HER 
calamities, uniting with a ruined.conftitution, threw He¬ 
rod into a mortal difeafe, attended with loathfome fymp- 
toms, attributed to the juft judgment of heaven. A 
premature report of his death caufed a tumult in Jeru- 
f'alem ; but he had vigour enough to punifti the muti¬ 
neers. He alfo caufed. the fentence againft Antipater 
to be put in execution ; and he bequeathed his kingdom 
to his fon Archelaus. He had fummoned the chief per- 
Tons among the Jews to Jericho, where he caufed them 
to be ftiut up in the circus; and gave ftrirt orders to his 
■fifter Salome to have them all maflacred as foon as he 
ihould have drawn his laft breath. Her prudence or 
liuipanity, however, prevented this horrid aft from tak¬ 
ing place. Herod died in the thirty-fourth year of his 
reign, and fixty-eighth of his age. He received a moft 
magnificent funeral ; but his cruelties have configned 
his memory to deteftation; while his great talents, and 
the glories of his reign, have placed him high in the 
rank of fovereigns. 
HER'OD ANTIPAS, the tetrarch, fon of the pre¬ 
ceding, fucceeded at his father's death to the pofleflion 
of the greater part of Galilee and the countries beyond 
the Jordan. He married for his firft wife the daughter 
of Aretas, an Arabian king; but afterwards falling in 
love with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, and 
the grand-daughter of his father, he carried her away and 
married her, having divorced his former wife. This 
involved him in a war with Aretas, which lafted four 
years to Herod’s difadvantage. His inceftuous marriage 
with Herodias was difapproved by his nation, and drew 
upon him the reproaches of John the Baptift, which 
caufed the imprisonment of that moft renowned fore¬ 
runner of Chrift. Herodias, not content with this pu- 
nilhment, inftigated her daughter Salome, at a time 
■when Herod, delighted with her dancing before him, 
had promifed to grant any boon file might alk of him, 
to requeft the head of John; and Herod unwillingly 
complied. When Jefus had been brought by the Jews 
before Pilate, that Roman governor, learning that he 
was born within Herod’s jurifdiftion, fent him to the 
tetrarch. Herod, who had heard the report of his mira¬ 
culous works, was glad of this opportunity pf interro¬ 
gating him ; but, being unable to obtain an anfwer to 
any of his queftions, he remanded him to Pilate. The 
ambition of Herodias ftimulated her hufband to a mea- 
fure which proved his ruin. His nephew, Herod-Agrip- 
pa, had obtained regal honours from the favour of Cali¬ 
gula. In order to vie with him in this refpeft, Herod, 
with his wife, went to Rome, where Agrippa met him 
with an accufation of having been concerned in the 
confpiracy of Sejanus, and having made a fecret league 
with the king of Parthia. Upon this he was ftript of 
his dominions, and fent with his wife into exile at Ly¬ 
ons, or according to fome into Spain, where he died, 
after having poflefled his tetrarchy forty-three years. 
To the credit of Herodias, it is recorded, that although 
a pardon was offered to her, as being the fifter of Agrip¬ 
pa, fhe refufed to abandon her hufband, and determin¬ 
ed to partake of the fate which fhe had brought upon 
him. 
HERO'DIAN, a Greek hiftorian, who flourifhed from 
the reign of Commodus to that of the third Gordian; 
and compofed the hiftory of the Roman emperors from 
the death of Marcus Antoninus to the accefiion of Gor¬ 
dian III. in eight books, comprifing a fpace of near fe- 
venty years. This work was firft tranflated into Latin 
by Angelus Politianus ; and various other editions have 
been given; of which one of the beft is the Oxford, in 
Greek and Latin, 8vo. 1699, 1708. 
Herodian the Grammarian , of Alexandria, fon of 
Apollonius Dyfcolus, of whom there remain fome frag¬ 
ments on profody, printed in the colleftion of Greek 
grammarians by Aldus, is fuppofed by Fabricius to 
have been a different and an earlier writer. 
HERO'DIANS, a feft among the Jews at the time of 
«*ur Saviour; mentioned Matth, xxii. 16. Markiii. 6. 
Vox.. IX, No. 630. 
