paintingallthe rulers from Julius Caesar onward as tyrants (19.169-74).
This is striking, unparalleled in Roman literature of the time, and opposed
to the strategies taken by Seneca or Dio Chrysostom in advocating virtu-
ous kingship as a model for the Roman emperor. It is a fascinating ques-
tion how Josephus’s clear challenge to Roman (as well as Judean) monar-
chy actually fared among a Roman audience at the time of Domitian’s
tyranny, only a couple of years before his assassination in 96c.e.
This we cannot know; nor can we get beyond speculation about the
relationship between such political themes and the interest of Josephus’s
Roman audiences in Judean culture. At any rate, the constitutional theme
provides one rich vein of narrative unity inAntiquities.There are several
others, such as interest in temple and cult, the historiographical and rhe-
torical interest in rounded portraiture and moral assessment, and the
philosophical character of both Judean culture as a whole and its leading
representatives (Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Daniel, and the philosophical
schools). In the absence of an ancient category matching our “religion,”
this philosophical color both grounds the political analysis and facilitates
the adoption of Judean ways. As Josephus remarks to his eager audience at
the beginning of theAntiquities(1.25): “For those who truly want to ex-
plore the reasons for each thing [in the laws], the investigation would be
rich and highly philosophical.”Against Apion
The treatise known asAgainst Apionis the last of Josephus’s extant works,
written as a sequel toAntiquitiesand in place of his previously advertised
treatise onCustoms and Reasons(seeAnt.4.198; 20.268). The familiar title
Against Apionrepresents only one quarter of its content; it is only in the
first half of book 2 that Josephus responds to the Alexandrian scholar and
politician, Apion. Josephus never gives a label to this work, and its range of
topics led some early readers to call itOn the Antiquity of the Judeans
(Origen) orAgainst the Greeks(Porphyry), or to describe it in some com-
posite expression of its themes (Jerome). It was written toward the end of
Josephus’s life, at the earliest in 95/96c.e.(i.e., directly after the composi-
tion ofAntiquitiesin 93c.e.), but possibly later in the 90s or even the early
100sc.e.; since there are no unambiguous references in the text to contem-
porary circumstances, and because we do not know the date of Josephus’s
death, a more exact dating is impossible.308steve mason, james s. mclaren, and john m. g. barclayEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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