[music] I'm going on an adventure. There's only one way
to figure it all out. Unzip the archeology.
Make it naked. [music] [MAN SINGING]The worms crawl
in... ...and the worms crawl out. Your brains come tumbling
down your snout. Be merry my friends be merry. [SIMCHA] Herod the Great cast
one of the darkest shadows... ...of the Christian Bible. He was the King of Judea... ...and he tried to kill
the infant Jesus. According to the
gospel of Matthew, it was he who ordered
the slaughter of the innocents. The attempt to kill Jesus by
killing all the babies... ...in Bethlehem. And then, two years later
nearing the age of 70, death caught
up with him. But even if you believe
in divine retribution... ...Herod's end was
particularly nasty. His people couldn't
wait to be rid of him. But even more impatient
were the worms. While the king watched, they wriggled
out of his genitalia. [SIMCHA] The Bible paints Herod
the Great... ...as the Great Villain. History indicts him for
countless murders... ...and political assassinations. As villains go, his worm-ridden
death... ...was deliciously
disgusting. But for over two
thousand years... ...the actual disease
that dethroned Herod... ...has remained
a mystery. What killed Herod? The answer to that mystery
might hold the key.. ...to explaining part of the
savagery of Herod the Great. After all, worms
in your "willie"... ....might put you in a
bad mood as well. Would you think I'm a
wimp if I closed my eyes? Okay. Not looking,
not looking. Okay, maybe we can
switch this one. [SIMCHA] Dr. Jan
Hirschmann... ...from the University
of Washington... ...school of Medicine in
Seattle. He studied the descriptions
of Herod's final days... ...written by first century
historian Josephus. Hirschmann tried to
diagnose Herod... ...two thousand years
after his death. He said he was itching
all over his body. He said that he
had breathlessness... ...that was particularly
worse when he lay down, also associated with a
racking cough. And a foul breath. Okay, I'll just change to
the next one. [SIMCHA] To learn more about
our patient, I travelled to Caesaria; an entire port city built by
Herod. At the time of Jesus... ...it was one of the greatest
ports in the world. People still come from
all around to tour the site. Before he was
Herod the Great villain, he was Herod the
Great builder. In fact, one of the
greatest builders... ...the ancient world
ever saw. Okay y'all. Welcome
to Caesaria. Ancient Caesaria. The planned city
built by none other than- Come on,
who was it built by? Herod. Herod the Great. Maybe we can run this
little tour together. Okay, Herod the Great... ...who built lots of things all
over Israel, including the expanded
beautified second temple, right. So he built Caesaria. Name it after Augustus Caesar,
right. His mentor. I just want to know why
are you calling him great? He killed his wife. He killed
his kids. Why are you calling him great? Why don't you call him crazy? You're right. He was crazy. He
was paranoid. Like you said, he killed
his best friend Hippochus. He killed his brother
Phasael. He killed his favourite wife
Miriam. He killed Miriam's
two sons... ...who were in line
for the throne. He killed countless high priests
and all kinds of people, anybody he thought betrayed him. But he was basically a nice guy? No. He was basically
a paranoid crazy guy. But the thing that
was Great about him... ...is he was a great builder, and he built lots of
beautiful buildings, cities all across
the country. So that's the reason
I call him great. [SIMCHA] He may
have had his mind set... ...on building his way
into history. But most of us only
know his history... ...of trying to
kill the infant Jesus. [SIMCHA] But what can we... ...really say about this story. [SIMCHA] Dr. Peter Richardson, Professor of Religion
at the University of Toronto. He's not a cross dresser. He just likes
dressing up like Herod. As for me, well,
when in Rome- The one thing that
Christians think they know... ...about Herod the
Great is in that episode... ...that is always told
at Christmas time. He's killing all the children
under two years of age... ...in Bethlehem because
somebody told him... ...that a future messiah,
a future king, was born in Bethlehem. So by getting rid
of all the children, he gets rid of a rival
somewhere down the road. That story is told to us
in only one text, the Gospel of Mathew. I think it is an
exaggeration... ...of his execution of
2 of his own children... ...in the very same year. [SIMCHA] Dr. Isaiah Gafni... ...of Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. Expert on first
century Jerusalem. You can't disprove it,
you can't prove it, right? Clearly, he did put to
