As elder son of Herod
by his favorite wife, the Hasmonean princess Mariamne,
Alexander was groomed to be his father's successor. But his
unrelenting resentment of Herod for ordering his mother's death (29 BCE)
led eventually to his own execution.
He was about 12
when Herod sent him & his younger brother
Aristobulus to
Rome for training in the court of Augustus (23 BCE). When the handsome youths
returned to Jerusalem 6
yrs. later, they quickly became favorites of the Jewish
public. Herod himself arranged
Alexander's marriage to
the daughter of the Cappadocian king, Archelaus. As a supportive
father-in-law, Archelaus often tried to reconcile Alexander to
his father.
But apprehensive
of the growing popularity of Mariamne's sons, Herod's sister
Salome &
brother Pheroras warned him that they were a personal threat to
him. The imperious
manner of Alexander & his brother, who had lived much of their lives at the very
center of Roman imperial power, frequently offended Herod &
fanned the
jealousy of their older half-brother, Antipater
III, who fed the aging king's fury with rumors of his
favored sons' disloyalty. Finally in 7 BCE, after many failed attempts at
reconciliation between the king & his presumed heirs, the ailing
Herod had Aristobulus & Alexander strangled on charges of treason
& elevated Antipater to the rank of his co-regent & heir
apparent.
References: Josephus,
Antiquities
15.342;
16.11,
66-135,
188-193,
300-334,
392-394.
_____, War
1.435-456,
467-551.
Other online
resources:
Perspective on the
World of Jesus 