HER 
, Critics and commentators have been much divided with 
regard to them. St. Jerom, in bis Dialogue againft the 
Luciferians, takes the name to have been given to fuch 
as owned Herod for the Mefliah ; and Tertullian and 
Epiphanius are of the fame opinion. Yet the fame Je¬ 
rom, in his Comment on St. Matthew, treats this opi¬ 
nion as ridiculous; and maintains, that the Pharifees 
gave the appellation by way of ridicule to Herod’s fol- 
diers who paid tribute to the Romans; agreeably to 
which the Syrian interpreters render the word by domif- 
tics of Herod, i.e. “his courtiers.” M. Simon, in his 
notes on the 22d chapter of Matthew, advances a more 
probable opinion. The name Herodian he imagines to 
have been given to fuch as adhered to Herod’s party 
and intereft; and were for preferving the government in 
his family; concerning which there were great divifions 
among the Jews. 
HERO'DIAS, the name of a woman. 
HERO'DION, a man’s name. 
HEROD OTUS, the oldeft and moft celebrated of the 
Greek hiftorians now extant ; called by Cicero, the Fa¬ 
ther of Hi/lory; born at Halicarnaflus in Caria, in the 
firft year of the feventy-'fourth Olympiad, or before 
Chrift 484. He departed from his native place while it 
was under the tyranny of Lygdamis grandfon of queen 
Artemifia, and travelled for the acquifition of know¬ 
ledge into various parts of Greece, Thrace, Scythia, 
Mefopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, collefting everywhere 
all the information he could obtain concerning the hif¬ 
tory and origin of nations. He is fuppofed to have rer 
tired to the ifle of Samos for the compofition of his hif¬ 
tory, and afterwards to have revifited Halicarnaffus, and 
affifted in overthrowing the tyrannical government which 
had for years eftablifhed itfelf in his native city. He 
was in his thirty-ninth year when the generous defire .of 
fame led him publicly to recite his hiftory before the 
grand aflembly of his nation at the Olympic games. It 
was heard with great applaufe, and caufed him to be uni- 
verfally admired and commended throughout the Gre* 
cian ftates. The other events of his life are little known. 
He appears in the latter part of it to have been a refi- 
dent of Thulium, in Magna Graecia. He furvived ta 
the Peloponnefian war, and his death is placed about 
the year 413 before Chrift. The Hiftory of Herodotus 
is comprifed in nine books, diftinguifhed by the names 
of the nine mufes; but who firft gave them thefe ap¬ 
pellations is uncertain. They comprehend the prin¬ 
cipal events of the wars of the Perfians againft the 
Greeks, during a period of about two hundred and forty 
years, from Cyrus the Great to Xerxes; and con¬ 
tain, befides the tranfaftions between Perfiaand Greece, 
an account of the moft celebrated nations in the 
world. The ftyle of Herodotus has always been ad¬ 
mired for its elegant eafe and fweetnefs. Cicero com¬ 
pares its courfe to that of the waters of a fmooth river. 
It excels chiefly in narration ; but wants force and con- 
cifenefs in fentiment and remark. Its dialert is the 
Ionic. With refpert to the matter of this hiftorian, it 
has been the fubjert of difeuflion almoft ever fince the 
firft appearance of his work ; fome having placed great 
confidence in his authority, and others regarded him as 
oftentimes fabulous. With refpert to thofe great tranf* 
artions which took place in Greece after his own birth* 
he is generally thought to be deferving of full credit; 
and the publication of his work, at a general aflembly 
of the nation, is confidered as a voucher for his vera. 
city ; and hence his work is juftly accounted one of the 
moft precious relics of antiquity. His promifed hiftory 
of Aflyria feepis never to have been finithed. A Life 
of Homer, under his name, is fuppofed by critics to have 
been compofed by fome later writer. Many editions 
have been given of the works of Herodotus; two by 
H. Stephens, 1570, 1592; one by Gale, Lond. 1679; 
one by Gronovius, Leyd. 1715. The beft is faid to be 
that of Wefleling, Amft. 1763, folio. He has been tranf. 
lated twice into Englilh, by Littlebury, and by Beloe; 
9 Z and 
