Selections From Josephus

Flavius Josephus lived through one of history's most catastrophic collapses. Born a Jewish priest in Jerusalem, he later became a Roman captive and citizen who wrote history from the losing side of the greatest tragedy in Jewish history: the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 CE. This collection gathers his essential writings, including his firsthand account of the Jewish War, his biography of the despot king Herod the Great, and his monumental history of the Jewish people from creation to revolt. Josephus is our primary non-Biblical source for this pivotal era, a man who watched friends die in siege warfare, who surrendered to the enemy, who spent the rest of his life translating the catastrophe of his people into Greek for Roman audiences. The tension between his loyalty to his heritage and his survival under imperial patronage makes every sentence crackle. These are ancient texts, but they read like dispatches from a burning city: urgent, desperate, unforgettable.