These high prerogatives were considerably reduced by Herod. Before he became king, he had been cited to appear before the Sanhedrin on a charge of illegal execution or murder (Josephus, Antiq. xiv. 9, 2–5). Herod never forgot the insult: and when he came to the throne he took a savage revenge, by the slaughter of the Sanhedrists. During the rest of his life he never allowed them to recover their power; they became a mere shadow, without a vestige of real authority. It has even been asserted that