ABSTRACT
After the Parthian victory, Herod set off for Rome to meet Mark Antony who had secured the eastern provinces from Octavian in the division of the empire. Through Mark Antony’s influence the Roman government made a treaty with Herod establishing him as king of Judaea. By this means the Romans hoped to depose Antigonus, the nominee of the Parthians. With a Roman army Herod conquered Judaea; after a fivemonth siege Jerusalem fell in 37 BCE. Herod unified the country by incorporating Samaria, and replaced the council of elders by an advisory body similar to the privy councils of Hellenistic monarchs. Remembering that the Great Sanhedrin had previously censured him and had also supported the cause of Antigonus against his own, Herod executed forty-five of its seventy-one members, including many Sadducees who supported the Hasmonean dynasty. He did, however, spare the two leaders of the Great Sanhedrin – the Pharisees Hillel and Shammai – who continued to exert a profound influence through their schools on the direction of Pharisaic thought.
