 B.C.E. when Rome had appointed him." Meshorer counters that Herod's third year is more probably 40 B.C.E. counted from the year 42 B.C.E., when Herod was appointed tetrarch by Marc Antony.

In spite of his continuing adversarial relationship with his own people, Herod (named "the Great" by writers foreign to his own land) minted coins with no symbols offensive to the Jews and no graven images, save a single bronze coin that shows the eagle Herod had affixed to the Temple gate. Herod was the first Jewish ruler to use exclusively Greek inscriptions on his coins.