The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

asic concept, to all Hellenistic rights of kingship; consequently it can be said, for example,
also of Aristobulus that he has surpassed his brother in power, [during the time] when
Hyrcanus was king (War 120). According to this, when Aristobulus and Hyrcanus trade palaces
pursuant to their arrangement, [135] then this indicates that Hyrcanus is to assume the
official position of king’s brother, which Aristobulus has occupied until now. The Antiquities
deliberately twists this view around by eliminating the statement, “Hyrcanus is to enjoy the
other honours as the king’s brother” and turns it into the opposite by noting, “he should live
free from the affairs of state by consuming his personal property undisturbed”; for in this way
Hyrcanus is stepping down from public life. And in order to impress this idea firmly upon the
reader, the Antiquities further inserts the addition in section 7 “as a commoner”. Therefore the
position of Hyrcanus in the Antiquities has been quite deliberately reduced in comparison to
[his position in] the War.
That the view of the War is the correct one follows from [the fact that] at the conclusion
of the agreement both parties to it had roughly equivalent cards in their hands: Aristobulus
had scored the military victory, Hyrcanus had power over Aristobulus’ family as valuable
hostages. If Hyrcanus had been as crushed as the Antiquities claims, then the author would not
at all have needed to give an account first of Hyrcanus’ advantages, which were not even really
exploited. Above all, however, the Antiquities did not at all even draw the final implications
from its outlook; because logically the information that Hyrcanus acquired Aristobulus’ palace
should also have been deleted; but this was not possible because of the continuation of the
narrative, and so the insertion “as a commoner” should at least prevent one from drawing the
conclusions from the acquisition of the palace, which must have imposed themselves upon the
Greek reader. As a result it is proven that the Antiquities has brought a new view into a fixed
framework, [which] had been furnished by the War; it is not new facts that exist in the
Antiquities, rather, the facts that were reported in the War have been
reinterpreted, but in such a way that the reinterpretation could not be carried through to
the end.
Why were these changes introduced into the Antiquities? – Hyrcanus later attempted to
revolt against Aristobulus; if he did this as “the king’s brother” then he was no better than
Aristobulus who had provided the example for [such behaviour]. If, on the other hand, he had
become a commoner and had acknowledged this status by [formal] agreement then [136] his
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