The death of Herod the Great marked the start of an interval in the history of the kings of the Jews. More than four decades would pass before another would wear their crown. Herod had left a will naming his son Herod Archelaus as his royal successor. But Roman approval was necessary and Augustus Caesar declined to give it. The throne was to be left vacant. Emperor Augustus ruled that Archelaus would have to be satisfied with the less-than-royal rank of ethnarch of Judaea,