The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

Now that matters and their development present themselves clearly to us in this sense,
and there can no longer possibly be any doubt about the correctness of our view, we still
require an explanation for [the fact] that Josephus believed he had to portray his attitude to
Tarichea and Tiberias in such a different manner. The influx of new historical sources can
never ever be the reason for this; because the personal experiences and actions of the author
himself are being dealt with here, and he knew precisely about all matters from the beginning;
furthermore we saw that no new facts at all were added, but only new perceptions
[Beleuchtungen] of [matters] that were reported long ago, such that every later report of
Josephus was increasingly removed from the actual course of things in the long run. The
theme of building the walls is representative of exactly this. War 3.465 shows that Josephus
fortified Tiberias first, and only then Tarichea with the remaining resources. War 2.638 agrees
with this too. But while an explanation was given in Life 144 according to which Josephus
promised to build walls first for the Taricheans, then for the Tiberians for the reasons
presented in section 1, this idea was [presented as] an accomplished fact in Life 156 and 188.
These fabrications cannot be solved by the usual source criticism but rather by a stratification
[Zergliederung] of the text. But precisely this [method] [95] has given us an obvious hint to the
answer of our question in the treatment of the Dabaritta affair: it was for the sake of Agrippa,
who was to read the War and to bring about its distribution, that the tenor of the narrative had
been shifted. Josephus’ new attitude towards Tarichea and Tiberias in the War can be derived
from this.
Emperor Nero had extended King Agrippa’s rule in that he delegated to him, among
other [areas], Tarichea and Tiberias in Galilee (War 2.252; Ant. 20.159). After the disturbances
that occurred during the time of Josephus’ administration in Galilee, Tarichea overtly defected
from Agrippa, while similar attempts to alter the situation were brought to bear in Tiberias
(War 3.445). Vespasian consequently decided upon a campaign against these towns for the sake
of Agrippa “in order to subjugate these same [towns] to Agrippa as a gift in return for the
hospitality he had received.” But now it transpired very quickly that in Tiberias only a
dwindling minority was for the defection, while the elders and all the distinguished citizens of
the town, with the approval of the people (448), hurried into the Roman camp and, referring to
Agrippa, they begged Vespasian for mercy; because the people of Tiberias always had acted in
Rome’s interest (453 ff.). Since Agrippa now appeared truly concerned about the fate of the
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