The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

which derive without exception from Josephus’ new bias, in our section there is also a factual
statement that has no antecedent in the War. While section 138 [of the War] reports that the
tidings that arrived about Mithridates’ death prompted Pompey to accelerate his attack
against Aristobulus, Ant. 53 recounts that Mithridates met his end [at the hands] of his son
Pharnaces. The presentation also acquires another colouring inasmuch as the particular
circumstances are communicated under which Pompey received the tidings (people arrived
from Pontus) whereas the question is entirely ignored [about] what meaning is attached
to this event within the framework of the narrative. While the War was exclusively
concerned with this, the Antiquities recounts the arrival of the news as something
meaningful in and of itself. Whoever reads only Ant. 53 will therefore ask himself in vain
what this paragraph actually means within the setting of Pompey’s advance; it can be
understood only as an after-effect [Nachwirkung] of War 138 where the arrival of the news
becomes significant for the Jewish War. Thus War 138 is the model for Ant. 53 – but not
exclusively so; for Josephus has supplemented the succinct notes with the material supplied to
him from Theophanes - Strabo. We know from section 4 that Josephus compared Strabo with
the War created [on a basis] from Nicolaus and took notice of further remarks that would be
meaningful to him, in order to use them in the Antiquities. As a matter of fact, Ant. 53 obviously
originates from an eyewitness. The image of people arriving from Pontus with the good news
for Pompey recurs similarly in Plutarch Pompey 41; 58 [161] this has its place in a presentation
of Pompey’s [military] actions but not in a book that is to depict turmoil among the Jews. So
War 138 became the opportunity for Josephus to take note from Strabo of the particular
circumstances under which Pompey received the tidings, and to work these notes into Ant. 53,
where they actually do not belong: The Antiquities can only be explained on the basis of the
War.
6. The siege of Jerusalem
War 141 - 158 = Ant. 57 - 79
The shift in Josephus’ attitude towards Antipater and Aristobulus respectively could
58 Furthermore, compare Josephus 53: τὴν Μιθριδάτου τελευτὴν τὴν ἐκ Φαρνάκου τοῦ παιδὸς
αὐτῷ γενομένην with Plutarch 41: Μιθριδάτης τέθνηκε στασιάσαντος Φαρνάκου τοῦ υἱὸς.
141