The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

safety [away] from Mithridates. This is, of course, a purely arbitrary combination that does not
get any better by Josephus’ adding on another quotation from Strabo as confirmation, which
deals with the Jews of Cyrene and, interesting as it is in and of itself, [which] has absolutely
nothing to do with the matter of the temple treasure (115 - 118). In the face of these facts, one
cannot shake the impression that Josephus copied out all the passages in Strabo that
concerned the Jews and with every [possible] [165] means he now attempted to push across
his information, no matter whether or not it was suitable to support the opinions he had just
submitted. So in another added segment (104) Josephus himself then specifies Nicolaus of
Damascus and Strabo as his sources: Nicolaus was copied in the War and Strabo was examined
and excerpted for the reworking of the Antiquities. Both sources were worked into each other
by Josephus in such a way that for him an inner unity arose from this, which he underscored
specifically as such.
Just as Jewish apologetic interests are expressed in the expansions, so also a minor
modification indicates a shift in the point of view. In War 168, Alexander’s mother, allowing
herself to be ruled by her concern for her relatives who were in Roman captivity, adulates
Gabinius [whereas] according to Ant. 90 she has “taken the Roman side”; the contrast is sensed
and expressed more strongly. It appears to be even more important that in the Antiquities
Josephus changes the critical statement of the War in regard to Gabinius’ directives to such an
extent that he replaces the word σύνοδοι (War 170) by συνέδρια (Ant. 91). Regarding this, cf. the
context on page 182 f.
8. Caesar in the Orient
War 187 - 200 = Ant. 127 - 155
The political situation among the Jews is radically altered by the death of Aristobulus,
and the result is that with the sweeping innovations Josephus’ interest in the events also
increases, a fact that reveals itself to us in a shift [in his] evaluation of them. That is to say,
while Aristobulus was alive the conflict between the two brothers was the force that
determined the course of the internal history, and Antipater remained more in the
background, but now begins the critical dispute between the surviving Hasmonean Hyrcanus
and the rising house of the Herodians led by Antipater. I [shall] first compare some details
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