Herod's bronze prutot were issued under Roman authorization following his appointment as "King of the Jews" by the Senate in 37 BC — a title backed by Antony and Octavian, but requiring three years of military campaigning before Herod actually controlled the territory he'd been given. The coins carefully avoided human imagery, a concession to Jewish religious sensibility that Herod, himself of Idumean rather than Judean descent, could not politically afford to ignore.
The 40–4 BC date range spans his entire reign, though precise regnal dating of individual prutah types remains contested among specialists working from Hendin's sequence.
Herod's bronze prutot were issued under Roman authorization following his appointment as "King of the Jews" by the Senate in 37 BC — a title backed by Antony and Octavian, but requiring three years of military campaigning before Herod actually controlled the territory he'd been given. The coins carefully avoided human imagery, a concession to Jewish religious sensibility that Herod, himself of Idumean rather than Judean descent, could not politically afford to ignore.
The 40–4 BC date range spans his entire reign, though precise regnal dating of individual prutah types remains contested among specialists working from Hendin's sequence.