Archelaus

Archelaus, whose name means ruler of the people, was the son of Herod the Great by his Samaritan wife Malthace, and thus a full brother of Herod Antipas. On Herod's death in 4 B.C., Archelaus received Judea, Samaria, and Idumea as his share of the divided kingdom, though Augustus declined to give him the title of king, granting him only the lesser rank of ethnarch with the promise of kingship if he proved worthy. He was educated in Rome alongside his brother Antipas, and both traveled there after Herod's death to contest the terms of the will before the emperor.

Archelaus's reign was notoriously brutal. He massacred three thousand people in the temple courts at Passover early in his rule. Both Jewish and Samaritan delegations eventually appealed to Rome against his tyranny, and Augustus exiled him to Gaul in A.D. 6, converting his territory into the Roman province of Judaea under a prefect. Matthew 2:22 records that Joseph, warned in a dream, avoided Judea on returning from Egypt precisely because Archelaus was ruling there, choosing instead to settle in Galilee under the milder rule of Antipas.