Herodium
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Search complete. 10 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Herodium".
Nov 1, 2026
speaker_0UNKNOWN
He makes the politicians that you worry about seem like pussycats.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
One of the notable features about Bethlehem is that it was with an eyesight of Herod's summer palace fortress called the Herodium.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
It was built 15 to 20 years before Jesus' birth.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
He built it as a sanctuary in the valley about three and a half miles southeast of Bethlehem.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
from the fortress of Masada to the city of Jericho.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
But his lifelong obsession involved a colossal ruin called Herodium.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
Even before archaeologists began to excavate, the ruins of a palace were visible to any passerby.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
And the Jewish king who built it is also known.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
Though the real Herod didn't kill babies, he did order his Jewish subjects to bow down to Rome.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
Hail Octavian.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
He also decreed that he should be buried at Herodium.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
Unfortunately, he didn't say where.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
When Herod finally died, he was taken to the only site he'd named after himself.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
Herodium was a palace sunk in the top of a man-made mountain.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
Below it, awe-inspiring pleasure gardens where his marble tomb lay waiting, where thousands of soldiers and courtiers waited as he was interred, or may have been.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
According to Josephus, his golden casket lies somewhere here, but it has yet to be found.
Jay StrotherHOST
And yet it's interesting to me, Jesus is born in Bethlehem, which at the time was a very small village.
Jay StrotherHOST
Right outside of town is Herod's monument to himself, a massive fortress called the Herodium.
Jay StrotherHOST
In the newspapers of the day, nobody covered this birth announcement.
Jay StrotherHOST
Right.
Jay StrotherHOST
And we forget
Brian BallHOST
that.
Brian BallHOST
We get impressed with the Herodium.
Brian BallHOST
We forget that the power is in the baby, not that big castle on the top of the
EnochNARRATOR
And then, in 2018, a footnote to the footnote.
EnochNARRATOR
A thin copper alloy ring, excavated at the Herodium decades earlier and sitting largely ignored in storage, was cleaned and photographed with modern imaging.
EnochNARRATOR
The Greek letters on its seal spelled a name, Pilatus.
EnochNARRATOR
It is a modest ring, not an aristocrat's, and likely belonged to someone in the prefect's administration rather than to the man himself.