HEROD MURDERS HIS BEAUTIFUL WIFE

'Mariamme Leaving the Judgement Seat of Herod'
John William Waterhouse, 1887

After the murder of her young brother at the palace at Jericho, things were never the same between King Herod and his beautiful young wife Mariamme. She tried to believe Herod's story that the death had been a horrible accident, but his version of events stretched credibility.

She had already made powerful enemies - especially Salome, Herod's sister (not the famous, later Salome who danced for Herod Antipas).

Eventually, in Jerusalem, things came to a head. Mariamme was accused of adultery - a patently trumped up lie. She was found guilty and quickly strangled.

Josephus notes that she died with great courage - 'she went to her death with an unshaken firmness of mind, and without changing the color of her face, thereby showing the nobility of her descent, even in the last moments of her life.'  (Josephus, Antiquities, 15:7:5)

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