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Agrippa I also called the Great (c.10 BC - AD 44),
king of Judea, the grandson of Herod the Great,
and son of Aristobulus and Berenice (daughter of
Salome)|Berenice. His original name was Marcus
Julius Agrippa, and he is the king named Herod in
the Acts of the Apostles, in the Bible.

Josephus informs us that, after the murder of his
father, young Agrippa was sent by Herod the Great
to the imperial court in Rome. There Tiberius
conceived a great affection for him, and placed
him near his son Drusus_Julius_Caesar|Drusus, who
also befriended him. On the death of Drusus,
Agrippa, who had been recklessly extravagant, was
obliged to leave Rome. After a brief seclusion,
Herod the Tetrarch, his uncle, who had married his
sister Herodias, made him agoranomos (Overseer of
Markets) of Tiberias, and gave him a large sum of
money; but his uncle being unwilling to continue
his support, Agrippa left Judea first for Antioch
and afterwards returned to Rome, where he was
welcomed by Tiberius and became the constant
companion of Caligula, then a popular favourite. 
Agrippa being one day overheard by his freedman
Eutyches, to express a wish for Tiberius' death
and the advancement of Caligula, was betrayed to
the emperor and cast into prison.

Following Tiberius' death and the ascension of
Agrippa's friend Caligula, he was made governor
first of the territories of Batanaea and
Trachonitis that his cousin Herod Philip had held,
then of the tetrarchy of Lysanias, with the title
of king. In AD 39 he returned to Rome and brought
about the banishment of Herod Antipas, whose
tetrarchy he then was granted.

On the assassination of Caligula (AD 41) Agrippa's
advice helped to secure Claudius ascension as
emperor, while he made a show of being in the
interest of the Roman senate|senate.  As a reward
for his assistance, Claudius gave him the
government of Judea, while the kingdom of Chalcis
in Lebanon was at his request given to his brother
Herod.  Thus Agrippa became one of the greatest
princes of the east, the territory he possessed
equalling in extent that held by his grandfather
Herod the Great. He returned to Judea and governed
it to the great satisfaction of the Jews.  His
zeal, private and public, for Judaism is recorded
by Josephus and the rabbis; and the narrative of
Acts 12 gives a typical example of it.  About the
time of the Passover in AD 44, Saint James the
Great, the son of Zebedee and brother of John the
Apostle, was seized by his order and put to death.
 He proceeded also to lay hands on Saint
Peter|Peter and imprisoned him.  After the
Passover he went to Caesarea Palaestina|Caesarea,
where he had games performed in honour of
Claudius, and the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon
waited on him to sue for peace.

According to the story in Acts, Agrippa,
gorgeously arrayed, received them in the stadium,
and addressed them from a throne, while the
audience cried out that his was the voice of a
god.  But "the angel of the Lord smote him," and
shortly afterwards he died "eaten of worms." The
story in Acts differs slightly from that in
Josephus, who describes how in the midst of his
elation he saw an owl perched over his head. 
During his imprisonment by Tiberius a similar omen
had been interpreted as portending his speedy
release, with the warning that should he behold
the same sight again he would die within five
days.  He was immediately smitten with violent
pains, and after a few days died. Josephus omits
the detail of his being
"eaten of worms".  A third account omits all the
miraculous elements in the story and says that
Agrippa was assassinated by the Romans, who
objected to his growing power.

==References==
* eastons
* 1911