Siege of Jerusalem ( 37 BC ) Herod the Great ' s Siege of Jerusalem ( 37 BC ) was the final step in his campaign to secure the throne of Judea . Aided by Roman forces provided by Marcus Antonius ( Mark Antony ) , Herod was able to capture the city and depose Antigonus II Mattathias , ending Hasmonean rule . The siege appears in the writings of Josephus and Dio Cassius . Background . In 63 BC , following his victory in the Third Mithridatic War , Pompey the Great intervened in a civil war in the Hasmonean Kingdom between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II , conquered Judea and appointed Hyrcanus High Priest . Under Hyrcanus , real power rested with his chief minister , Antipater the Idumaean . In 49 BC Antipater prompted Hyrcanus to side with Julius Caesar during Caesar ' s Civil War . Following his victory , Caesar bestowed the title of " ethnarch " on Hyrcanus and " epitropos " ( or Procurator ) on Antipater . A few years later , Antipater appointed his sons Phasael and Herod military governors of Jerusalem and the Galilee respectively . After the Roman civil war following the murder of Julius Caesar , Hyrcanus and Antipater became clients of Mark Antony , who now ruled the Roman east . In 40 BC , Antigonus II Mattathias , son of Hasmonean Aristobulus II , offered money to the Parthian army to help him recapture the Hasmonean realm . The Parthians invaded Roman Syria , took Judea , captured Hyrcanus and Phasael and installed Antigonus II on the Judean throne . Hyrcanus was mutilated , and Phasael committed suicide rather than fall into the hands of Antigonus II . Herod and his family were besieged at Masada , but Herod escaped to Petra . When he received no help from the Nabataeans , Herod made his way to Rome . Supported by Antony , he was proclaimed " King of the Jews " by the Roman Senate and returned to Judea to claim the throne . Between 39 – 38 BC , the Roman general Publius Ventidius Bassus defeated the Parthian army , sending troops under the command of Poppaedius Silo to await the arrival of Herod . Herod landed at Ptolemais and began his campaign against Antigonus with the conquest of the Galilee , marched down the coast to take Jaffa and then relieved Masada , where his family was still holed up . He then marched on Jerusalem , hoping to capture the city and bring a swift end to the war . Faced with corruption among his Roman officers , mutinuous Roman troops and Antigonus ' guerrillas , however , Herod was forced to abandon his siege of Jerusalem . He operated in Judea , Samaria and the Galilee instead , fighting against both insurgents and bandits , while sending his brother Joseph to deal with Idumaea . By late 38 BC , reinforced by several Roman legion s and having fought two years of counter - insurgency , Herod was finally able to pacify the Galilee and march south towards Jerusalem . Antigonus attempted to face Herod in a pitched battle , striking against both Jericho and Samaria , but both efforts were defeated . Herod once again pitched camp outside Jerusalem , though the onset of winter brought military operations to a halt . Siege . Herod had pitched his camp north of the Temple , near a saddle allowing access to the city walls , the same location chosen by Pompey 26 years earlier . According to Josephus , Herod had 30 , 000 men under his command , though a modern estimate puts the number at about half of that . These were reinforced by several Roman legions , 6 , 000 cavalry and Syrian auxiliaries sent by Antony and led by Gaius Sosius . With the coming of spring , Herod began executing his siege with vigour . His engineers followed Roman practices , erecting a wall of circumvallation and guard towers , cutting down the trees surrounding the city , and employing siege engines and artillery . The besieged suffered from lack of provisions , compounded by a famine brought about by the sabbatical year , but were nevertheless able to put up an effective defense . They sallied from the walls , ambushing the besieging troops and hindering Herod ' s attempts to raise ramparts , and fought Roman efforts to mine under the walls with counter - mining . After forty days , Herod ' s forces breached what Josephus calls " the north wall " , apparently Jerusalem ' s second wall . The first wall fell 15 days later , and soon the outer court of the Temple fell as well , during which its outer porticoes were burnt down , apparently by Antigonus ' supporters . While Antigonus shut himself up in citadel known as the Baris , the defenders were left holding the Temple ' s inner court and Jerusalem ' s upper city ( southwestern quarter of the city ) . These now appealed to Herod to permit the passage of animals and other offerings into the temple for the sacrifices to continue . During the siege Antigonus had used Herod ' s lack of pedigree as propaganda , calling him a " commoner and an Idumaean , that is a half - Jew " , publicly questioning Herod ' s right to the throne . Herod , fearful for his legitimacy and popularity , therefore complied with the requests . Further negotiations , however , proved fruitless and Herod ' s forces assaulted the city . Having taken Jerusalem by storm and despite Herod ' s pleas for restraint , the troops now acted without mercy , pillaging and killing all in their path , prompting Herod to complain to Mark Antony . Herod also attempted to prevent Roman soldiers from desecrating the temple ' s inner sanctuary , eventually bribing Sosius and his troops in order that they do not leave him " king of a desert " . Aftermath . Antigonus surrendered to Sosius , and was sent to Antony for the triumphal procession in Rome . Herod , however , fearing that Antigonus would also win backing in Rome , bribed Antony to execute Antigonus . Antony , who recognized that Antigonus would remain a permanent threat to Herod , had the Hasmonean beheaded in Antioch , the first time the Romans had executed a subjugated king . Herod also had 45 leading men of Antigonus ' party executed . With the fall of Jerusalem , Herod ' s conquest of the kingdom was complete . After consolidating his rule , he began systematically exterminating the Hasmonean line , which he perceived as a direct threat to his reign . Hyrcanus II , the last major scion of the Hasmoneans , was executed in 30 BC . Herod would rule until his death in 4 BC , an ever - faithful client king of Rome . Herod ' s siege of Jerusalem may have inspired Psalm of Solomon 17 , the earliest text expressing the expectation of a Davidic messiah . The first portion of the psalm condemns the illegitimate Jewish sinners who had usurped the throne in violation of the Davidic covenant , God ' s promise to establish the Davidic dynasty as the eternal rulers of Israel . These sinners are then overthrown by a foreign ruler and their line extinguished . Scholarship has since identified the sinners with the Hasmonean dynasty , but the foreign ruler has traditionally been identified as Pompey the Great . An alternate reading , noting that Pompey did not in fact kill off the last of the Hasmoneans but rather reinstated their rule , suggests that the events of Psalm 17 describe Herod , his conquest of Jerusalem and the subsequent eradication of the Hasmonean line .