Children Herod | Ex-spouse Herod the Great | |
Similar Herod the Great, Philip the Tetrarch, Mariamne I, Antipater the Idumaean, Herod Archelaus | ||
Cleopatra of Jerusalem was a woman who lived in the 1st century BC during the Roman Empire. She was the fifth wife of King of Judea Herod the Great.
There is a possibility that Cleopatra could have been a daughter of a local noble from Jerusalem. She was born and raised in the city and could have been of Jewish or Edomite-Phoenician origins . Cleopatra was called Cleopatra of Jerusalem, to distinguish her from the Ptolemaic Greek Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt.
Josephus mentions "Cleopatra of Jerusalem" twice: once in his Antiquities of the Jews 17.1.3 and once in his Jewish War 1.28.4. Cleopatra of Jerusalem was not related to the Hasmonaean Dynasty . She had married King Herod the Great in 25 BC. Herod most probably married her as a part of a political alliance.
Cleopatra bore Herod two sons who were:
Cleopatra’s children by Herod were raised and educated in Rome. After the death of her husband in 4 BC, her second son inherited some of his father’s dominion and ruled as a Roman client king until his death in 34. Cleopatra became the mother-in-law of Philip’s wife and niece Salome. Philip and Salome had no children.