**HERODIAS** – Daughter of Aristobulus, son of Herod the Great. She married her uncle Herod Philip, son of Herod the Great and Mariamne II, daughter of the high priest Simon.
Herod Antipas (q.v.), the third, went to Rome and was hosted by his aforementioned brother Herod Philip, who lived there with his wife Herodias. Antipas fell in love with her, promised to divorce his own wife (the daughter of the Nabatean king Aretas IV) and to marry Herodias. But the legitimate wife, learning of her husband’s intentions, fled to her father before being repudiated. Soon Herodias, driven by ambition, went to live with the tetrarch, bringing her daughter Salome with her. The public protest against this adultery was made by John the Baptist, who was imprisoned.
Herodias, however, watched for an opportunity to take revenge. During a banquet for Herod’s birthday, Antipas promised Salome anything she desired as a reward for her dancing. The girl, at her mother’s suggestion, asked for the head of John, who was immediately beheaded (Mt 6:17–29; Mt 14:3–12). This took place in the fortress of Machaerus. Although Flavius Josephus gives only a political reason for the imprisonment and death of the Baptist, this does not exclude the other reason given in the Gospels.
When Agrippa, Herodias’s brother, was made king by Caligula, Herodias could not bear that Antipas remained a mere tetrarch, and she urged him to go with her to the Emperor to obtain that title. When they presented themselves before Caligula, Herodias and Antipas were accused of treason by Agrippa and could not defend themselves. Antipas was therefore deposed and sent into exile at Lyons. Herodias refused the pardon offered by Caligula and followed Antipas into exile. Nothing is known of their end.