Agrippa I (king of Judaea AD 41–⁠44)

Grandson of Herod the Great and a friend of Caligula and Claudius. Under Tiberius he was put in chains after his own freedman reported overhearing him wish Caligula a speedy accession. As soon as Caligula took power, he freed him, gave him the title of king and, as Josephus writes, exchanged his iron chain for a golden one of the same weight. In AD 41, after Caligula’s assassination, he mediated between Claudius and the senate and asked the new emperor to spare the senators. Claudius added Judaea and Samaria to his realm. He died in AD 44 in Caesarea: according to Josephus, flatterers at the games hailed him as a god and he did not rebuke them; soon afterwards he was seized by pains and died five days later. He was the father of Berenice and Agrippa II. In the Vespasian episode he appears as Berenice’s father (chapter “Jerusalem”).