Herod was born in (or around) 72 BCE in Idumea, south of Judea. He was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high-ranking official under ethnarch Hyrcanus II, and Cypros, a Nabatean Arab. Herod's father was by descent an Edomite, whose ancestors had converted to Judaism. Herod was raised as a Jew. Strabo, a contemporary, held that the Idumaeans, whom he identified as of Nabataean origin, constituted the majority of the population of Western Judea, where they commingled with the Judaeans and adopted their customs. This is a view shared also by some modern scholarly works which consider Idumaeans as of Arab or Nabataean origins. Thus Herod was ethnically an Arab from both sides.