Palestine*

Since 142 BC when the Jews won the so-called Maccabean Revolt against the Hellenistic Seleucids, Palestine had been ruled by the Hasmonean family. Especially under Hyrcanus I, the Hasmoneans had gone on to conquer the Idumeans and subjected them to conversion to Judaism, retaken Samaria, the Transjordan, and much else beside, so that its territorial range compared favourably with that of David or, perhaps, even Solomon.

Judea would see in the 1st Cent BC one of the most capable rulers of the Hasmonean dynasty, a woman by the name of Salome Alexander, wife of Alexander Janneus, but also one of the most inapt, Hyrcanus II. The tussle for power between Hyrcanus II and his more capable younger brother Aristobulus would eventually hand the kingdom to the Romans, when Pompey Magnus stepped into the quarrel and simply took the nation for Rome. In the midst of this power struggle, a highly intelligent and opportunistic Idumean named Antipater, who had been taken in by Hyrcanus as an advisor, early saw which way the wind was blowing and placed himself and his sons —most notably Herod the Great—in the most favourable position to ride ts jetstream to power and landing up eventually as "King of the Jews."

* Palestine is here used in the geographical sense, and should not be construed in anyway with modern Palestine.