Josephus and Civil War: His Roman Context

Abstract

This dissertation is about Josephus’s portrayal of civil war in his Roman context. The introduction discusses Josephus’s place in Roman literary society, as well as his use of Jewish texts. The first chapter explores two speeches in Josephus’s Jewish War, and how these speeches exemplify Josephus’s awareness of and engagement with Roman, Jewish, and Hellenistic literary themes. In these speeches, Josephus speaks of how the Zealots’ acts of violence precluded them from Temple worship, and how they could avoid disaster by voluntarily repenting and submitting to the Romans. These themes have resonances in Josephus’s various cultural contexts. This chapter also outlines specific dimensions of impurity in Greek and Roman literature that are relevant to Josephus’s literary context. The second chapter is the first of three chapters that compare passages in Josephus’s works to the writings of specific Latin authors. This chapter juxtaposes passages from Josephus’s Jewish War with scenes from Lucan’s Pharsalia. Josephus’s portrayal of the high priest Ananus bears remarkable similarities to Lucan’s representation of Cato in dialogue with Brutus, and both figures are central to depictions of civil war and cultural destruction. The third chapter treats of intrafamilial violence in Josephus’s Antiquities and Statius’s Thebaid. Both authors tell of how intrafamilial violence can create intergenerational patterns that can later doom a populace. Additionally, both texts describe how fratricide in a ruling family can lead to cultural instability and then foreign conquest. The fourth chapter explores two themes in Tacitus’s Annals and Histories and Josephus’s Jewish War and Antiquities. First, Tacitus’s depiction of Vespasian’s victory in a civil war supports Josephus’s descriptions of Vespasian’s leadership qualities. Second, Tacitus’s account of two mutinies adds some dimension to Josephus’s retelling of Korach’s rebellion against Moses. Scholars have debated the extent of Josephus’s integration into Roman literary culture. More recent scholarship has regarded Josephus as a Roman historian. This dissertation adds detail to a picture of Josephus as a Roman writer, and contributes to an understanding of Josephus’s place in Rome as he was coming to terms with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.