Both Herods ultimately took their orders from the Romans, and they both show up on the list of rulers who were oppressive to the Jews, partly because there's never that much religious freedom in an empire. Unless you are, wait for it, the Mongols. Or the Persians. Also they were Hellenizers, bringing in Greek theater and architecture and rationalism. And in response to those Hellenistic influences, there were a lot of preachers trying to get the Jews to return to the traditions and the godly ways of the past, including the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Essenes and the Zealots. And one of those preachers, who didn't fit comfortably into any of those four groups, was Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was a preacher who spread his message of peace, love, and above all, justice, across Judea during his actually average-length life for his time.