Herod's
older sister played a major background role in the court intrigues that plagued the royal
family, since the king trusted her & was blind to her schemes right up to his death. Scorned by
Jerusalem's
aristocrats as the daughter of a commoner, Salome resented her
brother's alliance with the Hasmonean family & [according to Josephus]
relentlessly fed him rumors that eventually led him to execute his
young wife Mariamne
(29
BCE) & their two
sons (7
BCE), even though one
of them [Aristobulus
IV] had become her own
son-in-law. She encouraged Herod to favor his first son, Antipater
III, & even delayed the
latter's execution by daring Herod to kill her instead. But she
wisely disobeyed Herod's last command to execute the Judean elders
he had detained as soon as he died. In Augustus'
division of Herod's realm she received the coastal cities of
Jabneh, Azotas, Phaesalis & Askalon.
References:
Josephus, Antiquities
16.8-11,
66-73.
17.10-12,
44,
93,
138-141,
193-194,
220,
321.
Other resources on
line:
Perspective
on the World of Jesus 