fearless of the consequences, he vents his anger on the moral corruption of harrod, the puppet rulerpalestine's roman overlord. >> herod, i'm here to warn you! >> in the first century, in the roman world, you weren't allowed to criticize the ruler. so someone like herod had his own private army. he was watching everything very carefully. >> the servant of god speaks plainly. >> herod was the worst kind of leader that you could hope for. he really needed to prove himself to rome and because of that he was a little bit overzealous, let's say. >> with the protection of rome, herod antipas rules galley with all the contempt of an autocrat. but herod has made his first serious miscalculation. he's turned his back on jewish law by marrying his brother's wife, herodeus. >> this was in violation of a law in leviticus which says a man must not uncover the nakedness of his brother's wife. >> it's the wife of your brother. >> john the baptist was very critical of the political regime. in particular, he was critical of herod for having married his brother's wife, and he was critical of their imm