Flavius Josephus Between Jerusalem And Rome

It is fatal to show pity in a time of war. Led by the mighty Titus, the Roman army besieges Jerusalem. Arrows rain over the city day and night, and battering rams assault its defensive walls. Inside, the people curse their fate, resistant to the last but maddened by hunger. After days of rebellion, al last their city falls. The citizens plead for mercy - but as the Romans march on the Temple of Masada, the most sacred sanctuary of the Jewish people, flaming torches blaze above their heads . . .

Flavian Rome has most often been studied without serious attention to its most prolific extant author, Titus Flavius Josephus. Josephus, in turn, has usually been studied for what he is writing about (mainly, events in Judaea) rather than for the context in which he wrote: Flavian Rome. For the first time, this book brings these two phenomena into critical engagement, so that Josephus may illuminate Flavian Rome, and Flavian Rome, Josephus. Who were his likely audiences or patronsin Rome? How did the context in which he wrote affect his writing? What do his narratives say or imply about that context? This book brings together contributions from leading international scholars of Josephus and Flavian-Roman history and literature.

Josephus’ account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a Rome-appointed negotiator, and so was uniquely placed to observe these turbulent events, from the siege of Jerusalem to the final heroic resistance and mass suicides at Masada. His account provides much of what we know about the history of the Jews under Roman rule, with vivid portraits of such key figures as the Emperor Vespasian and Herod the Great. Often self-justifying and divided in its loyalties, The Jewish War nevertheless remains one of the most immediate accounts of war, its heroism and its horrors, ever written.

(Revised and expanded edition; commentary by Paul L. Maier) Unabridged. Includes harmony of Greek and English numbering systems, table of Jewish weights and measures, Old Testament text parallels, twenty full-page illustrations, and an updated index.

"An audacious history of Josephus (37-c.100), the Jewish general turned Roman historian, whose emblematic betrayal is a touchstone for the Jew alone in the Gentile world"--Dust jacket flap.