HERODIAS, the daughter of Aristobulus and Berenice, sister to King Agrippa, and grand-daughter to Herod the Great. Her first husband was her uncle Herod Philip, by whom she had Salome. Herodias having hearkened to the propositions which were made to her by Herod Antipas her uncle, Tetrarch of Galilee, of marrying her at his return from Rome, she removed from Philip’s house into that of Antipas, together with her daughter Salome. And as St. John the Baptist at all opportunities Matth. xiv. 3.censured this incestuous marriage, Antipas ordered him to be put in prison, and some Mark vi. 17. Hieron. in Rufin. l. 3. c. 11. p. 247.time after Herodias suggested to her daughter Salome to ask John the Baptist’s head of the King. Thus this holy man was beheaded; and St. Jerom relates, that this woman, holding his head in her hands, pierced his tongue with her bodkin, in like manner as Antony’s wife served Cicero’s.
Antiq. l. 18. c. 9. In the year of Jesus Christ 39.Herodias not enduring with patience to see her husband Tetrarch only, while her brother Agrippa, whom she had known in a state of indigence and humiliation, was honoured with the title of King, persuaded her husband Antipas to go to Rome, and desire the Emperor Caïus to grant him the same favour, which he had bestowed upon Agrippa. But Agrippa, moved by a still meaner degree of jealousy, at the same time sent his servant with letters to the Emperor, importing that Herod had in his arsenals wherewithal to arm seventy thousand men. Antipas not being able to deny this fact, was immediately banished to Lions. Caïus understanding that Herodias, who had accompanied her husband in this journey, was sister to Agrippa, shewed an inclination to pardon her: but she chose rather to follow her husband in the calamity which she had brought upon him, than to owe any thing to her brother’s fortune. See the Article HEROD ANTIPAS, that of AGRIPPA, and that of HEROD PHILIP.