King of Israel: Antigonus

With his father, Aristobulus II, Antigonus was taken prisoner by Pompey and held in Rome until his escape and return to Judea. He recognized his uncle Hyrcanus II as but a puppet of the Idumean advisor Antipater II, and so initiated a series of futile rebellions against Roman rule during his father’s period as a hostage in Rome.

With the murder of Antipater, Antigonus made a last-ditch effort to wrest control of Judea, but was defeated in battle by Antipater’s younger son Herod. Not giving up, the opportunistic Antigonus allied himself with the Parthians who were challenging Rome for sovereignty over the Levant. The Parthians conquered Jerusalem in 40 B.C.E., removed Hyrcanus from the high priesthood, took Herod’s older brother Phasael hostage, and installed Antigonus as nominal monarch over Judea.

Herod fled and garnered the support of Roman general Marc Antony, who defeated the Parthians, leaving a vulnerable Antigonus to be captured in Jerusalem by Herod and transferred to the Romans at Antioch, where he was decapitated, the first such instance of Rome beheading a conquered king.