THE RISE AND FALL OF THE HOUSE OF HEROD is filled with the murders, perversions and the political machinations and assassinations that were the lives of all these first century BC and first century AD kings and aspiring rulers. The Herods were Arabs appointed by the Romans to rule the Jews from 37 BC to the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. The Arab/Jew conflict was in play long before then as it is now. Herod the Great who attempted to kill the infant Jesus is the Herod most people know. But there were seven rulers in the House of Herod: the founder of the dynasty Antipater; his son Herod the Great; Herod's sons Archelaus, Antipas and Philip; and Herod's grandson Agrippa I and great-grandson Agrippa II. Silver's book chronicles the muscular rise of the House of Herod and the ultimate fall into weakness and debauchery of the inheritors of the dynasty. For the first time in a single book a reader can follow the Herods as they interact with each other, with the Romans and with the nascent Christian Message that would eclipse them all.