Charles Redden Butler Neto

There is certainly more here than meets the eye!
For starts, it helps that there is a table in front of the various family relationships of the Herods. With so many poisonings, divorces and re-marriages going on, it resembles a Hollywood family tree, but it’s helpful in figuring out who is who in this complex universe.
Herodias, the target of John the Baptist’s frequent rants, started out by marrying Herod Philip of Rome (who comes across as a rather nice guy), gave birth to Princess Salome, then got divorced and wed Herod Antipas. A creepier person would be difficult to find. He’s a drunken rapist. One is glad he’s too drunk to attack Salome. (It helps that he got boinked over the head. One can practically hear the little birdies tweeting.)
When the plot moves on to Rome it gets really sticky. The Emperor Tiberius is a real mess, losing his grip on power, surrounded by those who would gladly see him gone. As for the goings-on at his stronghold at Capri, it really was that bad. Lurking in the shadows is Caligula. There is a lot of denial going on around him, that he is only a little weird. In fact, what he had was a serious mental illness.
Charles has done a terrific job of using source documents to fill in the missing parts of Salome’s life story. This shows once again that things are rarely as they seem on the surface. Rather, the truth is like an onion. You have to peel to get at it, even if it makes you weep.
As we were reminded in Porgy and Bess: The things that your liable, to read in the Bible, it ain’t necessarily so.
… (meer)