12. Upheaval in Palestine | Digitaler Ausstellungskatalog

Showcase 12: Dominion of the Herod Agrippa II (2nd Half of the 1st Century CE)

When Herod Agrippa died in 44 CE, his 16 or 17 year old son was living at the imperial court in Rome. As Herod Agrippa II was deemed by the Romans too young to follow his father on the throne, his dominion was declared a Roman province and placed under a procurator. Only on the death of his uncle Herod of Chalcis in 48-49 CE did Herod Agrippa II inherit his domain and was he named the religious leader of the Jews: he oversaw the Temple and was awarded the right to appoint high priests. Agrippa II probably remained in Rome until, in 53/54 CE, Emperor Claudius took back the region of Chalcis and instead transferred him the territory of the old Iturean kingdom, which had been partially ruled by Herod Philip and whose capital, Caesarea Philippi, he also made his own (Fig. A.). Only then, at 26 years of age, did he return to Palestine.

During the reign of Herod Agrippa II, social and religious tensions steadily increased in the Jewish populace, which was burdened with high taxes and sought its salvation in prophecies and messianic predictions. The Zealots under their leader John of Giscala witnessed particular influx: freedom and the sole kingship of god were their central causes. Agrippa II was unable to master the problems, and when the last procurator, Gessius Florus, plundered the Temple treasure in Jerusalem in 66 CE, open rebellion ensued.

Gessius Florus was expelled with the Roman troops from Jerusalem, whereupon Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, marched to Judea with the 12th Legion. He underestimated the situation there and suffered the only Roman defeat of this First Jewish War. Emperor Nero now charged the experienced general Vespasian with the suppression of the rebellion (Fig. B.).

In the spring of 67 CE, Vespasian moved from the north to Galilee with superior forces of 60,000 men, including three complete legions. He first captured the city of Yodfat under the Jewish commander of Galilee, Joseph ben Matityahu (38 – 100 CE). He deserted to the Roman side, changed his name to Flavius Josephus and became a companion of Vespasian, whom he followed to Rome (Fig. C.). In Rome, he composed several works of history, among them Antiquitates Iudaicae (Jewish Antiquities), the history of the Jewish people from the creation to his present. He considered a subject from contemporary history in his book De bello Iudaico (The Jewish War), which depicted the First Jewish War and also gives a literary justification for his defecting to the Romans.

In the textual record, Herod Agrippa II appears as ineffectual beside his sister Berenice (Chapter 11); he was also a hesitant participant in the war. It was reported, however, that he personally experienced the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple at the end of the First Jewish War in 70 CE, and that in 75 CE he was rewarded by Vespasian for his continuous support and loyalty to Rome with the title Pretorius and the region of Arca (Flavius Josephus, De bello Iudaico 3,57; 7,97). His domain afterwards contained the areas of Ulatha, Hermon, Abilene, parts of Galilee and Perea as well as Arca itself (Overview Map). When exactly Herod Agrippa II died is not clearly evident, though he is said to have died childless in the third year of the reign of the emperor Trajan, i.e. 100 CE. With him, the Herodian dynasty ended.

The Coinage of the last Herodian Sovereign

In contrast to his predecessors, Agrippa II minted considerably more coin types during his long reign. The minting of coins ceased during the First Jewish War and appears not to have been begun again before the early 70s. Afterwards, coins were minted irregularly until 95/96 CE. The majority of coins issued under Herod Agrippa II are dated to the years following the First Jewish War. The coins circulated primarily within his domain and were probably mostly struck in his capital Caesarea Philippi. Only occasional coins can be assigned to Herod Agrippa II from the period before the war, among them several from the city Sepphoris.

Sepphoris, in Galilee, had been completely destroyed after a rebellion in 4 CE by the Roman governor of Syria, Publius Quinctilius Varus, the general who a number of years later would meet defeat with his legions in the Teutoburg Forest. As Herod Agrippa II moved south with Vespasian toward Jerusalem in 67 CE, the meanwhile splendidly rebuilt city had allied itself with the Roman general in order to avoid another destruction. Here Vespasian established his headquarters and apparently had coins minted (No.1B), which were imitated by Agrippa II (No.2B).

The dating of a number of the pre-war coins is debated, as Herod Agrippa II employed a double chronology: year 11 (ΕΤΟΥC ΑΙ ΤΟΥ Κ) and the number 6 (ς) (No.3B and No.4A). When Agrippa’s kingdom was expanded by Nero and further areas came under his sovereignty, he placed two dates on the coins issued in 60/61 CE, corresponding to two different eras. One period was counted beginning with the year of his accession to the throne, i.e. from 49 CE (to which the “year 11” refers), while the second probably began in 53/54 CE (from which comes the “year 6”), the year in which Agrippa II returned to Palestine as king. Agrippa II’s Roman name is also documented on coin No.4A.

Shortly after the end of the war in 70 CE, Agrippa continued his coin production, which assumed a new appearance. The coins now bore portraits of the reigning emperors from Vespasian to Domitian (compare No.10A and No.12A), were labelled with Greek legends, and typically depicted Roman gods on their reverse sides (compare No.5B and No.11B). Not only were individual images imitated from Roman imperial coins (compare No.14B and No.15B with No.5B and No.11B), but certain types remained nearly unchanged and were only re-struck with Greek legends (compare No.9B with No.16B).

Unusual motifs also occasionally emerge in the coins of Herod Agrippa II, for instance a depiction of the god Pan that refers to the centuries-old sanctuary of Pan in the city Caesarea Philippi (originally Paneas) (No.13B). Depictions from the Hellenistic-Greek past were likewise employed (No.7B).

In addition to Agrippa’s own coins, the regional money supply of Palestine under the Flavian emperors was guaranteed through issues from cities including Gaza, Ashkelon, Neapolis, Sebaste, Caesarea Maritima, and Gaba. The most common coins in silver and bronze, which circulated throughout Palestine during this period, came from Antiochia on the Orontes, the capital of the Syrian province.

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