THE HERODS

The political history of Judaea in the period covered by this volume is particularly well attested through the preservation of the work of the Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote after A.D. 70 first a detailed account of the Judaean revolt against Rome from A.D. 66 to A.D. 73 or 74 and then an apologetic version for non-Jewish readers of Jewish history to the outbreak of that war.

A priest from Jerusalem and a commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee during the war, Josephus was steeped in the traditions of his nation. He was an acute observer, but his evidence is tainted by the traumas of his own career. Captured by Roman forces in A.D. 67, he espoused the enemy cause with a wholeheartedness that won him the favour of the future emperor Vespasian and enabled him to spend the last part of his life, including his active years as a writer, in comfort, probably in Rome.

The bias in Josephus' narratives, particularly of the first century A.D., when Judaea fell under direct Roman rule, can be partly checked from other sources. Inscriptions provide less useful evidence than elsewhere in the Roman East, for the Judaean ruling class never picked up the epigraphic habit except in the medium of coinage, but the contribution of archaeology is large and growing. The Gospels and Acts of the Apostles add further evidence although, since they are theological documents, their accuracy cannot be taken for granted.