HERODIAS. - Daughter of Aristobulus, son of Herod the Great. She married her uncle Herod Philip, son of Herod the Great and of Mariamne II, daughter of the high priest Simon.
Herod Antipas (v.), the tetrarch, having come to Rome and been hosted by the aforementioned his brother Herod Philip, who lived there with his wife H., fell in love with her, promised to repudiate his own wife, daughter of the king of the Nabataean Arabs Aretas IV, and to marry her. But the legitimate wife, having learned of her husband's intentions, fled to her father before being repudiated; soon H., driven by ambition, went to live with the tetrarch, taking with her her own daughter Salome. Against this adultery John the Baptist protested publicly, and he was imprisoned.
But H. was watching for an opportunity to take revenge: since Antipas during a banquet for his birthday had promised Salome whatever she wished as a reward for her dances, the girl, on her mother's advice, asked for the head of John, who was immediately beheaded (Mk. 6:17-29; Mt. 24:3-12): this happened in the fortress of Machaerus. Although Flavius Josephus gives only the political reason as the cause of the Baptist's imprisonment and death, this does not exclude the other one given by the gospels.
When Agrippa, H.'s brother, was made king by Caligula, H. could not bear that Antipas should remain a mere tetrarch, and urged him to go with her to the Emperor to obtain that title. Appearing before Caligula at Baiae, Antipas found himself faced with an accusation of treason brought against him by Agrippa, from which he could not defend himself. He was therefore deposed and sent into exile at Lyon. H. did not accept the pardon offered her by Caligula and followed Antipas into exile. Nothing is known of their end.
Giuseppe Ricciotti