The Eagle and the Star

He built a Temple to honor God. He murdered his family to secure his throne.

In an age of titans, Herod the Great stands as a colossus of ambition and paranoia. A half-Jew granted the throne of Judea by his Roman masters, he is haunted by the one thing he can never build, buy, or conquer: legitimacy. It is a prize that belongs to his wife, Mariamne, the last princess of the Hasmonean dynasty he deposed. His love for her is a consuming fire, but her very bloodline makes her a constant, dangerous reminder of his stolen crown.

As Herod raises magnificent fortresses like Masada from the desert dust and rebuilds the Temple in Jerusalem to a scale that dwarfs Solomon’s, his court festers with intrigue. When his sons-educated in Rome and more Roman than Jewish-return as heirs to a divided legacy, the palace becomes a viper’s nest of betrayal. Watched by the scheming eyes of his sister Salome and his ever-patient eldest son, Antipater, Herod sees conspiracy in every shadow, especially those cast by the children who carry his wife’s royal blood.

From the opulent barges of Cleopatra to the marble halls of Augustus Caesar, Herod’s reign is a brutal masterclass in survival. But as he executes rivals and enemies, the line between protector and destroyer blurs. To save his kingdom, he must become the monster his enemies have always claimed him to be, securing his legacy in stone while paving it with the bones of those he loves.

A monumental epic of family, faith, and betrayal, The Eagle and the Star chronicles the dramatic reign of a king who built wonders to outlast empires, yet forged his dynasty’s doom in the crucible of his own fear.