The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

also responsible for this, Josephus adds in the Antiquities that Antony’s sympathy was
determined by the general consideration that even he who stands at the pinnacle of power is
still exposed to strokes of fate. In this way he disengages Antony’s conduct from any interest in
Herod and shifts it over to the general human sphere (section 381). The idea that Antony had
taken “Herod’s virtue” into account, however, was totally impossible: therefore Josephus
deletes the words of the War διὰ τὴν τοῦ παρόντος ἀρετὴν and replaces them in the Antiquities
with the allegation that Antony had allowed himself to be bribed by Herod. This is the same
type of reinterpretation that has already been demonstrated by us on page 185. 68 Later on, the
War had said that Antony was swayed no less by his antagonism towards Antigonus than by his
love for Herod, but the Antiquities inevitably deletes the “love for Herod” and replaces the “no
less” by a “much more”. It ultimately followed logically from the bribery that Herod has aimed
at the kingdom from the outset; the final words of section 382 were composed afresh in this
sense.
Octavian showed himself to be even more willing to [help] Herod than [was] Antony, as
War 283 continues; because he recalled Antipater [195] and Caesar’s joint campaigns in Egypt,
and their intimate hospitality; but he also recognized Herod’s drive. The idea of “Herod’s
drive” was just as intolerable for the Antiquities as was that of his “virtue”. It therefore had to
be abandoned and was replaced in the Antiquities by indicating that Octavian acted for the sake
of Antony who had concerned himself so very much with Herod (383). Admittedly, this
substitution is really just an Ersatz; because it does stand in contradiction to the idea, also
adopted by the Antiquities, that Octavian was even more well-disposed towards Herod than was
Antony; 69 he could really not then possibly have dealt with Herod’s affair for [Antony’s] sake!
68
We also encounter this in a factually less important shift. In the War Josephus recalls that the
same Antony, who has now made Herod king, had previously appointed him as tetrarch. The
Antiquities transfers this information into the mouth of Herod who promises Antony money if
he were to be made king, just as he had previously been appointed tetrarch, so that the
impression arises here that the appointment as tetrarch had occured only through bribery as
well.
69
There can therefore be no thought that Antony, for his part, first had to win Octavian over
for Herod. Now, if Herod appealed to Antony from the outset despite the “even greater
willingness” of Octavian’s disposition, then this is simply the consequence of the actual
attitude that Antony assumed in the east. Certainly, [once] in Rome Herod could discover that
there was a more powerful [man] besides Antony; but we understand that he sought out
Antony first of all.
171