Herod`s Building Projects SI  Herod`s Building Projects  Thanks
to support from the Romans and following bloody battles against
the last of the Hasmoneankings, Herod was crowned King of Judea
in the year 37 BCE. King Herod was loathed by his Jewish
subjects, who saw him as a representative of foreign rule who
undermined their traditional institutions and murdered their
legitimate rulers, those of the Hasmonean dynasty. Talmud
scholarscalled him an “Edomite slave” as he was the grandson of
an Edomite, and described him in extremely negative terms. Herod
made an attempt to become closer to the Jewish people, mainly
through renovating the Temple, but his first loyalty was to
Rome. Herod was a decisive ruler who did much to develop the
Land of Israel and its Jewish population as well as its foreign
residents.During his long reign over Judea, Herod erected
numerous elaborate and innovative buildings throughout his
kingdom which were revolutionary from an engineering stand
point.   In the year 40 BCE Herod was forc