Herodes el grande: Una cuerda tendida entre la creatividad arquitectónica y la dominación romana

Abstract

Known as Herod the Great or Herod I, to differentiate him from the other three, which are mentioned in the Bible, he was king of Judea, Galilee, Samaria and Idumea between the years 37 a. C. and 4 a. C. being a vassal king, who was at the service of the interests of Rome, establishing a government that was marked by terror, cruelty and persecution of priests, members of the aristocracy, detractors of his regime and even relatives, who did not agree with his way of governing, or put his power as king at risk. Fearing an ancient prophecy that spoke of the birth of a Jewish king in Bethlehem, Herod reached the extreme of his cruelty and ordered the murder of all children under two years of age, who had been born in that town and its surroundings, to end once and for all, with that uproar, which had been armed by that ancient messianic prophecy. The cruelty of Herod the great was inversely proportional to his creative and architectural spirit, carrying out great constructions, among which the following stand out: The expansion of the Second Temple of Jerusalem (the Temple of Herod), the construction of the port of Caesarea Maritima and the fortresses of Masada and Herodion. Although it is true that the historical and biblical accounts present Herod the Great as a ruthless, cruel and criminal being, it is also true that he made great and powerful constructions, which generated great architectural development and which allow a closer approach to the context historical, political, social and archaeological of the first years of the life of Jesus”.