Agrippa (I), a grandson of Herod the Great, was sent to Rome at the tender age of six to be educated in Rome a few years after the execution of his father Aristobolus but just before the death of Herod the Great. His mother Bernice befriended Antonia, the widow of the elder Drusus, and members of an exceptionally well connected Roman family, and was raised with Tiberius' son also named Drusus.
Per Ant 18:145, after the death of his mother Bernice, Agrippa "spent a great deal extravagantly in his daily way of living, and a great deal in the immoderate presents he made, and those chiefly among Caesar's freedmen, in order to gain their assistance."
Unfortunately, Tiberius could not bear to see anyone connected with Drusus after his death, out of extreme grief, and Agrippa lost access to the imperial court. There was a period when the lack of access to his connections within the imperial household had driven him into desperate circumstances, as he could not pay back loans he had racked up.
He had been accepted into the court of Flaccus, the legate of Syria, who he knew from his period in Rome, until he accepted a bribe from a delegation from Damascus to influence Flaccus regarding a territorial dispute between the cities of Damascus and Sidon. Flaccus was a good friend of Agrippa from Agrippa's earlier, happier, days in Rome, and his kinsman Aristobolos was by coincidence also active in the same court circles. Agrippa and Aristobolus were themselves at odds with and distrusted each another on account of their immediate families' rival claims to Herod the Great's legacy. As soon as Aristobolos learned that Agrippa had accepted a bribe from the Damascenes to influence Flaccus with regard to a territorial dispute with the city of Sidon, he used this information to have Agrippa expelled from Flaccus' court.
At the request of his wife, Cypros, his sister Herodias (the wife of the tetrarch Herod Antipas) took pity on Agrippa and secured for him the appointment of market overseer in her new capital, Tiberias. But even this new fortune did not last; his brother-in-law took every opportunity to make Agrippa feel his dependent position. This Agrippa found too much to endure. He resigned his post (this part is directly from Jewish Encyclopedia).
Looks like I telescoped the bribery scandal with the job he got with Antipas by the influence of his sister.
It was after this kerfuffle that he was detained by Herrenius Capito, the procurator of Jamnia, as a debtor to the emperor (he owned the emperor's treasury "three hundred thousand drachmas of silver" per Ant 18:158). He was at the time in a ship in the harbor of Anthedon, ready to sail to Rome in an attempt to reestablish his connections to the Imperial court, and decided he had to make a run for it. He had the crew cut the mooring lines during the night and made a dash for the open sea before Capito's soldiers could prevent it.
Josephus relates that he was definitely in deep debt and was finding it progressively harder to obtain further loans. Those he could secure had so many strings attached that they barely sustained him. In one case he had already defaulted on a financial transaction with the patron, resulting in the lender deducting the arrears from the proceeds of the current loan.
The promised loan from the Alabarch was only partially delivered, only enough to get him to Capri, so he could make an appeal to Tiberius for patronage. Even there he needed to raise further funds to repay the Emperor's fiscus for an earlier loan he had defaulted on repaying. Tiberius got a letter from one of his procurators (small "p") that Agrippa had previously slipped out of a harbor to escape his demand for payment, and Tiberius had to take him aside and remind him that as fond as he was of Agrippa, he couldn't allow this kind of fiscal disrespect to stand.
After raising a partial loan in Alexandria from Alexander the alabarch (brother of Philo and father of Tiberius Julius Alexander who was later Procurator of Judea from 46 to 48 and the Prefect of Egypt from 66 to 69) to pay for travel expenses, he reached Puteoli where he wrote to Tiberius and managed to be invited back into the Emperor's court.
After he arrived at Capri in early 36 CE, and was warmly welcomed back into court, the emperor received a report from Capito describing how Agrippa shamefully escaped his detention, and imposed the condition that Agrippa repay the debt to the treasury before he was welcome back further.
Agrippa managed to secure a loan to pay back the imperial treasury from no less than Antonia, the mother of Germanicus (father of Gaius) and Claudius, who had been close friends with Agrippa's late mother Bernice, and was again granted access to the imperial court.
He was entrusted the education of Tiberius' grandson Tiberius Gemellus and despite their age difference became quite close to Gaius, Antonia's grandson and son of Germanicus.
When Philip the tetrarch died, Gaius appointed Agrippa as a king in his place. So, Agrippa I was King of Batanaea AD 37–41.
“Wikipedia wrote: Josephus relates that Herodias, jealous at Agrippa's success, persuaded Antipas to ask Caligula for the title of king for himself. However, Agrippa simultaneously presented the emperor with a list of charges against the tetrarch: allegedly, he had conspired against Tiberius with Sejanus (executed in 31 AD) and was now plotting against Caligula with Artabanus.
As evidence, Agrippa noted that Antipas had a stockpile of weaponry sufficient for 70,000 men. Hearing Antipas' admission to this last charge, Caligula decided to credit the allegations of conspiracy. In the summer of 39 AD, Antipas' money and territory were turned over to Agrippa, while he himself was exiled.[55] The place of his exile is given by Josephus' Antiquities as in Spain.[56]
Caligula offered to allow Herodias, as Agrippa's sister, to retain her property. However, she chose instead to join her husband in exile.[57]
Antipas died in exile.[58]”
After the deposing of Antipas, Gaius added Antipas' territory to his territory in Batanea in AD 40.
When Gaius was assassinated Agrippa was instrumental in securing the acceptance of Claudius as his successor. As a consolation, Claudius appointed him King of all Judaea AD 41, and he reigned close to 4 years before he died around 44 CE.
