AGRIPPA I (Marcus Julius; or Herod Agrippa). - Jewish king, who lived between 10/9 B.C. and 44 A.D., 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 the disfavor of Caesar, 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 the death of Tiberius and the succession of his friend Caligula, he was kept in chains for six months. On the death of Tiberius (16 March 37), Caligula crowned him king of the tetrarchies of Philip (Batanea, Ituraea, Trachonitis) and of Lysanias (v. ABILENE) and the regions annexed in Lebanon, conferring on him the praetorian insignia. In the second year of Caligula he was mocked at Alexandria by the Hellenists in the guise of the fool Carabas. In 39 he received the tetrarchy (Galilee, Perea) and the private property of Antipas, whom he had accused. Then he was again in Rome and dissuaded the emperor from placing his statue in the temple of Jerusalem.
On the death of Caligula (24 Jan. 41), Claudius, who owed to A. his rise to the empire, obtained in the Senate, added Judea and Samaria to his kingdom. A. thus had all the territories of Herod the Great. Having arrived in Jerusalem, he suspended in the temple precinct the golden chain given him by Caligula, chose as high priest Simon, son of Boethos, and lightened the taxes. To make Jerusalem impregnable and to enclose the quarter of Bezetha he began the construction of the third wall, furnished with solid towers. Claudius ordered its suspension. To ingratiate himself with the Jews he struck the apostolic Church in its leaders: he killed James, son of Zebedee, and imprisoned Peter. Having sought him in vain after the miraculous liberation, he went down to Caesarea, where spectacles were being celebrated for the health of Claudius, victorious over the Britons. Here, while, seated on his throne and at the height of his power, he was made the object of blatant flatteries, irreverent toward the majesty of God, he was seized by very sharp visceral pains. The illness having worsened and he being eaten by worms, he died, according to Flavius Josephus, within five days, at the age of 54 (cf. Acts 12:1-23). Both Flavius Josephus and Luke see in this a divine punishment for not having given honor to God. He had reigned seven years: three under Caligula, four under Claudius.
Bibliography
Bonaventura Mariani