or HEROD-ANTIPAS, the son of Herod the Great, by one of his wives called Cleopatra, a Antipas native of Jerusalem. Herod the Great, in his first will, appointed Antipas his successor in the kingdom; but afterwards altering that will, he named his son Archelaus his successor, giving to Antipas the title only of tetrarch of Galilee and Persea.

Antipas took a great deal of pains in adorning and fortifying the principal places of his dominions. He married the daughter of Aretas king of Arabia, whom he divorced about the year of Christ 33, to marry his sister-in-law Herodias, wife to his brother Philip, who was still living. St John the Baptist exclaiming continually against this incest, was, by order of Antipas, imprisoned in the castle of Machaerus. Josephus says that Antipas caused St John to be laid hold of because he drew too great a concourse of people after him; and that he was afraid lest he should make use of the authority which he had acquired over the minds and affections of the people to induce them to revolt. But the evangelists, who were better informed than Josephus, as being eye-witnesses of what passed, and acquainted in a particular manner with St John and his disciples, assure us that the true reason of imprisoning St John was the aversion which Herod and Herodias had conceived against him for the liberty he had used in censuring their scandalous marriage. The virtue and holiness of St John were such that even Herod feared and respected him; but his passion for Herodias would have induced him to kill that prophet, had he not been restrained by his apprehensions of the people, who esteemed John the Baptist as a prophet. (Matt. xiv. 5, 6.) One day, however, while the king was celebrating the festival of his birth with the principal persons of his court, the daughter of Herodias danced before him, and pleased him so well, that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask of him. By her mother's advice she asked the head of John the Baptist; upon which the king commanded John to be beheaded in prison, and the head to be given her. Aretas, king of Arabia, to revenge the affront which Herod had offered to his daughter, declared war against him, and overcame him in a very obstinate engagement. Herod being afterwards detected as a party in Sejanus's conspiracy, was banished by the emperor Caius to Lyons in Gaul, whither Herodias accompanied him. The time when he died is not known; however, it is certain he died in exile, as well as Herodias.