Herod the Great

Our historical knowledge of Herod the Great (37 to 4 B.C.) depends almost entirely on what the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus has left us on the subject (Jewish antiques, books XIV to XVII and the Jewish War, book I). It takes up, sometimes explicitly, entire passages from the now extinct work of Nicolas de Damas, official historian to the court of Herod the Great. 

Even if Flavius Josephus here and there corrects passages that are clearly self-indulgent, he seems to have drawn faithfully on the discourse of the historian contemporary with the events, sometimes supplemented by additions or complements from other ancient authors such as Strabo.