Flavius Josephus

Biography

Yosef ben Matityahu was a Jerusalem priest and scholar who, at the outbreak of the Great Revolt, was given command of Galilee. Besieged at Jotapata, he survived a suicide pact among the last defenders and surrendered to Vespasian, to whom he famously prophesied imperial power. When the prophecy came true, the grateful Vespasian freed him; Yosef took the family name Flavius and spent the rest of his life in Rome as a Roman citizen, pensioner, and writer. Reviled by many Jews as a traitor and distrusted by Romans as a Jew, Josephus turned his ambiguous position into literature. His 'Jewish War' and 'Jewish Antiquities' are the indispensable narrative sources for first-century Judea, the revolt, and the destruction of the Temple — and contain the only detailed account of Masada. A propagandist, an apologist, and a survivor, he wrote to explain the catastrophe to both peoples: arguing to the Romans that the Jews were an ancient and honorable nation, and to the Jews that resistance to Rome had been a tragic, God-ordained futility.

Key Battles