In the Christmas story, King Herod orders the execution of males age 2 and under in Bethlehem. Historicity of the story aside, would Herod actually have had the power to do this, and what would his Roman overseers think of his actions?

Something to keep in mind is that Bethlehem was small at the time so only about 7-10 children would have died. Josephus never mentioned the event so it’s possible that it wasn’t every widely known about (if it happened and wasn’t a rumor, the event is only mentioned in the book of Mathew). Other than that, keeping in mind that my knowledge of Roman client king laws is limited, so take this advice with a grain of salt, he probably didn’t have the right to do it but at the same time what Roman official is going to get his toga in a bunch over some dead babies in a backwater town in a backwater province.