Antipater the Idumaean (jul 1, 114 BC – mar 1, 43 BC)

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Antipater I the Idumaean (born 113 or 114 BCE, died 43 BCE) was the founder of the Herodian Dynasty and father of Herod the Great. According to Josephus, he was the son of Antipas and had formerly held that name.

A native of Edom, southeast of Judah between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, which under the Romans came to be known as Idumaea, Antipater became a powerful official under the later Hasmonean kings and subsequently became a client of the Roman general Pompey the Great when Pompey conquered Judah in the name of Roman Republic.

When Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, Antipater rescued Caesar in Alexandria, and was made chief minister of Judea, as Judah became known to the Romans, with the right to collect taxes. Antipater eventually made his sons Phasaelus and Herod the governors of Jerusalem and Galilee, respectively.
After the assassination of Caesar, Antipater was forced to side with Gaius Cassius Longinus against Mark Antony. The pro-Roman politics of Antipater led to his increasing unpopularity among the devout, non-Hellenised Jews. He died by poison.

The diplomacy and artful politics of Antipater, as well as his insinuation into the Hasmonean court, paved the way for the rise of his son Herod the Great, who used this position to marry the Hasmonean princess Mariamne, endear himself to Rome and become king of Judea under Roman influence.

Josephus explains that Antipater's family converted to Judaism during the forced conversions by the Sadducee-influenced Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus (r. 134-104 BCE). Hyrcanus threatened that any Idumeaan who wished to maintain their land would need to be circumcised and enter into the traditions of the Jews.
Josephus acknowledges Herod as being "by birth a Jew" and Antipater as being "of the same people" with the Jews.
Nevertheless, this influential family came to be resented by many Jews for their Edomite ancestry, a fact used by the Hasmoneans and their supporters against them. As such, in a polemic against Herod to discredit him in the eyes of the Romans as unfit to become king of the Jews, Antigonus the Hasmonean is quoted by Josephus as referring to Herod as "no more than a private man, and an Idumean, i.e. a half Jew"..

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