Preface The last days of the great king were terrible. The fire, which burned the insides, alternated with cold, and then Herod was shaking with a fever. The skin was covered with scabs and itched unbearably. To relieve the itching, he dug his nails into the body and tore it into pieces along with the meat. The hemorrhoids burst and bled, causing a persistent burning sensation in the anus. The legs swelled and became like those of an elephant. The abdomen is swollen, like a person suffering from dropsy. Herod felt like he was about to burst. Because of his swollen abdomen, he could not see the causative place, but he knew: a rotting ulcer had formed there, and worms were swarming in this ulcer. In addition to all the misfortunes that befell the king, his body exuded a stench that no ointments and ointments prescribed from distant India could kill. This stench caused him additional suffering. Due to illness, Herod ordered himself to be moved to the main hall. Receptions of foreign ambassadors usually took place here, meetings were held with ministers and members of the large royal family, and ceremonial dinners were given. In former times, this hall amazed the imagination of everyone who stepped under its high arches, with a combination of majestic luxury with a special sense of proportion and taste that was inherent in Herod. Now the place of the throne is taken by a bed made of ivory, inlaid with gold and precious stones. This single change in the interior gave the hall an intimate appearance that encouraged Herod's interlocutors to become frank and confess things that they would not otherwise admit under the most terrible torture. ----- In history, Herod has a reputation as a villain, on whose conscience are thousands of innocent babies killed at the news of the birth of Christ. Meanwhile, there is not a single fact confirming the authenticity of this legend. Herod was a brave warrior and king-builder. The time in which he lived was marked by an active search for the true values of life, in which only the spiritual essence of man can be revealed. Herod believed in his messianic destiny, just as he believed that his creative activity would serve humanity as proof of the existence of immortality. By the end of his life, however, he realized that man does not strive for immortality, but for power over his own kind and material wealth. And then he cursed both man and humanity as a whole.