Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 14:11

"And his head was brought on a platter, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother." — Matthew 14:11 (ASV)

She brought it to her mother — A look at the later history of those who were accomplices in this bloody deed is fitting here. Shortly after the new community for which John had prepared the way began its great mission, her brother, the young Agrippa, obtained the title of king through the favor of Caligula. At that point, Herodias, consistent in her ambition, urged her husband to seek the same honor. To this end, she accompanied him to Rome. However, they were followed by complaints from the oppressed Galileans, and as a result, he was deposed from his tetrarchy and banished to Lugdunum (modern-day Lyons) in Gaul. She accompanied him there, remaining faithful to him in his downfall, despite offers from her brother to return to Judea. They both died in exile (Josephus, Antiquities 18.7.2).

A tradition or legend says that Salome’s death was retributive in its outward form: she fell on the ice, and in the fall, her head was severed from her body. Josephus, however, simply records that she first married her great-uncle Philip, the Tetrarch of Trachonitis, and later married her first cousin, Aristobulus (Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.4).