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Philip: Jewish leader, ruled between 4 BCE and 34 CE
in the southwest of what is now Syria.
 Philip
was the son of the Jewish king Herod the Great and
his wife Cleopatra of Jerusalem. He was married to
his relative Salome. (In the Gospel of Mark 6.17,
Philip is mentioned as the first husband of
Herodias. This is a mistake; Herodias was never
married to Philip.)
Together with his half-brothers Herod Archelaus
and Herod Antipas, he was educated at Rome, a kind
of honorable detention to guarantee his father's
loyalty. When Herod the Great died in 4 BCE, Philip
became tetrarch of the outlying parts in the
northeast of his father's kingdom: Gaulanitis (the
Golan heights), Batanaea (or Basan, the southern
part of modern Syria), Trachonitis and Auranitis
(Hauran).
Among his subjects, the Jews were a minority;
most people were of Syrian or Arabian descent. The
latter had a nomadic way of life, although Herod had
established some towns (such as Adraa, modern
Dar`a). Philip was to continue this policy in the
western half of his realm, strengthening the
villages Paneas -at the sources of the Jordan- and
Bethsaida, calling them Caesarea and Julias in honor
of the emperor and his daughter Julia.
To his nomadic subjects, Philip behaved himself
as a sheik. He was constantly traveling through
their country with only a small entourage. When
someone invoked his help, he immediately ordered his
throne to be set down, heard the complaints and gave
his opinion. His subjects in the cities considered
this behavior rather remarkable, but the Arabs must
have thought of their king as 'one of us'.
Coin of Philip
(British Museum)
He had Greek and Roman subjects too, usually
living in the cities. They must have appreciated his
coinage. The example to the left shows the Roman
emperor Tiberius wearing his laurel wreath; on the
reverse one could discern an unidentified Greek
temple with the name of the tetrarch around.
(Incidentally, this coin proves that Philip had not
many Jewish subjects, because the representation of
a pagan temple and the divine emperor were
considered blasphemous by any pious Jew.)
He died at Julias in 34 CE, having ruled his
dominions for thirty-seven years. According to the
Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, he had been a
person of moderation and quietness in the conduct of
his life and government (Jewish Antiquities,
18.106). Since he left no sons, the emperor Tiberius
ordered his realms to be added to the province of
Syria. When Tiberius died in 37, his successor
Caligula almost immediately restored the
principality; as its king, he appointed Philip's
nephew Herod Agrippa.
Literature
The most important ancient source for the rule of
king Philip was written by Flavius Josephus: his
Jewish Antiquities.
Modern literature: Nikos Kokkinos, The Herodian
Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse (1998
Sheffield) |
