Herod the Great

by Michael Grant

The Rise of Herod. - Herod's Greater Judea. - Anti-Climax. - Summing Up. - Notes. - Maps. - Chronological Table. - Genealogical Table. - Further Reading. - Index.

Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and twelve maps.

Michael Grant (1914-2004) was an English classicist, numismatist and author, editor and translator of numerous popular books on ancient history.

Genres: History, Biography, Ancient History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Michael Grant was an English classisist, numismatist, and author of numerous popular books on ancient history. His 1956 translation of Tacitus’s Annals of Imperial Rome remains a standard of the work. He once described himself as "one of the very few freelances in the field of ancient history: a rare phenomenon". As a popularizer, his hallmarks were his prolific output and his unwillingness to oversimplify or talk down to his readership.

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Reviews

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very readable biography of Herod the Great (he of infant-massacring fame).

Totally fascinating and written with sufficient narrative skill to read almost like a novel. This book completely changed the picture I had in my head of Herod. Rather than being a vampiric baby-killing villain, he was an extremely competent, talented administrator, one of the most financially responsible heads of state known from the ancient world, and a cosmopolitan man with fascinating connections to Judaea's Arab neighbors as well as Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other non-Jews. Also, the massacre of the infants? Almost certainly made-up and untrue.

This book is from 1970, so it's not exactly up to date with the up-to-the-moment archeological discoveries, but Grant does incorporate a lot of archeological data and some Qumran material as well. Apart from those, the main sources are Josephus and Herod's tutor/advisor (whose name I forget ... Nichomachus of Syria maybe?) Despite its being an older book, I found the photos and illustrations helpful and interesting as well.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Herod the Great was an exciting find and a disappointing read. Being pretty thoroughly familiar with the biblical and somewhat familiar with the Roman records, I didn't find much of anything new here. Of course, Michael Grant does a decent popular summary, but I had hoped for more of a synthesis between the written evidences and the archaeological.

[P.raczynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the life of one of the greatest rulers of ancient Israel. Herod comes across as a shrewd and consumate politician, thought he obviously become extremely paranoid and deranged in the last few years of his life.

[Norville H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the historical detail of this notorious Idumaen...