The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

12. The Parthians and Antigonus
War 225 - 273 = Ant. 280 - 369
The energy, which Josephus displayed in numerous reinterpretations and reworkings
of his source, gradually begins to weaken; obviously he felt increasingly that a true organic
whole was not to be attained by now incorporating a contrary view into an established
tradition that had been developed from a specific point of view. And from the preceding
investigations, where we assessed the results of his painstaking work, we have acquired a
slight idea of the difficulties that the author constantly encountered; how much easier it is to
dissect a juncture [in the text] than to piece one together! Indeed, Josephus had not ventured a
major new cast [of the die], he had not, for instance, reformulated contemporary history and
regarded the characters anew, rather he always altered just details and in so doing cast his
glance only upon the immediately surrounding [text]. So it was the almost inevitable [189]
consequence of such a method of working that it became too much for the author himself, and
he switched over to reproducing his source more faithfully. He does indeed insert his
documentary material once again in sections 304 - 323, which, however, was not used for a
reformulation of the tradition, but for the rest there is nothing noteworthy to be recalled for
the presentation of Ant. 280 - 329 in comparison to the source War 225 - 247, and it is only in
the following part that we once again find our author at work, applying an “improving” hand
to individual traits, in which it is debatable to what extent the reinterpretation was conscious
or unconscious in each individual [case].
War 248 reports that by promising 1000 talents and 500 women, Lysanias the tyrant of
Chalcis persuaded the Parthian satrap, to whom the administration of Syria had been
transferred during the invasion of the Parthians in the year 40, to set Antigonus upon the
throne as king. Accordingly, we hear in [section] 268 that during the conquest of Jerusalem the
Parthians totally plundered the town while abstaining only from Hyrcanus’ treasures: ἦν δ’ οὐ
πλείω τριακοσίων ταλάντων. Whoever reads this sentence will initially apply the statement
automatically to Hyrcanus’ treasures. Thus Harmund translates our passage in his extremely
reliable rendition: 64 n'épargnant que les richesses d'Hyrcan, qui ne dépassaient pas trois cents
have Antipater appear guilty of fighting the Jews on his own initiative.
64 Published in Oeuvres complètes de Flavius Josèphe traduites en français sous la direction de Théodore
166