PHILIP HEROD. - Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great and of Cleopatra of Jerusalem. He was designated tetrarch in his father's will. The regions of his tetrarchy were: 1) Iturea (Lk. 3:1; Josephus does not use this name; the inhabitants of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon were called Itureans); 2) Trachonitis (the name by which Josephus designates the whole of Philip's territories); 3) Gaulanitis (the region near the Sea of Galilee); 4) Batanea, that is, Bashan; 5) Auranitis, that is, the present-day region of Hawrān. In substance his tetrarchy extended from the mountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon toward the south-east, below Damascus, as far as the mountainous ridge of Hawrān, including the regions situated to the east of the Sea of Galilee, the least Judaized of the area.
He was a good prince (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 4, 6). He rebuilt Bethsaida to the east of the Sea of Galilee and called it Julia, and there he built his tomb. He enlarged the city of Paneion, where his father had already expanded a temple in honor of Augustus, and called it Caesarea, later called Philippi to distinguish it from the other one built by Herod the Great (cf. Mt. 16:13). In advanced age he married Salome, daughter of Herodias and of his namesake brother Philip, who was about thirty years younger than he (Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 5, 4). First among the Herodian princes he struck coins with the effigy of Augustus and of Tiberius.
He died in the 20th year of Tiberius after 37 years of rule, that is, between A.D. 33 and 34. His territory was annexed to the province of Syria, but shortly afterward it was given by Caligula to king Herod Agrippa I.
Bibliography2 works
Giuseppe Ricciotti