Herodium
Herodium [1]
( ῾Ηρώδιον ), the name of a fortress (Josephus) or town (Pliny), built on a conspicuous spot by Herod the Great (Reland, Palest. p. 820), probably the site anciently occupied by BETH-HACCEREM ( Jeremiah 6:1; Nehemiah 3:14), which the authority of Jerome has led some modern travelers to identify with the well-known eminence called by the natives Jebel el-Fureidis, and by Europeans "the Frank Mountain." If this identity be correct, the site has been the scene of many a remarkable change. Two great kings, in different ages and different ways, probably adorned it with magnificent works. From their lofty city the old inhabitants must have seen stretched before them, up the green vale of Urtas, the beautiful gardens and fountains of king Solomon, which suggested to the royal poet some of the exquisite imagery of the Canticles; and nearly a thousand years later, Herod the Great erected, probably on this very hill of Beth-haccerem, "a fortress with its round towers, and in it royal apartments of great strength and splendor" (Josephus, Ant. 15, 9, 4), making it serve as an acropolis amidst a mass of other buildings and palaces at the foot of the hill (IV Car, 1, 21:20). To this city, called after him Herodium, the Idumaean tyrant was brought for burial from Jericho, where he died (Ant. 17, 8, 3). The locality still yields its evidence of both these eras. Solomon's reservoirs yet remain (Stanley, p. 165), and the present state of "the Frank Mountain" well agrees with the ancient description of Herodium (Robinson, Researches, 2, 173; Thomson, Land and Book, 2, 427).
