¹ On Masada, see Feldman, Louis H., “Masada: A Critique of Recent Scholarship,” in Neusner, Jacob, ed., Christianity, Judaism and Other Greco-Roman Cults: Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty (Leiden: Brill, 1975) 214–48Google Scholar, now updated in Feldman, Louis H., Josephus and Modern Scholarship (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 1984)Google Scholar, to which may be added Cohen, Shaye J. D., “Masada: Literary Tradition, Archaeological Remains, and the Credibility of Josephus,” JJS 33 (1982) 385–405Google Scholar, and Stern, Menahem, “The Suicide of Eleazar Ben Jair and His Men at Masada,” Zion 47 (1982) 367–97 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar

² Thackeray, Henry St. John, Josephus the Man and the Historian (New York: Jewish Institute of Religion, 1929) 35Google Scholar, thinks Bell. 7 was composed without the aid of assistants and is a later addition to Bell. He does not give specific evidence. Shutt, Robert J. H., Studies in Josephus (London: SPCK, 1961) 31Google Scholar, also notes the stylistic peculiarity of the book. Cohen, Shaye J. D., Josephus in Galilee and Rome: His Vita and Development as an Historian (Leiden: Brill, 1979) 87–88Google Scholar, dates the book as a whole to the reign of Domitian.

³ Suetonius Titus 5.3.

⁴ See Cohen, “Masada,” 385ff.

⁵ Weber, Wilhelm, Josephus und Vespasian (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1921) 64–65Google Scholar: Josephus's declaration (7.453) that Catullus's illness is a demonstration that God punishes the wicked is “keine moralische Binsenwahrheit,” but sums up the theme of the entire work, which begins with Antiochus IV's desecration of the Temple. Antiochus was another wicked man punished by God. This analysis hardly needs refutation—especially since Bell. does not mention Antiochus's punishment. In any case, that God, in his providence, punishes the wicked is one of the stated themes of Ant. (e.g., 1.20ff) not Bell.

⁶ See Cohen, Josephus in Galilee and Rome, 87–89.

⁷ See Ritterling, Emil, “Military Forces in the Senatorial Provinces,” JRomS 17 (1927) 29Google Scholar, followed by Applebaum, Shimon, Jews and Greeks in Ancient Cyrene (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1969) 193Google Scholar; Smallwood, E. Mary, The Jews under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian (SJLA 20; Leiden: Brill, 1976) 370Google Scholar; Eck, Werner, “Die Eroberung von Masada,” ZNW 60 (1969) 286 n. 26.Google Scholar

⁸ For a summary of his career, see Dessau, Hermann, Stein, Arthur et al., Prosopographia Imperii Romani (Berlin: Reimer, 1897–) 1 V 41Google Scholar; Sherwin-White, A. N., The Letters of Pliny (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966) n. ad Ep. 4.22.7Google Scholar; Jones, Brian W., Domitian and the Senatorial Order (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1979) 4, 119.Google Scholar That he was not technically a delator, but a senator who employed delatores to denounce his colleagues, as Sherwin-White observes, is of little importance for my argument.

⁹ The identification is explicitly rejected by Michel, Otto and Bauernfeind, Otto, Der Judische Krieg (Munich: Kösel-Verlag, 1969) vol. 4. ad loc.Google Scholar It is implicitly rejected by Groag, “Catullus” 3, PW 3 col. 1976; Hanslik, “Valerius” 127, PW 7A col. 2411; Eck, Werner, Senatoren von Vespasian bis Hadrian (Munich: Beck, 1970) 118Google Scholar; Jones, Domitian and the Senatorial Order, 119; Eck, Werner, “Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter,” Chiron 12 (1982) 290–91.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Tacitus Agricola 45 seems more or less explicit about the fact that Messalinus survived Agricola, who died in late August in the consulship of Collega and Priscinus (93). Furthermore, Tacitus implies that Messalinus lived at least into the very last years of Domitian's reign.

¹¹ See Eck, Senatoren, 1. Catullus, “hegemon of the Libyan Pentapolis,” was certainly proconsul of the province, not a procurator; see ibid., 118 n. 35.

¹² ibid., 64 n. 50. The only known Catulli in the first century are Valerii Catulli, and they are not numerous; see PIR 2, s. v. Catullus.

¹³ The swift elevation from praetorian proconsul to consul ordinarius was probably Vespasian's thanks for Catullus's swift and profitable handling of the Cyrenaean revolt (see below).

