The First Kirillo-Belozerskij, N° 15 (Kir)
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INTRODUCTION 21 the First Makary, N° 6 (Mak), the First Barsov (Bars), the Rumjancev, N° 28 (Rum), the First Kirillo-Belozerskij, N° 15 (Kir). Conjectures suggested by V. M. lstrin in his Paris edition and by Berendts in the notes to his translation have also been introduced into the variant readings. These conjectures and corrections according to other copies are given in the footnotes, and are immediately followed by the surname of the researcher. References to the text of Malalas' chronicle are given according to V. M. Istrin's edition (see bibliography). After the book (indicated in Roman numerals), the page and line of the edition are indicated in Arabic numerals. References to the text of Hamartolus' chronicle are given according to V. M. lstrin's edition: Xronika Georgija Amartola v drevnem slavjanorusskom perevode (The Chronicle of George Hamartolus in the Old Slavorussian Translation), vol. I (text), Petrograd, 1920. The pages and lines of this edition are indicated by numerals. The layout of the text of the History in chapters and parts corresponds to Niese's edition (Berlin, 1894). However, unlike Berendts' translation and Istrin's edition, in which paragraphs are indicated in accordance with Niese's divisions, we do not keep to these divisions, since in the Old Russian translation, the text is at times so divergent from the Greek original that frequently it is not possible to make the paragraphs conform on a line-to-line basis. V JOSEPHUS FLAvrus; HIS LIFE AND WORK; HIS IDEOLOGY; RECEPTION OF HIS WORK BY JEWS AND CHRISTIANS; THE GREEK TEXT AND EARLY TRANSLATIONS. Josephus Flavius' History of the Jewish War45 is one of the outstanding works of world literature. Its author, Josephus, son of Matthias, who received from the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus their family cognomen Flavius, is one of the outstanding authors of antiquity. A Jew by birth, he wrote in Greek for Roman readers. One of the active participants in the national insurrection against the worldwide domination of the slave-owning empire of Rome, he went over 45 The first name, in Greek: Historia Ioudaikou polemou pros Romaious or Ioudaika; Ioudaika pragmateia, undoubtedly belongs to the author himself, who thus entitled his work. This is corroborated by the earliest Greek copies, and in particular the Paris Codex 1425 bis (10- 11 th centuries), on which the text of the critical edition is based. Secondly, such was the title by which the work was known to Josephus' earliest excerptors: Theophilus of Antioch (Theophilus ad Auto[., II, pp. 248, 253), Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia Ecclesiastica, I, 5, 6), Stephanus of Byzantium (Phasalis) and others. Elsewhere Eusebius, like Porphyrius, praises the text of Josephus' book under the title 'The Jewish History, in Seven Books'. The work is given precisely the same name in the earlier Vatican copy of its Latin version, where we read: Historiarum Josephi libri VII. Certain copies, as well as a series of later writers cite, not only this title, but another: /oudaika Historia peri haloseos or peri haloseos [Codex Marcianus (M), Laurentianus (L), Vatican 148 CV)]. This second title, which probably arose at a later date, was also reflected in the Old Russian version, whose title is closest to L. See Niese, preface, pp. III-IV. (Henceforth all references to the Greek original of the work according to this edition will be given as: Niese, with page number.) 22 JOSEPHUS' JEWISH WAR AND ITS SLAVONIC VERSION to the enemy at the height of the war and obtained the protection of his new rulers, to whose glorification he devoted his gifts. He depicts the tragic events associated with his people's struggle for liberation and their brutal suppression as an eye-witness directly involved in them. His labours were, and have indeed remained highly important, practically the only source for the history of the era he depicts. However, Josephus is not only a historian, but a poet as well; he is at one and the same time the Thucydides and the Homer of the events he describes. It is for this very reason that his works enjoyed great popularity and have not lost their artistic value to the present day. The History of the Jewish War is Josephus Flavius' first book. It was written not earlier than AD 75, since in Book VII the construction of the temple of Peace in Rome is mentioned,46 which dates from that year; on the other hand, it cannot have been written later than AD 79, the year of Vespasian's death, since the latter, according to the author, had read the Jewish War, approved of its contents and recommended the work to his retinue. 47 The History of the Jewish War consists of seven books preceded by a preface in which the author informs his readers of his purpose in writing the work, and gives a brief summary of the contents of all seven books. Book I, in 35 chapters, covers the period from the capture of Jerusalem by the Emperor Antioch us in 175 BC up to the death of Herod the First ( 4BC). Book II, consisting of 22 chapters, sets forth events from the accession to the throne of Herod's son, Archelaus, up to the beginning of the victorious uprising against the Romans in AD 66. Book III gives in ten chapters an account of the war waged by Vespasian in Galilee (AD 67). Book IV (11 chapters) begins with the tale of the capture of Gamala and ends with an account of Vespasian's confirmation as Emperor (AD 67-69). Books V (14 chapters) and VI (10 chapters) describe the siege, storming and final capture of Jerusalem by Titus. In Book VII, consisting of eleven chapters, the triumph of Vespasian and Titus in Rome is narrated, together with the final submission of the Jews and the unsuccessful attempted insurrections in Egypt and Cyrenaica (AD 71-73). In the preface to The Jewish War, Josephus relates how the original version was written in his "mother tongue," i.e. evidently Aramaic, the language of the Jews who lived in the lands of "Upper Barbary," beyond the Euphrates in Mesopotamia. This version was subsequently rendered into Greek for Roman readers, with the help of 'assistants', as we are told in Against Apion. 48 But it is possible that information of this sort was simply a literary device intended to gain the reader's interest. The literary style of The Jewish War differs significantly from that of Josephus' other works. Its structure is more poetic and rhetorical. This is particularly obvious in the lengthy speeches placed by the author in the mouths of the characters. It is also true of his own speeches, since he usually speaks of himself in the third person. This device, which Josephus appropriated from the historians of Greece and Rome (Thucydides, Titus Livy), fills historical works with a propagandist element, since it is primarily the political views of the author which are expressed in the speeches. Compare, for example, in The Jewish War, Agrippa's speech (Book II, chp. XVI, pt. 4) and the speech of Josephus himself with the exhortation to the besieged insurrectionaries in Jerusalem (Book IV, chp. IX, pt. 3; Book VI, chp. II, pt. l); in all of them the same arguments in favour of reconciliation with Rome are adduced: the 46 Jewish War, Book VII, chp. V, pt. 7 47 Josephus Flavius. Autobiography, §361; ContraApionem, Book I, chp. 50 48 Contra Apionem, Book I, chp. 50; see also Jewish Antiquities, Book XX, chp. 26 .