Contents.—In Books 1.-x. the narrative closely follows the Biblical account down to the Baby- lonian captivity. Book xr. embraces the period from the return under Cyrus to Alexander the Great: XII. continues the narrative from the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (R.c. 280) to the death of Judas Maccabzeus (B.C. 161): XIII. gives the history of the Hasmonzan house to the death of Alexandra (B.C. 67): XIV. the history of the brothers Aristobulus 1. and Hyrcanus, the coming of Pompey, and the accession of Herod to the throne of Judsea (B.C. 37): XV., XVI, and the first half of xvil. describe Herod’s reign (B.¢. 37-4): the rest of xvil. the reign of Archelaus (B.C. 4 to 6 A.D.): XVIII. contains a collection of notices with regard to Quirinius, Pilate, Tiberius, Herod Agrippa 1, and the disturbances caused by the order of Gaius to erect his statue in the temple: the greater part of XIX. is occupied with the events leading up to the assassination of Gaius and the accession of Claudius (A.D. 41): the re- mainder of XIX. and Xx. give a summary history of events to the outbreak of the Jewish War in A.D. 66.
Sources.—For the first ten books the principal source was the LXX text of the Bible, with occa- sional recourse to the Hebrew. This was supple- mented by various legends, derived in part from Rabbinic tradition: for these and for the general treatment of the Biblical narrative the reader is referred to the next section of this article. But the Biblical narrative was further supported by quotations from secular historians and documents other than Biblical. Allusion is made to Berosus (I. 93, 107, 158, x. 20, 34, 219), Nicolaus of Damas- cus (I. 94 with other writers, 108 with others, 159 with others, vil. 101), the Sibylline Oracles (I. 118), Alexander Polyhistor (1. 240), for the annals of Tyre to Menander (vim. 144, 324, Ix. 283) and Dius (vii. 147) and the original Tyrian archives (VIII. 55), also to Herodotus (VItt. 157, 253, 260, X. 20), Megasthenes, Diocles, and Philostratus (x. 227f.). In the case of the lists of authorities cited in I. 94, 107f., 158f. (cf. the list in ec. Ap. ii. 84) it should be noted that Nicolaus is quoted last, and it is probable that the other names are simply
taken over from that author, of whom Josephus made considerable use in writing his Antiquities. It is thus not necessary to assume a first-hand acquaintance with all the authors mentioned: a parade of Greek authorities tended to impress the Greek readers for whom the history was written. Freudenthal (Hellenistiche Studien, ‘Alexander Polyhistor,’ 1875) has shown that Josephus was also acquainted with the Hellenistic versions of the Biblical narrative made in the 2nd cent. B.c. by Demetrius and Artapanus; but his knowledge of these was probably indirect, being derived from the extracts made by Alexander Polyhistor or others.
The account of the return from the Captivity is taken from the Greek 1 Esdras, a, slight use being made of the canonical Books of Ezra and Nehe- miah. This is followed by the story of Esther, also taken from the LXX, with the additions peculiar to that version.
The determination of the sources used for the post-Biblical period is a more difficult matter, and in recent times has given rise to considerable dis- cussion. For the next two and a half centuries of Jewish history Josephus has little or no infor- mation; the interval from Nehemiah to Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C. 175) is bridged over by some legends with regard to Alexander (end of Book XI.), a long extract from the Letter of Aristeas, and a story of the mission of Joseph, the nephew of Onias the high priest, to Ptolemy Euergetes (Book xt1.), The account of the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes and the history of the Mac- cabees to the death of Jonathan (B.c. 175-143), is taken from the First Book of Maccabees. There can be no doubt that Josephus used the Greek version of that book, and not, as has been main- tained, the lost Hebrew original; but the almost complete neglect of the last chapters of that book raises a doubt whether they were contained in Josephus’ copy. Some use has been made of Poly- bius, who is quoted in xir. 135 and 358. For the later history of the Hasmonzan houses after the point where the narrative of Polybius ended (B.c. 146), Josephus appears to have been without any special Jewish authorities, and to have derived his information from the sections dealing with the Jews in Universal Histories by Greek writers. His principal sources at this pomt were the lost history of Strabo and the voluminous work (ex- tending to 144 books) of Nicolaus of Damascus, the friend of Herod the Great. From Books xm. to XvI. of the Antiquities references to these two writers are frequent. Nicolaus is quoted in x11. 127, XIII. 250, 347, XIv. 9, 68, 104, xvI. 183 ff.; Strabo in XIII. 286, 319 (344 Timagenes, prob- ably from Strabo, ef. 319), 347, xIv. 35, 68, 104, 111, 114 ff, 138, xv. 10.* It has, however, been maintained by some recent critics that these two authors have not been used except in the above- named passages, and that the narrative is mainly based on some authority who remains nameless. Niese (Hermes, xi. [1876] pp. 466-488) has pointed out that some of the quotations from Strabo are inserted out of place in the history (xiv. 35, 138f.): emphasis is also laid on the kat with which the quotations from historians are intro- duced, as though they were merely intended to cor- roborate an account derived from other sources. These arguments have, however, been sutticiently answered by Schiirer. He has traced the use of Strabo even where he is not named. The mis-