Professor Benedict Eckhardt

There is a little bit of an effect to this in that apparently then this sways the council members.

Hykonis gets very, very worried and thinks that they are going to condemn Herod.

And so he arranges for Herod to flee.

When Herod has fled Jerusalem, he is worried that he's going to get summoned again to either the council or before Hyrcanus.

And this is when he starts to get a bit annoyed.

He believes at this point that Hyrcanus has turned against him and wants him condemned.

This is made fairly evident in our sources that this is not the case.

Hyrcanus is actually quite sympathetic to Herod.

He has this Roman pressure from Sextus Caesar that keeps coming through that Herod should not be condemned.

But for whatever reason, this is not quite translating to Herod.

And so he decides to march on Jerusalem.

This has an understandably worrying effect both on Hyrcanus and everyone else at Jerusalem as well, and indeed on Herod's family.

And he has to be talked down by his father and by his brother and persuaded to stand down and not to carry out an attack, which would have been absolutely disastrous.

The arguments that are used there are essentially, look, Hyrcanus is not against you.

Any plotting that has gone on is by these terrible advisors or by the council members and so on.

He has given you many benefits throughout your career.

He has supported you and you have been acquitted.

Leave it alone.

Stop.

And this is effective, but it is this hint at a slightly hot-headed young Herod, shall we say, in the way that he is making decisions and trying to react.