ellauri058.html on line 714: The ancient texts describe the symptoms Herod experienced in his final days: painful intestinal problems, convulsions in every limb, intense itching, breathlessness, and gangrene of the genitalia. Josephus wrote that Herod’s final illness―sometimes called “Herod’s Evil"―was excruciating.
ellauri058.html on line 718: Dr. Hirschmann said he decided to focus on the symptom of itching. “At first, I considered Hodgkin’s disease and some diseases of the liver.” Chronic kidney disease covered all of Herod’s symptoms except gangrene of the genitalia. Dr. Hirschmann figured that the most probable cause of King Herod’s death was chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier’s gangrene, which is an unusual infection affecting the male genitalia.
ellauri183.html on line 638: The Pharisees were the popular leaders of the Jews and the ones most laypeople looked to with confidence. The majority of the Jewish population was then expecting a world ruling messianic king to arise on the historical scene. And indeed, Josephus tells us that after Herod’s death many “kingly upstarts” emerged in Judaea and this reflects the general expectancy of the Jews that the messianic age was then imminent.
ellauri184.html on line 282: Samuel Rocca likewise concludes that most of his troops were in fact Jews, and that Herod’s army thus did not differ much from the Hasmonaean army that preceded it.
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