HERODIANS

A sect existing among the Jews at the period of our Saviour's preaching. (See Matthew, c. xvi.; Mark, c. viii. v. 15.) Much doubt exists as to their history and tenets: some commentators, both ancient and modern, imagine that they were fanatics, who regarded Herod the Great as the Me iah; others, that they were a mere political party, attached to the family of Herod; while a third opinion (Bergier, Dictionnaire de Theologie) is, that they supported some innovations attempted by Herod in the religious observances of the country by the partial introduction of Pagan usages. (See Milman's History of Christianity, i. 311.) HEROIC VERSE, that appropriated to epic or heroic poetry: in Greek and Latin, the hexameter. In English, Italian, and German, the iambic of ten syllables, either with or without the additional short syllable. In French, the iambic of twelve syllables. See Epic, Hexameter. [s. 566]