The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

talents. And yet this cannot be correct. In fact, the assertion “Hyrcanus’ fortune did not
amount to more than 300 talents” is even a blasphemy that would be a great credit to a
Roman freedman (cf. Epictetus Diatr. 1.26.22), but this does not belong in Josephus’ mouth, so
the continuation is really crucial: ἐπετύγχανον δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων οὐχ ὅσοις ἤλπισαν. Therefore
the preceding [text] must have just expressed that they did not receive what they had
expected in some point or other, 65 and this can only be that instead of the expected 1000
talents they found “no more than 300". Therefore this statement refers to the plunder and not
to Hyrcanus’ fortune, which does not concern the reader in [190] the slightest within this
context. So much for the money.
With regard to the women who were promised, the War relates further on that the
Parthians had admittedly not received the women whom they desired above all, but that they
nevertheless handed the promised rulership over to Antigonus (section 273). The phrase
διημαρτηκότες ὧν μάλιστα ἐπεθυμουν γυναικῶν is also not grammatically unambiguous;
according to a narrow interpretation it means: “although they had not received those very
women whom they desired above all”; but also possible is the interpretation: “although they
had received no women, which they really desired most (i.e. even more than the money)”. The
decision [can] be made [on the basis] of another point; for of course this phrase must have
somehow been factually clarified within the text, and in fact this occurs in [section] 264: Herod
had brought into safety his immediate female relatives, who were at the same time the
immediate relatives of Hyrcanus. In this way, the Parthians had been cheated out of those
women whom they had desired above all – less so, naturally, for erotic reasons than political,
above all in order to obtain a suitable ransom. The War therefore relates that the Parthians
received only 300 talents instead of 1000 and that they were refused those women whom they
had desired above all.
What happens to this report in the Antiquities? The promise remains in its essence even
though it is no longer articulated by Lysias but by Antigonus himself (331). Jerusalem is then
plundered by the Parthians in [section] 363 just as in the War; only Hyrcanus’ fortune is spared:
“but this amounted to approximately 300 talents”. Here is the first misunderstanding. From
the information of the War, which referred to the plunder, [Josephus] now extracts quite
Reinach. vol. 5, 1912.
65 Significantly, Harmand was not able to translate καί!
167