The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

politics more [closely] so that he could forego these outrageous falsifications, which he
believed he had to effect in honour of Vespasian, Titus and Agrippa.
Satisfied as the Romans, at least, were with their protégé’s work, his own compatriots
could feel only the deepest outrage for the man who betrayed and renounced his own past, his
friends and his homeland for the sake of his new employer [Brotherr]. They tried to destroy him
and his status; already in the year 73 after the suppression of the Jewish revolt in Cyrene,
[Josephus] was accused by those captured there of having been their mentor (War 7.442 and
447 f.) who had pushed them into rebellion. This was of course a blatant lie; for Josephus was
happy at that time to be permitted to live securely among the Romans, and Vespasian also saw
through the lie, but it certainly was malicious that the captives could allude to [the fact] that
Josephus, who has done something similar to [what] they themselves [had done], was enjoying
imperial favour in Rome. As long as someone like Vespasian and Titus remained alive, the Jews
could expect no success against the favourite of the Roman court. Scarcely had Titus died,
however, when they again risked [another] onslaught against the hated apostate with the
prospect of greater success. Josephus (Life 429) reports to us only briefly the fact that after
Domitian’s ascension to the government a charge against him was raised by the Jews;
significantly, he does not disclose to us in what it consisted, however, we cannot possibly be in
any doubt about the mind[set] that is plainly speaking from such a charge of the Jews: the new
emperor should know with whom he was dealing, that Josephus had been guilty of high
treason, that he had instigated a rebellion against Rome, [259] and then, received into favour
by Vespasian and Titus, he attempted to deny his past with his pen. The Jews had no success
with the direct charge, if we may trust Josephus’ information, and yet he noticeably lost the
imperial favour; with all of Domitian’s antagonism towards the activity of his father and
brother it ultimately went without saying that Josephus lost his support at the imperial court
(cf. page 31 ff.): he had been dismissed as officiosus.
Once again Josephus stood before a serious catastrophe in his life: in light of the
charges hurled at him by the Jews he could not be in any doubt that his compatriots were not
disposed to receive him with grace; he had offended them too grievously. In this situation,
Josephus, adaptable and unscrupulous as he was, developed a connection to Epaphroditus and
his circle. Epaphroditus was a publisher in a grand style: he supported economically weak
characters, as they were all too prevalent in the [field of] literature at that time as well, and in
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