JOSEPHUS, jo-sefus, Flavius (Jewish name, JOSEPH BEN Manillas), Jewish histo rian: b. Jerusalem, 37 A.D. ; d. about 95 A.D. He was carefully educated and in 64 A.D. he made a journey to Rome. On his return he found his countrymen preparing to throw off the Roman yoke, and having tried in vain to persuade them of the hopelessness of such a struggle, accepted the post of defending the province of Galilee, and actually held the fortified town of Jota pate against the whole Roman army for 47 days. He was captured at the fall of the city, was afterward present in the Roman army at the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.), and went with Titus to Rome, where, assuming the fam ily name of his patron, Flavius, he lived in learned leisure. Here he wrote (in Aramaic and Greek) 'The History of the Jewish in seven books, and 'The Antiquities of the Jews,' in 20 books; giving a history of the ews from the earliest times to the reign of ero. He also wrote an autobiography and a work entitled 'Against Apion,> in two books, which was a defense against false accusations raised against the Jews. He was a fluent, graceful writer and, on the whole, a truthful, accurate historian. That part of his work re ferring to Christ is no longer considered genu ine. There are many editions of his two major works and the autobiography, the most import ant of which are by B. Niese (7 vols., Berlin 1885-95), and by T. Bekker and S. A. Naber
(6 vols., Leipzig 1888-96). There are also many translations into different languages, both of the collected and of single works. A good list of these will be found in British Museum, 'Catalogue of Printed Books' (London 1889). The most important English translation is that by Whiston, 'The Works of Flavius Josephus) (5 vols., London 1889-1900). There is a very complete bibliography in Scharer, E., 'History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ) (5 vols., New York 1896). Consult Arnold, C 'Die Bibel, Joseph und Jerusalem> (Leipzig 1865-66) ; Barwald, A., 'Josephus in (Breslau 1877) ; Bentwich, N. de M., (Jose phus) (Philadelphia 1914); Bloch, H., 'Die Quellen des Josephus in seiner Archaologie (Leipzig 1879) ; Bottger, G., Historisches Lexicon zu dem Schriften des Josephus) (Leipzig 1879) ; Destinon, J. von, Die Chronologie des Josephus' (Kiel 1880) ; id., 'Die Quellen des Flavius 1882); Driiner, H., 'Untersuchungen caber Jose phus) (Marburg 1897); Krauss, S., 'Josephus Flavius) (in 'Jewish Encyclopedia,' Vol. VII, New York, 1904) ; Krenkel, M., (Josephus und Lucas) (Leipzig 1894) ; Mez, A., 'Die Bibel des Josephus' (Basel 1895); Muller, G. A., bei Flavius Josephus> (Freiburg 1895) ; Muller, J. G., Flavius Josephus Schrift Gegen den Apion' (Basel 1877).