¹⁴ It is of little significance that Catullus is said to have become ill “not long” after the Cyrene affair (7.451). Josephus did not have much feeling for chronology—e.g., he gives the impression (7.158) that the Templum Pacis was dedicated immediately after the triumph; in fact, four years intervened. In any case, Josephus was not above distorting facts to make a point. Catullus's illness, as described by Josephus, is a topos; cf. Bell. 1.656; 5.384–85; Ant. 9.101; 17.169; C. Apion. 2.143–44; 2 Macc 9:5; Acts 12:22–23 with parallels adduced by Wettstein, Johann Jakob, Hē Kainē Diathēkē (Amsterdam, 1752) 2. 530ff.Google Scholar

¹⁵ See Laqueur, Richard Albrecht, Der Jūdische Historiker Flavius Josephus (Giessen, 1920Google Scholar; reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1970). Laqueur did not treat Bell. 7. A reevaluation of his theory concerning books 1–6 will have to await another occasion.

¹⁶ I.e., together with books 1–6. For this date of publication of Bell. see Stern, Menahem, “The Date of Composition of the ‘Jewish War,’” in Proceedings of the Sixth World Congress of Jewish Studies (in Hebrew; Jerusalem: Jerusalem Academic Press, 1975) 2. 31ffGoogle Scholar; Cohen, Josephus in Galilee and Rome, 84–90; Schwartz, Seth, “Josephus and Judaism from 70 to 100 C.E.” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1985) 19ff.Google ScholarStern, , Historia shel 'Am Yisrael 1.9 (Jerusalem: Am Oved, 1983) 92–93, has now expressed reservations.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Cf. Weber, Josephus und Vespasian, 55.

¹⁸ Weber (ibid.) thought the summary reflects the order of an early version of Bell. He failed to observe that Josephus changes the order of events in the summary because the summary has a literary organization of its own. It is somewhat unlikely that the conquest of the fortresses should in any draft have preceded Titus's tour and homecoming, since the events under Bassus and Silva presuppose Titus's departure from Judaea.

¹⁹ Cf., e.g., Bell. 1.22 with 3.35–109, and 1.25 with 5.1–53.

²⁰ Cf. Weber, Josephus und Vespasian, and Cohen, Josephus in Galilee and Rome, 87.

²¹ See evidence collected in works cited in n. 16. See also Stern, Menahem, “Josephus and the Roman Empire,” in Josephus Flavius: Historian of Ereẓ Israel in the Hellenistic-Roman Period (in Hebrew; Jerusalem: Yad Iẓhak Ben Zvi, 1982) 238ff.Google Scholar

²² Included in this section was perhaps the account of the closure of the Temple of Onias (7.421–36); see n. 34 below.

²³ Praise of the entire gens Flavia is typical of works written under Domitian; see n. 24.

²⁴ Writers working under Domitian were usually careful to praise the gens Flavia (membership in which was Domitian's sole claim to the throne): e.g., Silius Italicus Punka 3.595ff; Valerius Flaccus Argonautica 1.502ff. (On date see Syme, Ronald, “The ‘Argonautica’ of Valerius Flaccus,” CQ 23 [1929] 129ff.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁵ On the royal family of Commagene see Sullivan, Richard D., “Priesthoods of the Eastern Dynastic Aristocracies,” in Sahin, Sencer, Schwertheim, Elmar, and Wagner, Jörg, eds., Studien zur Religion und Kultur Kleinasiens: Festschrift F. K. Dörner (ÉPRO 66; Leiden: Brill, 1978) 184–93Google Scholar; Idem, “The Dynasty of Commagene,” ANRW 2.8 (ed. Temporini, Hildegard; Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 1977) 732–98Google Scholar; Peter M. Fraser, “The Kings of Commagene and the Greek World,” in Festschrift F. K. Dörner, 2. 359–74. Fraser discusses the family's interest in Greek culture, an interest perhaps best illustrated by the mausoleum of Philopappus on the hill of the Muses in Athens; see Santangelo, Maria, Annaurio delta Scuola Archeologica di Atene 3–5 (1941–1943) 153ffGoogle Scholar, and Kleiner, Diana, “The Monument of Philopappus,” Archaeologica 30 (1983).Google Scholar

²⁶ ILS 9200 proves that the princes were in fact retrieved from Parthia by Roman troops.

²⁷ This is mentioned by Plutarch Quaestiones convivales 1.10.1: Φιλόπαππος Βασιλεὺς ⋯γωνοθετ⋯ν ⋯νδόξως κα⋯ μεγαλοπρεπ⋯ς, ταῖς ϕυλαῖς ⋯μο⋯ πάσαις χορηγ⋯ν.

