wrote as many as sixty-two letters in its support (Vita, 363ff.). From two of these, which are quoted, it appears that the work was issued in parts, for Agrippa asks for the rest to be sent to him, while he offers to supplement the information of the writer at their next meeting (70.).
This is undoubtedly a careful piece of work. The writer held the important post of commander of the forces in Galilee at the opening of the war, and throughout the siege of Jerusalem was in attendance in the Roman army. <A great part of his account of the war must have been written from notes made during the events which he de- scribes; though he must also, especially in the opening books, have had access to literary materials. He realized the magnitude and importance of the crisis [his exordium appears to be in imitation of the opening sentences of Thucydides with regard to the Peloponnesian War], and shows a high degree of literary skill in his dramatic presenta- tion of the narrative. His chief defects may be said to be a tendency to exaggeration, especially in the matter of numbers,* and the bias which he shows, writing as he does under Imperial super- vision, in extolling the achievements and the clemency of the Roman generals. Thus his ac- count of the desire of Titus to spare the temple (BJ Vi. 124, 236 ff.) runs counter to that of Sulpicius Severus, probably derived from Tacitus, accord- ing to which the general gave his sanction to its destruction [‘ At contra alii et Titus ipse ever- tendum in primis templum censebant,’ Chron. ii. 30]. His i Hagaraeengs of the Zealots as the only persons to blame for the obstinacy with which the siege was prolonged and the miseries endured, is probably an exaggeration, due to his personal antagonism to his old enemy in Galilee, John of Gischala. The rhetorical speeches which are put into the mouths of the principal actors, here and in the Antiquities, are a device which he shares in common with most ancient historians.
Contents.—Book I. gives a rapid sketch of Jewish history from the capture of Jerusalem by Anti- ochus Epiphanes to the death of Herod. Book It. carries on the history from the accession of Arche- laus to the defeat of Cestius Gallus near Beth- horon, and the Jewish preparations for the war. Book i111. describes the coming of Vespasian and Titus, the siege of Jotapata, and the war in Galilee. Book iv. contains the final scenes of the Galilean campaign, the factions in Jerusalem, and the ad- vance of Vespasian upon the city, from which he is called away to Rome on being elected emperor by his army. Book v. contains a description of the city and the temple, the investment by Titus, and the capture of the first and second walls. Book vi. describes the horrors of the famine and the taking of the castle of Antonia, which is rapidly followed by the burning of the temple and the capture and destruction of the city. Book vu. narrates the return of Titus to Rome, the triumph of the generals, and the capture of Machzrus and Masada, the last strong- holds of the most obstinate Jewish belligerents.
Sources.—The summary in Books I. and It. of the events from Judas Maccabzeus to the outbreak of the war seems to be extracted from some Uni- versal History, which contained occasional refer- ence to Jewish history.’ It is most probable that this source was the great work of Nicolaus of Damascus. A comparison of this part of the work with the corresponding portion of the Anti-
wities, where the description is far more detailed, although there is occasionally verbatim agreement
* Tacitus (Hist. v. 18) gives the total number of the besieged as 600,000. According to Jos. (BJ v. 569) that was the number of the dead among the poorer classes alone, whose bodies were thrown out at the gates.
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JOSEPHUS
between the two works, forms an interesting study.
2. The Antiquitics.—In this comprehensive work Josephus undertook to give a history of his nation from the creation of the world to the outbreak of the Jewish War. He tells us that he had such a work in mind when engaged on his earlier history, of the labour which it cost him, and how, after many misgivings and interruptions, it was only through the encouragement of his patron Epaphro- ditus that he was instigated to complete it (Andé. 1. 6ff.). This Epaphroditus, to whom he dedicated not only the Antiquities but also the Life and the contra Apionem, has often been identified with the freedman and secretary of Nero; but as the latter was put to death by Domitian (Suet. Dom. 14), and the Life at all events was written after the death of that emperor, this view is untenable. Schiirer considers that the patron of Josephus should rather be identified with the grammarian of the name who, according to Suidas, lived in Rome under the emperors from Nero to Nerva, and collected a large library ; the name, however, was not an uncommon one. The opus magnum was at length completed in the thirteenth year of Domitian and in the fifty-sixth of the life of the historian (A.D. 93-94, Ant. xx. 267). The division into twenty books was the writer’s own (id.), and in that arrangement as well as in the title (Iovdatk) *Apxatodoyia) he seems to have taken for his model the great historical work of Dionysius of Halicar- nassus, entitled ‘Pwuatky ’Apxacodroyia.