The Jewish War: A Modern English Reading Edition
About this audiobook
Few works of ancient history bring us closer to catastrophe than The Jewish War.
Flavius Josephus knew the conflict from both sides. He entered the revolt as a Jewish commander in Galilee; after his capture, he witnessed the Roman campaign that ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Across seven books, his story reaches back through Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Herod the Great, then follows Nero, Vespasian and Titus through the revolt, the siege of Jerusalem and the final resistance at Masada.
Josephus writes with a vividness that can feel startlingly modern. Battles, sieges, political intrigue, famine, civil war and the destruction of the Temple unfold in extraordinary detail. He is also partisan, credulous and sometimes wildly prone to exaggeration—an eyewitness and advocate as much as a historian, determined to defend both Rome and ordinary Jews while laying much of the blame on the extremists who drove the conflict.
This complete edition brings all seven books together in clear, modern English, designed to be read with ease rather than as an academic text. Doubtful passages have been checked against the Greek; familiar English place names are used where helpful; ancient dates, weights and measures are rendered in forms readily understood by modern readers; and two maps help readers follow the geography of the war.
For readers of Roman history, Jewish history and the ancient Mediterranean, The Jewish War remains one of the most compelling surviving accounts of the ancient world.
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About the author
Flavius Josephus (c. AD 37–c. 100) was a Jewish historian, priest and military commander born in Jerusalem. During the First Jewish–Roman War he commanded Jewish forces in Galilee before being captured by the Romans in AD 67. He later became associated with the Flavian imperial household and settled in Rome, where he wrote his major historical works. The Jewish War, his account of the revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, remains one of the most important surviving sources for the history of Judaea and the Roman world in the first century.
Eduardo Casas Herrer is a Spanish writer and independent historical researcher with a particular interest in military and naval history. He has published works of history and historical fiction and is the editor and moderniser of this edition of The Jewish War, prepared with the aim of making Josephus accessible to contemporary readers while preserving the substance, structure and character of the original work.
