Salome (19 page)

AFTERWORD

Salome, daughter of Herodias, great-granddaughter of Herod the Great, was an actual historical person, but very few facts are known about her. One of those facts, sadly, is that Salome’s husband, Philip, died only a few years after they married. They had no children. The Roman Emperor—now Caligula—gave Philip’s territory to Salome’s uncle Agrippa. Salome married again, to another relative, Aristobolus of Chalcis in Syria. Her face in profile can be seen on a coin issued by Aristobolus.

As for Herod Antipas and Herodias, they were finally punished, in a roundabout way. The Nabatean king, angry with Antipas for rejecting his daughter, attacked Perea. He defeated Antipas’s troops and took some territory away from him. Since that territory actually belonged to the Roman Empire, the powers in Rome were not pleased with Antipas.

In AD 37, the Emperor Tiberius died, and Caligula inherited the throne. Herodias (apparently not understanding how disappointed the Imperial government was in her husband) urged Antipas to ask the new Emperor to make him king of all Judea. Instead, the Emperor decided to banish Antipas and Herodias to Gaul.

Caligula also appointed Agrippa, Herodias’s brother, as ruler of Herod the Great’s former kingdom of Greater Judea. Agrippa eventually died a horrible death in Caesarea, “eaten by worms,” as the Book of Acts puts it.

All my quotations from the Bible follow the Revised Standard Version, 1977, published by Oxford University Press, Inc.

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Published by Laurel-Leaf an imprint of Random House Children's Books a division of Random House, Inc.

New York

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2007 by Beatrice Gormley

All rights reserved.

Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, New York, in 2007. This edition published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:

Gormley, Beatrice.

Salome / by Beatrice Gormley.

p. cm.

Summary: Relates the life of a beautiful descendant of Herod the Great, and events leading up to her Dance of the Seven Veils, after which her cruel mother coerces her to ask for the head of John the Baptist, an innocent man, on a silver platter.

1. Salome (Biblical figure)—Juvenile fiction. [1. Salome (Biblical figure)—Fiction. 2. Herodias—Fiction. 3. Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee—Fiction. 4. Dance-Fiction. 5. Bible N.T.—History of Biblical events—Fiction. 6. Rome—History—Empire, 30 B.C-284 A.D.-Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.G6696Sal 2007

[Fic]—dc22

2006029197

RL: 6.1

September 2008

eISBN: 978-0-375-89212-7

v3.0