Herod and the Birth of Christ

Then Herod, a foreigner, the son of Antipater of Ashkelon, asked for and received the kingdom of Judea from the senate and people of Rome. Under him the Jews for the first time began to have a foreigner as king. For since the coming of Christ was now at hand, it was necessary, as the prophets had foretold, that they should be deprived of rulers of their own, so that they would look for nothing beyond Christ. Under this Herod, in the thirty-third year of his reign, Christ was born, on the 25th of December, in the consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus. But we do not dare to touch on the things contained in the Gospels, and after them in the Acts of the Apostles, for fear that the nature of our condensed work might in any way take away from the dignity of those events. I will go on to what remains. [a]

Herod reigned four years after the birth of the Lord, for his whole reign covered thirty-seven years. After him came Archelaus the tetrarch, for eight years, and Herod for twenty-four years. Under that Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, the Lord was crucified, when Fufius Geminus and Rubellius Geminus were consuls. From that date to the consulship of Stilicho, three hundred and seventy-two years have passed.