03_Biblica_Sharon_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:46 Pagina 63 63 HEROD’S AGE WHEN APPOINTED STRATEGOS OF GALILEE birth to the crucial year 63, either to link him to his patron Augustus with whom he shared many biographical similarities, or to link him to Pompey’s conquest of the Temple, that being one element in a messianic depiction of Herod. Of course, these alternatives are not mutually exclusive, and Nicolaus may have aimed at more than one bird with this stone. In fact, Schalit viewed Herod’s messianic pre- tensions as being tied to Augustus, his “savior”, and to Herod’s place in the Princeps’ “system of ‘salvation’” 46. As for Herod’s real age at the time – he may have indeed been 25 years old, but was probably slightly older (26/27) in 47 BCE — not very old, but also not unreasonably young. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Nadav SHARON SUMMARY In Antiquities Josephus says that Herod was only fifteen-years-old when appointed strategos of Galilee in 47 BCE. This is often dismissed as scribal error and corrected to twenty-five, because it contradicts other Herodian biographical information. However, this unattested emendation does not fit the immediate context, whereas “fifteen” does. This paper suggests that rather than a scribal error, this is a literary motif, presenting Herod as a par- ticularly young military hero. The specific age of fifteen may have had a deeper intention, fictively linking Herod’s birth to the year 63, the year of Augustus’ birth and Pompey’s conquest of the Temple. 46 SCHALIT, King Herod, 224-228. Cf. HORBURY, “Herod’s Temple”, 89-92.