Herod had to lease back the royal estate at Jericho from Cleopatra, after Mark Antony had given it to her as a gift. After their joint suicide in 30 BCE, Octavian assumed control of the Roman Empire and granted Herod absolute rule over Jericho, as part of the new Herodian domain. Herod's rule oversaw the construction of a hippodrome-theatre ("Tell es-Samrat") to entertain his guests and new aqueducts to irrigate the area below the cliffs and reach his winter palaces built at the site of "Tulul Abu el-Alaiq" (also written '"Alayiq"). In 2008 the Israel Exploration Society published an illustrated volume of Herod's third Jericho palace.