Yeah, that last is probably dead-on. The Romans had to conquer the region.
King Herod the Great
http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodians/herod_the_great01.html
I found another posting of this story despite the search I ran before I posted (surprise, surprise). It had a neat picture of an actual participant at the Jerash hippodrome but I don't know how to copy and transfer it.