death those people... ...who would have been
perceived by him... ...as being a challenge to
his total rule over the country. Whether that means that he
killed the innocents... ...or the babies or what have
you, there's no way of proving. [SIMCHA] The Biblical
Herod was an old man, already diseased
and dying. But what was he
like as a young man? In order to reach
a diagnosis, Dr. Hirschmann had
to try to construct.. ...a life-long medical
record for Herod. Young Herod from a
physical point of view... ...was very robust. He was a
warrior. He was an athlete. He seemed to have
a very good health. There was some
chest wound... ...which apparently
was a minor one, and no other mention of any
illness until his mid-forties... ...when he had some vaguely
described problem... ...in which he had
inflammation and pain... ...at the back of his head, accompanied by
some mental confusion. It seemed as though it
was going to be a fatal illness, but he recovered
and after that again... ...no mention of any
problems physically... ...until just at the time
of shortly before his death. [SIMCHA] Herod must
have been healthy... ...and strong for
most of his life... ...because he survived
assassination attempts, poison plots,
even a shipwreck. You'd think that
after all that a king... ...could at least come
home put on slippers... ...and relax on his throne. (singing) Oh these women have a
way... [SIMCHA] Nope. His domestic life alone
could have done many a man in. The poor guy had to
juggle ten wives. Eunuchs, spies,
poisons, plots. The king's life was
so complicated... ...you'll never keep
track of it all. Unless you're
Canadian grandmaster... ...of all things Herodian. Quick, Ron.
I need info on Herod. Then Herod hears
the rumor... ...that 3 of his eunuchs
have taken bribes... ...from the son of
Alexander usurp the throne. Herod gets suspicious,
sends out spies. Soon everybody is
denouncing everybody else, it doesn't matter
if you're guilty, it doesn't matter
if you're innocent, everybody gets
tortured, equally. Romans are
marching around... ...with armies all
over the place. Anthony and Cleopatra
doing their thing in Egypt, Julius Caesar
doing his thing. There's Pompeii
running around, wait a minute,
Pompeii's already dead. (laughter) [SIMCHA] Okay.
Now that that's all... ...ahem, clear. Look. Don't try to keep
it straight, the point is to get
a glimpse... ...of the pressures
surrounding Herod. Our best clues to
Herod's state of mind... ...come from the
archaeology. Some people say
manic building... ...has Freudian
undertones. Psyche carved
into stone. What do Herod's
buildings tell us... ...about the pressure
he faced? Caught between his
Roman neighbours... ...and his Jewish
subjects? [SIMCHA]This is
1:50 scale model... ...of Jerusalem
at the time of Jesus... ...and Herod the Great. Even the Romans
recognize... ...that Herod had
built Jerusalem... ...into one of the most
beautiful cities... ...of the ancient world. -The Romans talk
about Jerusalem... ...as being the most
famous city in all of the east.. ...and not only of Judea. Beginning with
Herod's time, Jerusalem was
a beautiful city... ...and certainly well known
to the Romans of the day. Herod built a Roman
theatre in Jerusalem... ...and this is one
of many elements... ...that really changed
the nature of the city. It became much more
of a Hellenistic Roman city... ...even though the
temple mount... ...clearly stressed the
Jewish aspect of the city. So what we have here
really is a hybrid. On the one hand
he is a Jew, and there's
no question... ...about his legitimate
claim to being a Jew. But on the other hand
he's very Hemeni. He's really part of the
Greek and Roman world. The palace with two
wings to it over here, one named after the
Roman emperor, the other after
the commander... ...of the Roman armies. He was naming the palaces
after the Romans? After Augustus
the Roman Caesar. He was sucking
up to them. Well you might call it that. Is that historically true? Yes. He had a
very good relationship. A very good working
relationship... ...with the Roman
emperors and... ...they got what they
wanted out of Herod... ...which was basically
law and order, maybe in
reverse sequence. In other words,
they really needed order... ...more than anything else. Herod could supply that. [SIMCHA] Roman lackey... ...or a master of realpolitik? Either way,
Herod's political success... ...gave him the stability... ...to pursue his passion
for building. I would say if you
were writing an... ...architectural history
of the first century BC... ...Herod would be
right at the top of the list... ...in terms of his
creativeness, his innovationess,
his brilliance. [SIMCHA] Brilliant in life.
