Cleopatra of Jerusalem

Cleopatra of Jerusalem was a woman who lived in the 1st century BC during the Roman Empire. She was the fifth wife of King of Judea Herod the Great.[1]

There is a possibility that Cleopatra could have been a daughter of a local noble from Jerusalem. She was born and raised in the city and could have been of Jewish or Edomite-Phoenician origins . Cleopatra was called Cleopatra of Jerusalem, to distinguish her from the Ptolemaic Greek Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

Josephus mentions "Cleopatra of Jerusalem" twice: once in his Antiquities of the Jews 17.1.3 and once in his Jewish War 1.28.4. Cleopatra of Jerusalem was not related to the Hasmonaean Dynasty . She had married King Herod the Great in 25 BC.[2] Herod most probably married her as a part of a political alliance.

Cleopatra bore Herod two sons who were:

Cleopatra’s children by Herod were raised and educated in Rome. After the death of her husband in 4 BC, her second son inherited some of his father’s dominion and ruled as a Roman client king until his death in 34.[3] Cleopatra became the mother-in-law of Philip’s wife and niece Salome. Philip and Salome had no children.

References

  1. ↑ Christian-Georges Schwentzel, Hérode le Grand, Pygmalion, Paris, 2011, p. 213.
  2. ↑ Peter Richardson, Herod: King of the Jews and friend of the Romans, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999, p. xviii.
  3. 1 2 Christian-Georges Schwentzel, "Hérode le Grand", Pygmalion, Paris, 2011, p. 212.

Sources

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