Herod’s youngest surviving son, Antipas, was initially designated as his heir upon the execution of his half-brother, Antipater III. Before Herod’s death, however, he replaced Antipas with Archelaus. Upon the confirmation of Herod’s will by Caesar Augustus, Antipas became governor of Galilee and Perea. 

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After Tiberius became emperor, Antipas built a new capital for the two small provinces he governed on the sea of Galilee and named it Tiberius. To protect his southern boundary, he married the daughter of Aretas III, king of Petra. He later divorced her and married Herodias, the wife of his half-brother—the condemnation of which brought about John the Baptist’s death. 

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The people would never forgive him for the death of what they considered a prophet of God. The divorce and marriage to Herodias also broke the alliance with Aretas III, who delivered a significant defeat to him in 36 A.D. Worse, Caligula, the new emperor, named his brother-in-law, Agrippa I, “king”, but would not designate him so. Eventually, Caligula deposed him and exiled him to what is now Lyons, France, where he shortly died.

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