Brilliant in death. As I'm about to uncover... ...at the Herod family tomb. (SIMCHA) Herod had such
a reputation... ...for being a
fantastic builder... ...that when anything
from the first century... ...that is beautiful is found, everybody says
it must be Herod. And when this tomb
was found in the late 1800's, it was so beautiful,
everybody suddenly said: "it must be the Herod's
family tomb." You can see
embedded in the rock... ...here a rolling stone, as described in
the gospels... ...for the first century
which would... ...block the way to this
amazing tomb; this giant courtyard over here. So, we don't know. Maybe it is the Herod's
family tomb. Maybe it isn't. What we do know
is if he liked you, he treated you good
even after death. If he didn't like you or
if you really got him angry, he made sure that death
came sooner, rather than later. And that's what happened
with his beloved wife, he killed her. And that's what happened
with three of his sons. He killed them too. There's a well known story... ...that Herod at one time
killed his sons... ...whom he suspected
of plotting against him... ...to which the Roman
emperor Augustus said: "better to be the pig of
Herod than the son of Herod." This by the way is a play
on Greek words. The word for pig in Greek
is choiros and for son is gios. In other words, better to
be a choiros than a gios. And so a Jew would
never slaughter a pig... ...for obvious reasons, but he might slaughter
his sons. In this case, Herod
slaughtering his sons. Did you come
to any conclusions... ...about whether
Herod was nasty to begin with... ...or whether he was
actually a normal guy... ...until his scrotum
started falling off. He seemed to be
more cruel... ...and more paranoid
than he had been... ...throughout his life
at the time of his illness. I think sometimes
the suffering... ...that they have undergo
during their illness... ...does create problems
in the way in which... ...they manage to deal
with other people. [SIMCHA] Nearing 70 years of
age... ...Herod was struck
down by an illness... ...that wracked his body
with pain and fierce itching. If he wasn't mad before,
this would have done the trick. Josephus records that worms
were living in his privates. This would have
been the result... ...of advanced gangrene
in his privates. Would you want to
see a picture... ...of the gangrene? You have a picture of the
gangrene do you? We're talking about penis
gangrene here. Ooh, I didn't quite- [SIMCHA] Gangrene in his
"willie" wasn't the only time... ...a member caused
Herod trouble. Family members
weren't just family. Marriages were
political alliances. Home life was a grand
political game. A game that had rules
particular to Judea. When members of the
Herodian family have to marry, let's say daughters have
to marry foreign princes. Those foreign princes are
forced to circumcise themselves. And if they don't, the
marriage is cancelled. Did they have to
convert to Judaism? Well you know it's a
sort of conversion. Other words it would
be unthinkable... ...for a daughter of the
Herodian court... ...to marry a prince who
was not circumcised. And he required this. See this is the Jewish
side to Herod. He had a Jewish side. Yes. At the wedding did he force
them to eat gefilte fish? I was not there. It's possible. Yes. Can I go home? You want to go, you don't
like this line of thing? Fretting over family foreskin
wasn't his only pressure. Trouble with his neighbour's... ...cost a few sleepless nights
as well. His Roman neighbours
included Brutus, Augustus, Mark Anthony.
And to the south, his sworn enemy,
Cleopatra. [SIMCHA] Dr. Gaby Barkay... ...is a Jerusalem
archaeologist... ...familiar with the
web of plot and intrigue... ...spun around Herod by
Cleopatra. She hated the guts of Herod... ...and after every night of a
love affair... ...with her favourite Roman
rulers, she got as a present. Cleopatra was very hot... ...according to history right? I prefer Liz Taylor. And after every night with... ...her Roman lovers she got- She got the income of
the plantations of Jericho. Herod was afraid that
slowly all his kingdom... ...will be given as a love
present to this lady. [SIMCHA] Herod outlived
Cleopatra. His building continued. But this manic building wasn't
just Freudian overcompensation. As we're about to find out, it wasn't just a case of my
column is bigger than yours. [SIMCHA] So was Herod's manic
building... Freudian overcompensation? Just a case of my column... ...is bigger than yours? According to Dr. Richardson- (RICHARDSON) I think he was
really trying to... ...stimulate the economy. I think he was trying
to do great public works... ...in order to keep
everybody employed, in order to keep
money flowing, in order to move
the economy ahead. He's a pretty smart cookie. I mean he's playing
a political role, sucking trade to that area, he's getting everybody
building and working. People have been prevented... ...from seeing some of those
other dimensions... ...to his time as king. -Because of his dementia? Because of the horrible
reputation that he has. [SIMCHA] So in order to get a... ...holistic view of Herod, we've taken a bit of a look at
his family life, his political world,
all-important aspects... ...to understanding
the mind and... ...mental state of our patient. Now to get back to the
purely physical symptoms, abdominal pains, shortness
of breath, and itching. How, does Dr. Hirschmann... ...determine which is the
most important symptom? There aren't many generalized
illnesses that cause itching. And so my assumption
was that itching... ...was an important part
of the entire illness. Unlike abdominal pain
or shortness of breath, for which there's dozens
and dozens of possibilities. [SIMCHA] The itching may be the
most important symptom... ...from a medical point of view. But lets be honest. We really want to know where the
worms in the willie came from. Well this is
Hirshmann's theory: Itching led to scratching.
