Site of Caesarea Philippi (modern Banias). Through these building projects, Herod sought to appease his insatiable ego, to secure his rule, to provide his people with work and to entice their loyalty and devotion to him. The end of Herod’s reign was filled with civil and domestic unrest, much of it fostered by his own family as various sons fought to inherit the throne. Into this volatile fray came Magi from the East (probably from Parthia, Herod’s old nemesis who had already driven him from Judea