²⁸ PIR 2 I 151 follows IG. For redating, see Notopoulos, James A., Hesperia 18 (1949) 12Google Scholar, and Jones, Christopher P., Plutarch and Rome (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971) 27 n. 52.Google Scholar

²⁹ IG II/III 2 3451 (= OGIS 409). OGIS 410–13 show that Philopappus attached great importance to his ancestry and called himself basileus. His mausoleum housed statues of his father, grandfather, and even his remote ancestor Seleucus Nicator.

³⁰ Decabalus, king of Dacia, and Pacorus, king of Parthia, were thought to have been in contact before and during the Dacian war; see CAH 11, 239.

³¹ See Jones, Plutarch and Rome, 49–64.

³² On the family relationship, see Sullivan, “Priesthoods.”

³³ Petersen, Hans, “Real and Alleged Literary Projects of Josephus,” AJP 79 (1958) 267ff.Google Scholar Petersen seems unaware of this passage.

³⁴ In the Ant. 13 account of Onias's flight to Egypt and construction of the temple (Ant. 13.72—composed ca. 90), Josephus refers to his description of the vessels of Onias's temple “in the seventh book of the Judaica.” If this cross-reference was not added in a late edition of Ant. it shows that Ur-Bell. 7 or the Domitianic book contained accounts of the origins and closure of Onias's temple (421–35). The final edition will then have added the material on the sicarii.

³⁵ The condemnation of the sicarii is strongly reminiscent of the admiration of martyrdom expressed in C. Apion. 1.42–43; 2.218; 2.227ff; 2.272; 2.294 (cf. Bell. 2.152, on the martyrdom of the Essenes). Thackeray, n. ad 7.427, suggests that the last section of Bell. 7 is a late addition. He does not elaborate.

³⁶ Cf. Pliny Panegyricus 33.4–35.

³⁷ See Musurillo, Herbert A., The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954) 44–45Google Scholar; CPJ 2. 157.

³⁸ The character of the disturbance is unknown since the top of col. 1 is broken off. But the fact of disturbances is clear from the content of the remainder and from the comment of Trajan to the Greeks at lines 35–39: χαιρετίζετέ με ὡς ἄξιοι τυγχάνοντ[ες] το⋯ χαιρεῖν, τοια⋯τα χαλεπ⋯ τολμήσαντε[ς] Ἰουδαίοις.

³⁹ The Alexandrians brought a bust of Sarapis (lines 50–51); unfortunately, what god the Jews brought cannot be determined—the papyrus is broken.

⁴⁰ Some of the Greek ambassadors are known historical figures. Paulus of Tyre was a prominent lawyer; Dionysius may be identical with a Greek grammaticus and government official of that name; Julius Salvius may have been related to the jurist Salvius Julianus. See CPJ 2. 85–86; Musurillo, Acts, 186ff. The “Acts” are generally considered propagandistic accounts of real events.

⁴¹ That the Greeks sent their embassy first suggests that they did not start the disturbances. The comment of Trajan at lines 35–37 (see above) is part of the portrayal of the emperor as anti-Greek.

⁴² The miracle is perhaps introduced to explain how the pro-Jewish emperor came to be convinced by Greek claims.

⁴³ See Musurillo, Acts, 168; Smallwood, Jews under Roman Rule, 389–90.

⁴⁴ This is alluded to already in the “Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians” (CPJ 2. 153). It is possible that lines 71–72 of POxy 1242 refer to the “Letter.” However, the fragmentary nature of the text makes this uncertain; Musurillo, Acts, 178, suggests a different interpretation.

⁴⁵ V. Jos. was published 97/98, a date guaranteed by two facts: (1) Agrippa II's death is mentioned (V. Jos. 359); (2) Epaphroditus, Josephus's patron, was still alive (V. Jos. 430). Agrippa's latest coin is dated as t h e year 35, using an era starting 60/61, so the king died not before, but probably not long after, 95/96 (see my “Josephus and Judaism,” 30–32). Epaphroditus is most likely the Greek grammaticus M. Mettius Epaphroditus, who died no later than early 98. See Laqueur, Der Jüdische Historiker, 23–30. For the date, see Suidae Lexicon (ed. Adler, Ada; Leipzig: Teubner, 1931) 334–35.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Pliny Ep. 4.22.4ff shows that Catullus predeceased his friend Nerva, who died 25 January 98. Catullus could thus have been alive when V.Jos. was published. Even if he was dead, Josephus may have considered it prudent not to insult his memory during Nerva's lifetime.