That introduced bacteria. And that infection
led to gangrene. A prime breeding ground
for maggots. What's that? Those little white portions... ...are the actual
maggots themselves. They're basically flies, right? -They're flies. I just want to understand. You're saying that Herod would
have got gangrene in his penis, and then as the
tissue died, flies were laying
their eggs in his penis. In the dead area of the skin,
dead tissue. It seems like divine
retribution here. Big time. [SIMCHA] Now
it's not enough... ...to know how
Herod behaved. We need the context of... ...how other people
got along in Herod's days. After all, we judge
our behaviours... ...in comparison to others. If you would see Herod in the
context of history. If you would look at the court
of his friend Augustus in Rome. Augustus' mother Livia
actually killed everybody... ...who would have been a
threat... ...or even possibly
getting to a position... ...that would make him or
her dangerous politically. So she would kill
everybody surrounding her. So compared to Livia
Herod's a good guy? These murders were part
of the spirit of the period. But the Christian bible
says he's cruel. Yup. The rabbinic literature
says he's cruel. -But don't forget that
the rabbis admitted that... ...he who didn't see
Herod's building... ...didn't see a magnificent
building in his lifetime. -Yeah, I mean does that
get you off the hook? You build nice buildings
you can kill your kids? Look, he was a king
of the 1st century BC... ...and we ought not
to forget that. You cannot judge a
king of 1st century BC... ...with the standards of the
20th or 21st century AD. That would
be impossible. [SIMCHA] Over the centuries... ...many believed
God judged Herod... ...and the worms were
divine retribution. What we do know is that
his illness became so bad... ...he took desperate
measures to escape it. He given a knife
to pare an apple... ...and he tried
to stab himself. But he was prevented
from killing himself... ...by one of his attendants. And therefore
lived a little bit longer. [SIMCHA] His subjects couldn't
wait for his death. But what they
didn't know... ...was that after his death
things would fall apart. Within 60 years the country
disintegrated into civil war. The Roman's
burned Jerusalem. Herod's reign marked
the height... ...of fabled Jerusalem's
beauty and fame. But what killed Herod? Diagnosis would be is that he
had chronic kidney disease... ...and that seemed to be the
single disease situation... ...that explained all the other
problems that he had. The shortness of breath, the
abdominal pain, the itching. Herod needed dialysis? Yes, I think that's
probably right. Had he had a
dialysis machine, he could have lived
to kill again. Or had a transplant,
I suppose. Although he's pretty
old for that. He was sixty-nine at
the time of his death. Following his death
in Jericho... ...he was buried at Herodium
with a funeral ceremony. Which was most probably
one of the most... ...fancy funeral processions
that this country ever saw. If you were anybody
who was anybody... ...in the 1st century
you were there. -Soldiers from Britain came to
participate in the procession, which started in Jericho... ...and ended up near Bethlehem
in Herodium. This brings you
closer to Herod? Do you feel like
his doctor now? I feel a great deal
of sympathy... ...toward the suffering he
endured at the end of his life. Considering just some
simple problem like itching. There wasn't any good
treatment at the time. How terrible a suffering
that would have been. Do you wish you could
kind of go back in time... ...and give him
some antibiotics? I'd go back in time and
see if my diagnosis was correct. [SIMCHA] Can we say
Herod's illness... ...caused at least part of his
savagery? Chronic kidney disease
is pretty nasty, For most of his life he
seems to have been... ...robust and healthy.
An athelete and warrior. Well, the archaeology
reveals a great man. The written word
describes a monster. Who you want Herod
to be depends,
