The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus: A Biographical Investigation

went away, even though displeased, only 2000 armed [men] stormed in front of Josephus’
house and with this the report then slips over into the narrative of the old administrative
report (610).
Admittedly, the report of the War retold here is again by no means uniform or selfcontained.
It immediately springs to the eye that sections 602 - 607 report approximately the
same as sections 608 - 609, – only in greater detail: Josephus splits his opponents by promising
the Taricheans [that he will] fortify their town with the money that stands at his disposal,
which inspires the intense displeasure of all others against him, whereas the Taricheans
support him from now on. Accordingly, sections 602 - 607 are then also enclosed within such
duplications as have already acquired a significant relevance for us:
[69]
§ 602: πρὸς παῦτα [sic] τῶν μὲν οἰκείως
§ 608: ἐπὶ τούτοις οἱ Ταριχεᾶται μὲν αὐτὸν
ἐχόντων καὶ μάλιστα τῶν
ἀνευφήμουν, οἱ δ’ ἀπὸ τῆς
Ταριχεατῶν οἶκτος ἦν· οἱ δ’ ἀπὸ τῆς
Τιβεριάδος σὺν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐκάκιζον
χώρας ... ἐβλασφήμουν
καὶ διηπείλουν
Purely externally, these two [passages] lead to [the possibility] that the part between
them is an insertion. In fact, a careful observation of the factual details of this assumption
confirms it as a hard and fast result.
1. In section 602 Josephus’ opponents request that he produce “[their] common money”
— what is meant by this is the money seized by the Dabarittans that Josephus must therefore
have at hand. One may perhaps wish to argue here that the Taricheans would not have known
that Josephus had deposited the money with the Tarichean, Eneas (596), all the same, this is
not a possible means of explanation considering sections 606 and 607 where Josephus himself
says: “I preferred to withhold the money quietly in order to build a wall for you. But if you are
against this, then I will bring forth (namely out of my house) the money that was brought to
me.” Now, according to the full context as established by Josephus in composing the War, we
already know that Josephus no longer had the money at his disposal and that, on the contrary,
he had deposited [it] with Eneas (596). What a brilliant means of defence it would have been to
indicate right here that he does not even have the money any more at all. It is in this sense as
well that the author, in section 609, speaks not actually of the money that was in his possession
63