The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

understanding, and thus Josephus boasts with pride that as a 14-year-old lad he was already
admired by all on account of his knowledge, even before he had passed through the upper
school (7 - 12). In other words, [51] in its introduction the Life explains with greater detail the
thoughts that had been suggested in Ant. 20.262 ff., in order to prove thereby the factual
knowledge of the author.
Antiquities 20.262 ff., however, is just as closely related to the combat against Justus. He
had given himself way too much credit for his Greek education that he had the audacity to
write on this basis, against which Josephus had explained: granted, you may be superior to me
formally, but I have the factual knowledge (cf. page 33). Exactly the same is stated in Ant. 20.262
- 266, only in sharper terms: to speak Greek — just like Justus does (Life 40) — [is something]
every slave can learn, but only I have the factual knowledge necessary for historical
presentation. Thus Justus is attacked in 262 ff., and his work is designated as slave labour.
Furthermore Josephus, proud of himself, explains: I am writing my biography ἕως ἔχω
ζῶντας ἢ τοὺς ἐλέξοντας ἢ τοὺς μαρτυρήσοντας (Ant. 20.266), but you, Justus, did not
publish your work which was completed long ago ζώντων Οὐεσπασιανοῦ καὶ Τίτου...., from
whom you could have received τῆς ἀκριβείας τὴν μαρτυρίαν ... νῦν δ’, ὅτ’ ἐκεῖνοι μὲν οὐκέτ’
εἰσὶν μεθ’ ἡμῶν, ἐλεγχθῆναι δ’ οὐ νομίζεις, τεθάρρηκας (Life 359 - 360); and so once again: Ant
20.266 is directed against Justus. But because the Life is being prepared for here, therefore this
is also aimed against Justus, i.e. by οἱ διαβάλλειν ἡμᾶς πειρώμενοι (Life 6) nobody else is to be
understood but Justus himself who had maligned Josephus (Life 338; C. Ap. 1.53; cf. page 16).
Now an objection will be raised without further ado: the antagonism between Josephus
and Justus that we discussed above pertains to the presentation of the war that both men
produced in competition. By comparison, in Ant. 20.262 ff. and correspondingly in the sections
of the Life mentioned [above] Josephus stresses exclusively his particular qualification for
composing the Antiquities which he like no other — neither Jew nor foreigner — was capable
of producing with such accuracy. The contradiction that exists here is solved by the
observation that Justus, like Josephus, did not portray only the Roman-Jewish War, rather he
was known (PW 10.1344 ff.) to have composed in addition a chronicle which entered into a
similar competition with Josephus’ Antiquities: therefore the same questions play a role here
[52] as in the previous case. The decisive proof for this close connection is supplied by C. Ap.
1.54: in the middle of the defence of his history of the war which is directed against Justice, the
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