Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, had succeeded, since the year 41, in reconstituting the kingdom of his grandfather. Thanks to the favor of Caligula, he had reunited under his domination Batania, Trachonites, a part of the Hauran, Cibilene, Galilee, and the Persea.[14.1] The ignoble part which he played in the tragi-comedy which raised Claudius to the empire,[14.2] completed his fortune. This vile Oriental, in return for the lessons of baseness and perfidy he had given to Rome, obtained for himself Samaria and Judea, and for his brother Herod the kingdom of Chalcis.[14.3] He had left at Rome the worst memories, and the cruelties of Caligula were attributed in part to his counsels.[14.4] The army and the pagan cities of Sebaste and Cesarea, which he sacrificed to Jerusalem, were averse to him.[14.5] But the Jews found him to be generous, munificent, and sympathetic. He sought to render himself popular with them, and affected a polity quite different from that of Herod the Great. The latter was much more regardful of the Greek and Roman world than of the Jewish. Herod Agrippa, on the contrary, loved Jerusalem, rigorously observed the Jewish religion, affected scrupulousness, and never let a day pass without attending to his devotions.[14.6] He went so far as to receive with mildness the advice of the rigorists, and took the trouble to justify himself from their reproaches.[14.7] He returned to the Hierosolymites the tribute which each house owed to him.[14.8] The orthodox, in a word, had in him a king according to their own heart.