PHILIP HEROD. — Son of Herod the Great and Mariamne II, husband of Herodias. He is called only P. in Mk 6:17, while Flavius Josephus (Ant. Jud., XVIII, 5, 1. 4; Bell. Jud., I, 28, 2) calls him only Herod; it is more than probable that he bore both names, which was normal in the Herodian family. Nor is it an obstacle that he had another brother named P. (i.e., the tetrarch) and another named Herod (full brother of tetrarch P.), since the other two brothers, Antipas and Antipater, also had identical names (Antipas is the same name as Antipater). In Herod the Great’s first will he had been designated as heir in case Antipater should die first. He lived privately in Rome with his wife Herodias (v.) when he offered hospitality to his brother Antipas. After his wife’s departure nothing more is known of him.
PHILIP HEROD. — Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great and the Jerusalemite Cleopatra. He was expressly named tetrarch in his father’s will. The regions of his tetrarchy were: 1) Ituraea (Lk 3:1; Flavius Josephus does not use this name; the inhabitants of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon were called Itureans); 2) Trachonitis (the name Flavius Josephus gives to the whole territory of Philip); 3) Gaulanitis (the region near the Sea of Tiberias); 4) Batanea, i.e., Bashan; 5) Auranitis, i.e., the modern region of Hawran. In short, his tetrarchy extended from the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges southeastward below Damascus as far as the Hawran upland, including the districts east of the Sea of Tiberias, the least populous parts of the area.
He was a good prince (Flavius Josephus, Ant. Jud., XVIII, 4, 6). He renamed Bethsaida, east of the Sea of Tiberias, as Julia and built his own tomb there. He enlarged the city of Paneas, where his father had already enlarged a temple in honor of Augustus, and renamed it Caesarea, later called Philip’s to distinguish it from the other city built by Herod the Great (cf. Mt 16:13). In advanced age he married Salome, daughter of Herodias and his own half-brother Philip Herod, who was about thirty years younger than he (Ant. Jud., XVIII, 5, 4). The first among the Herodian princes to strike coins bearing the effigy of Augustus and Tiberius.
He died in the year 20 of Tiberius after 37 years of rule, i.e., between AD 33 and 34. His territory was annexed to the province of Syria, but shortly afterward was given by Caligula to King Herod Agrippa I.