10. Herod Agrippa I | Digitaler Ausstellungskatalog

Showcase 10: Dominion of the Herod Agrippa I (38 - 44 CE)

Herod Agrippa I (38 – 44 CE) was the first to reign over a Jewish empire following Herod the Great. The grandson of Herod had spent most of his youth in Rome, where he was sent following the death of his father Aristobulus. There he became friends with Drusus, the son of the emperor Tiberius, as well as with the later emperor Gaius, called Caligula (Fig. A.). Suspected of conspiring against Tiberius to the advantage of Caligula, he was placed under house arrest in Rome. After Tiberius’ death, the new emperor Caligula transferred him the sovereign regions of Gaulanitis, Batanaea, Auranitis, Trachonitis, and Abila. He was also granted royal dignity. As a consequence of an argument with his brother-in-law Herod Antipas, whom Caligula exiled as a result, the new emperor also transferred him the domains of Galilee and Perea.

Following the murder of Caligula, Agrippa’s political instincts helped him to immediately form good relations with the new emperor, Claudius (Fig. B.), which he effected in cooperation with his brother, Herod of Chalcis (Map). Claudius thanked him for his council during his first days of office, publicly even, with the placement of a column in the Forum Romanum, and additionally transferred him the sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. The empire of Herod Agrippa nearly reached the expanse of the earlier empire of Herod the Great.

Agrippa died suddenly during the imperial games in Caesarea Maritima in 44 CE – allegedly because he had allowed himself to be venerated during the games as a god. This negative depiction in apostolic history stands in opposition to the positive characterization of Agrippa by Flavius Josephus. The latter describes Agrippa’s personal intervention against the installation of a statue of Caligula in the Temple of Jerusalem by the Syrian provincial governor Publius Petronius, which had met intense resistance by the Jewish populace: Agrippa thus rendered a great service to the Temple. Herod only escaped the threat of imperial retribution through the death of Caligula soon thereafter. Accounts of this episode differ in the written record, and a precise reconstruction of events is difficult.

Herod Agrippa left a son of the same name, Herod Agrippa (II), as well as three daughters: Berenice, who was married three times, among them to her uncle Herod of Chalcis, and who later became the mistress of the Roman emperor Titus; Mariamne, who married Julius Archelaus and then Alexander Demetrios; and Drusilla, the later wife of the procurator of Judea, Marcus Antonius Felix. As Herod Agrippa was still too young to assume the succession on the death of his father in 44 CE, the empire was made a Roman province and placed under the control of Roman procurators.

The Coinage of Herod Agrippa I

In the choice of imagery for his coins, Agrippa I looked to the prototype of Roman coinage, employed well-known Hellenistic symbols, and only adhered to the prohibition on images when it appeared politically necessary. His coinage combined old images with new, and he masterfully balanced demonstrative proximity to Rome with native traditions.

Agrippa was closely allied with the Roman imperial house, particularly with Caligula. Many of his coins copy models from the city of Rome without much chronological delay: only their legends indicate the differing issuers. Coin No.1B can thus scarcely be differentiated from the Roman dupondius (No.10A). While the legend of the Roman dupondius recalls Caligula’s prematurely deceased father Germanicus, the inscription on the Agrippan piece emphasizes him as the issuer of the coin: ΝΟΜΙΣΜΑ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΡΙΠΠΑ (“coin of the King Agrippa”).

In order to emphasize his close ties to the Roman emperor, Agrippa labelled himself in many coin legends as ΦΙΛΟΚΑΙΣΑΡ (“friend of the emperor”). The connection between Agrippa and Rome is also demonstrated through a depiction together with Claudius at a sacrifice (No.2B). The same was true for coins of Agrippa’s brother Herod (No.7A and No.8A), who had been named King of Chalcis by Claudius and who likewise showed himself on coins as a “friend of the emperor”.

Agrippa not only employed Roman numismatic iconography to emphasize his closeness to the imperial family, he also sought to present his own family members similarly, as a coin type from the early period of his reign documents. The coin No.3B shows Agrippa’s son, Herod Agrippa II, on horseback. In the portrayal of the rider, this motif closely follows a prototype from the city of Rome (No.9A), on which the sons of Germanicus are presented to the Roman public as young princes. The idea of succession was also unquestionably decisive in Agrippa’s modified appropriation of this coin type. Coin No.4A shows the portrait of his son Agrippa I with an anchor, the Seleucid symbol of rule: Agrippa used both current and traditional pictorial codes with great skill to present his son to the public as the sole legitimate heir.

The only coin type that he had minted in Jerusalem is characteristic of Agrippa’s canny approach (No.5B): in consideration of the minting location, the Jewish prohibition on images was respected. In their place, the king’s name is written around a baldachin, symbolic of regality. The reverse shows three grain spikes, emblems of the fertility of the land. This stands in clear opposition to Agrippa’s depiction on coins from the pagan city Caesarea Maritima (No.6B). The draped bust of Agrippa I with a diadem and the legend ΒΑCΙΛΕΥC ΜEΓΑC ΑΓΡΙΠΠΑC ΦΙΛΟΚΑΙ[CΑΡ] (“the great king Agrippa, friend of the Emperor”) appears on the obverse of these coins. On the reverse, the legend ΚΑΙCΑΡΙΑ Η ΠΡΟC ΤΩ CΕΒΑCΤΩ ΛΙΜΗΝ[Ι] (“Caesarea with its nearby harbour Sebastos”) surrounds a standing female figure – the personification of the city and its harbour Sebastos.

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