The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

Josephus had not dedicated his first work [to anyone], and according to this we could
establish that he himself assumed the production and sales. Birt’s assumption finds its
confirmation here. But if Josephus then offered all his later writing to Epaphroditus, then it
appears that his economic situation had worsened. In fact, Emperor Vespasian had paid for his
apartment and [given him] a pension [Gnadengehalt] (Life 423) at the time that the War
appeared; we may well assume that this was the salarium for the somewhat official
presentation of the Jewish War (Life 363), and so Josephus would probably not have described
the gifts of Caesar to his new patron without intent. He thereby also likely wished to create the
impression [31] that he had enjoyed the same favour under Titus and Domitian; and this was
indeed the case with respect to Titus (Life 428). But Josephus makes no mention of favours from
Domitian other than that he punished Josephus’ Jewish accusers and that he granted Josephus
exemption from taxes in Judaea: he remains silent about any actual duty-pay.
It is therefore quite possible that it was the change of rule after Titus along with the
death of the leader in the Jewish War, which deprived Josephus of imperial favour. In any case,
his life entered into a serious crisis such that he was about to put aside the writing of the
Antiquities which he had been composing (Ant. 1.7), until Epaphroditus’ encouragement stirred
him to resume his work (ibid. 9), or as we may say more precisely, until he had found in
Epaphroditus the new patron who enabled him to continue his works.
Therefore Epaphroditus secured for himself the work that had been begun, just as it
happened later with the writing against Apion (C. Ap. 2.296). This fact sheds a clear light on the
closing words of the Antiquities: here Josephus lists a series of writings that he planned to
compose in the future (20.267). It is a public recommendation: I am prepared to deal with the
following themes, if desired. Who will purchase these works from me? This is why Josephus
immediately stresses that the one writing would present the events in outline, while he brings
the other four books into proposal. The purchaser must know in advance which wares are to
be offered to him. It immediately results from this that Epaphroditus was no patron to
Josephus in the sense of a Maecenus, but a book publisher who collected works in order to sell
them on. For this reason Josephus now, in this context of ours, also specifies the extent of the
completed Antiquities by number of books and verses — this is the only known case in ancient
literature where the author communicates within the text itself how many lines the work
constitutes. Josephus makes this note also for his patron and publisher. Therefore the section
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