AGRIPPA I (Marcus Iulius; or HEROD AGRIPPA). — A Jewish king, who lived between 10/9 B.C. and A.D. 44, of the Herodian dynasty, son of Aristobulus and Berenice. He was educated in Rome at the imperial court. He had three daughters, Berenice, Mariamne, and Drusilla, and two sons, Agrippa II and Drusus. To escape his creditors and Caesar’s displeasure, he fled from Rome to Malatha in Idumea. His wife obtained for him from Antipas a pension and the office of agoranomos (aedile) at Tiberias.
After various adventures and flights, he returned to the imperial court; but, accused of having expressed the wish for Tiberius’s death and the succession of his friend Caligula, he was kept in chains for six months. When Tiberius died (16 March 37), Caligula crowned him king of the tetrarchies of Philip (Batanea, Iturea, Trachonitis) and of Lysanias (v. ABILENE), as well as of the regions annexed in Lebanon, conferring upon him the praetorian insignia. In the second year of Caligula, he was mocked at Alexandria by the Hellenists in the guise of the idiot Carabas. In 39 he received the tetrarchy (Galilee, Peraea) and the private possessions of Antipas, whom he had accused. He then returned once more to Rome and dissuaded the emperor from placing his statue in the Temple of Jerusalem.
When Caligula died (24 January 41), Claudius, who owed his accession to the empire to A.’s action in the Senate, added Judaea and Samaria to his kingdom. A. thus possessed all the territories of Herod the Great. On arriving in Jerusalem, he suspended in the Temple precinct the golden chain given to him by Caligula, appointed Simon, son of Boethus, high priest, and reduced the tributes. To make Jerusalem impregnable and enclose the quarter of Bezetha, he began the construction of the third wall, equipped with strong towers. Claudius ordered its suspension. To win the favour of the Jews, he struck at the Apostolic Church through its leaders: he killed James, son of Zebedee, and imprisoned Peter. After searching for him without success following his miraculous deliverance, he went down to Caesarea, where games were being held for the health of Claudius, victorious over the Britons. There, while seated on his throne and at the height of his power, he was the object of blatant adulation, irreverent toward the majesty of God, and was seized by the most excruciating visceral pains. As the illness worsened and he was consumed by worms, he died, according to Flavius Josephus, after five days, at the age of 54 (cf. Act. 12, 1-23). Both Flavius Josephus and Luke see in this a divine punishment for failing to give honour to God. He had reigned for seven years: three under Caligula and four under Claudius.