Archelaus

King Herod didn't want anyone to forget his funeral. He ensured it had the same decadence and self-aggrandizement that he had displayed in life, so his subjects would remember it forever. The procession began at Herod's summer palace in Jericho. With all the pomp and circumstance of a military parade, it headed 23 miles west to the Herodium, Herod's pleasure palace and final resting place south of Jerusalem. Herod himself led the way, embalmed and carried on a golden bier.

But the Jews were left to wonder: Who would be their next king? Would it be Antipas, son of Herod’s Samaritan wife Malthake? Or possibly Philip, Herod’s son with a Jewish wife named Cleopatra? What would Herod’s last testament reveal?