The advent of Caligula to the throne allowed Agrippa to become king of Batanea, Trachonitis, Gaulanitis, Auranitis, Paneas and Iturea in 37 by obtaining the old tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias, then Galilee and Perea in 40 following the disgrace of his uncle, Herod Antipas.

His parents marked the Roman status of this Jewish prince by giving him the name of a close collaborator of Emperor Augustus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.

[1] In 5 BC, two years after the condemnation of his father,[3] the young Agrippa was sent by Herod the Great to the imperial court of Rome[4] in the company of Berenice as well as his brothers and sisters.

[12] Shortly after, he was disgraced following an intervention by his brother Aristobulus Minor, who denounced him to Flaccus for having received a bribe to defend the interests of Damascus against Sidon in a border dispute brought before his legate friend.

[15] Agrippa borrowed the sum of 20,000 drachmas[16] to embark at Anthedon for Alexandria,[15] after having been reminded by the Roman governor of Yavne, Herennius Capiton, for the debts contracted vis-à-vis the treasury of the empire.

[15] Antonia undertook to win the favors and friendship of Caius, imitated in this by another prince without a kingdom, Antiochos of Commagene,[13] and managed to contract a loan of one million drachmas from a Samaritan freedman of the emperor to carry out his project with the rising star of Rome.

[22] He granted him, in addition to the title of king and the diadem which was its sign, the territories of Philip, who had died shortly before,[15] tetrarch of Iturea, Trachonitis, Batanea, Gaulanitis, Auranitis and Paneas,[11] located northeast of the lake of Tiberias.

"[22] According to Josephus, after he placed the royal diadem on the head of Agrippa I, Caligula sent Marullus as "hipparch (ἱππάρχης) of Judea" to replace Pontius Pilate, who had been dismissed by Lucius Vitellius and had just arrived in Rome.

It is possible that Aretas took advantage of Antipas' participation in the great conference on the Euphrates, to conceal peace and the Roman victory over Artabanus (autumn 36), to launch his offensive.

[42] Certain Church Fathers, as well as the Mandaean tradition and in particular one of their writings, the Haran-Gawaita, provide indications according to which it could be Dositheos of Samaria who succeeded to the head of the movement of John the Baptist after his execution, for he was one of his disciples.

[45] When the death of Tiberius was announced at Pentecost in 37, Vitellius, reluctant to support Antipas with his troops,[46] interrupted the march of his two legions against Aretas, considering that he could no longer wage war without orders from the new emperor.

[53] During festivities, Agrippa was the target of a popular anti-Jewish masquerade featuring an idiot nicknamed Karabas,[Note 3] foreshadowing the Jewish-Alexandrian conflict that agitated the city from 38 to 41.

[Note 4] In the letter he accuses Antipas of fomenting a plot with the Parthians and of having accumulated, without informing the emperor, stocks of arms in his arsenals in Tiberias, probably with the intention of preparing his revenge against Aretas who had defeated him a few years earlier.

According to Josephus, it is possible that the emperor was sensitive to the arguments of the delegation of Greeks from Alexandria led by Apion who, in the conflict between the two parties, complained of the "privileges" granted to the Jews.

Caligula's initiative horrified the Jewish subjects of the empire and caused unrest in the diaspora in Rome as well as in Alexandria, Thessaloniki, Antioch and in Judea,[Note 5] particularly in Galilee.

Petronius disposes necessary armed troops—two Roman legions and auxiliaries—which he barracks at Ptolemais in Phoenicia in the event of an uprising,[60] and his mission was to accompany the procession of the statue—being made in Sidon—through Judea.

[57] After a few days of reflection, he took the side of his Jewish compatriots in the defense of the Temple threatened with desecration:[65] for Josephus, it was a discussion during a banquet;[66] for Philo, it was a request addressed to the emperor, the content of which he reports, although in terms that reveal a certain exaggeration of the role of Agrippa.

[73] He inspired Claudius with a response to the senators, "in conformity with the dignity of his power,"[75] and he persuaded them to wisely abandon their idea of a republic, arguing that a new emperor has been proclaimed by the praetorians—of whom he pointed out that 'they surround the meeting"—and expected nothing but their enthusiastic support.

[76] It was the same year that Berenice, daughter of Agrippa, united under the patronage of the emperor[77] to Marcus, the son of the alabarch of Alexandria, Alexander Lysimachus whom Claudius had freed from the captivity to which the reduced Caligula.

[82] However, this openness must be put into perspective, which is also reflected in the measures to limit worship against the Jews of Rome, as Cassius Dio reports (History, 60, 6, 6–7),[83] perhaps in reaction to the agitation resulting from the rapid development of the movement of the followers of Jesus and which would be evoked by the Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians.

[83] Claudius probably saw in the appointment of Agrippa—heir to the Herodians and the Hasmoneans but also attached to the Julio-Claudians by personal relations—a factor of stability which could rid the imperial administration of the management of a province with endemic troubles.

[85] He also undertook the major project of raising the ramparts of his historic capital[85] and extending it to the northern district[76] thanks to funding from the Temple treasury, which gave some of his Jewish subjects hope for the restoration of an independent kingdom.

[86] He continued the policy of euergetism external to Judea of Herod the Great[78] by financing the construction of prestigious works (theatre, amphitheater and baths) in liberalities which mainly benefited the Roman colony of Berytus,[85] without forgetting however the cities of Phoenicia and Syria.

Indeed, Agrippa invited to Tiberias Herod of Chalcis as well as three princes who had been his companions in Rome, Antiochos of Commagene, Cotys of Lesser Armenia and Polemon, king of Pontus.

Patronizing the games, he appeared there in dazzling silver finery in front of the crowd who acclaimed him and compared him to a god, a blasphemous remark for a Jew against which the king did not then protest.

[91] Several researchers believe that the poisoning by the Romans worried about his excessive political ambitions is likely,[78] even that it was a personal initiative of Marsus to attenuate the hostility of the neighboring Syrian populations.

[78] Nevertheless, the hopes of regained sovereignty aroused among the Jews of Judea by his accession did not disappear with his death and were probably part of the causes that led to the Jewish revolt which broke out some 20 years later.

[97] For the Jews, these events marked the end of hopes for even a symbolic Jewish independence, and it was then that intransigent factious movements with messianic and anti-Roman connotations appeared.

[103] However, the Acts of the Apostles, composed in the 80s and 90s from several sources, "have been the subject of devastating criticism for several decades, to the point of being denied by some, in whole or in part, any historical value"[104] due to the "editorial activity" of its three successive authors.

This account of the death of Agrippa, probably inserted by the second redactor of the Acts of the Apostles[106] diverges from that of Josephus[78] but otherwise agrees with him on the divine origin of his mortal illness, occasioned by his impious refusal to reject the deification of which he is the object by the people, perhaps testifying to the use of a common Jewish source.