Herod the Great by Norman Gelb - 9780810895256

Herod the GreatStatesman, Visionary, Tyrant\nAuthor(s): Norman Gelb\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, United States\nImprint: Rowman & Littlefield\nISBN-13: 9780810895256, 978-0810895256\nSynopsis\nHerod the Great, king of ancient Judea, was a brutal, ruthless, vindictive and dangerously high-strung tyrant. He had many of his subjects killed on suspicion of plotting against him and was accused of slaughtering children in Bethlehem when informed that a new king of the Jews had been born there. Among the victims of the murderous paranoia that ultimately drove him to the brink of insanity were his three oldest sons and the wife he loved most. But there was a crucial aspect to Herods character that has been largely ignored over the centuries. Norman Gelb explores how Herod transformed his formerly strive-ridden kingdom into a modernizing, economically thriving, orderly state of international significance and repute within the sprawling Roman Empire. This r.