Mariamne I

(?60–29 BC)

   Second wife of HEROD THE GREAT.

   Mariamne or Mariamme (the Greek form of the Hebrew Miriam) was the daughter of the Hasmonean ruler of Judea, Alexander, and the granddaughter of John Hyrcanus.

   After a long engagement, Herod married her in 37 BC when the Roman leaders confirmed him as king of Judea. From all accounts he was deeply attached to her. Yet it was also for him a marriage of convenience into the Hasmonean house that had ruled the country for more than a century. She, on the other hand, must have hated and resented this usurper, who had ended the dynasty of her family and killed several of its members in his rise to power. Herod’s love-hate relationship with Mariamne ended when he had her executed in 29 BC on dubious charges of conspiring against him. The sense of guilt left by this action may have intensified the emotional instability and violent impulses of his later years. His sons by Mariamne, Alexander and Aristobulus, were also executed in 7 BC by order of their father, who had become pathologically jealous and fearful of the lingering popularity of the Hasmoneans.