Flavius Josephus, Jewish War (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Joseph. BJ]. | ||
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However, I will not go to the other extreme, out of opposition to
those men who extol the Romans nor will I determine to raise the actions
of my countrymen too high; but I will prosecute the actions of both parties
with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I am under,
as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge some lamentations
upon the miseries undergone by my own country. For that it was a seditious
temper of our own that destroyed it, and that they were the tyrants among
the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, who unwillingly attacked
us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple, Titus Caesar, who destroyed
it, is himself a witness, who, daring the entire war, pitied the people
who were kept under by the seditious, and did often voluntarily delay the
taking of the city, and allowed time to the siege, in order to let the
authors have opportunity for repentance. But if any one makes an unjust
accusation against us, when we speak so passionately about the tyrants,
or the robbers, or sorely bewail the misfortunes of our country, let him
indulge my affections herein, though it be contrary to the rules for writing
history; because it had so come to pass, that our city
However, I may justly blame the learned men among the Greeks, who, when such great actions have been done in their own times, which, upon the comparison, quite eclipse the old wars, do yet sit as judges of those affairs, and pass bitter censures upon the labors of the best writers of antiquity; which moderns, although they may be superior to the old writers in eloquence, yet are they inferior to them in the execution of what they intended to do. While these also write new histories about the Assyrians and Medes, as if the ancient writers had not described their affairs as they ought to have done; although these be as far inferior to them in abilities as they are different in their notions from them. For of old every one took upon them to write what happened in his own time; where their immediate concern in the actions made their promises of value; and where it must be reproachful to write lies, when they must be known by the readers to be such. But then, an undertaking to preserve the memory Of what hath not been before recorded, and to represent the affairs of one's own time to those that come afterwards, is really worthy of praise and commendation. Now he is to be esteemed to have taken good pains in earnest, not who does no more than change the disposition and order of other men's works, but he who not only relates what had not been related before, but composes an entire body of history of his own: accordingly, I have been at great charges, and have taken very great pains [about this history], though I be a foreigner; and do dedicate this work, as a memorial of great actions, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians. But for some of our own principal men, their mouths are wide open, and their tongues loosed presently, for gain and law-suits, but quite muzzled up when they are to write history, where they must speak truth and gather facts together with a great deal of pains; and so they leave the writing such histories to weaker people, and to such as are not acquainted with the actions of princes. Yet shall the real truth of historical facts be preferred by us, how much soever it be neglected among the Greek historians.
1.17To write concerning the Antiquities of the Jews, who they were [originally], and how they revolted from the Egyptians, and what country they traveled over, and what countries they seized upon afterward, and how they were removed out of them, I think this not to be a fit opportunity, and, on other accounts, also superfluous; and this because many Jews before me have composed the histories of our ancestors very exactly; as have some of the Greeks done it also, and have translated our histories into their own tongue, and have not much mistaken the truth in their histories. But then, where the writers of these affairs and our prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise, and begin my history. Now as to what concerns that war which happened in my own time, I will go over it very largely, and with all the diligence I am able; but for what preceded mine own age, that I shall run over briefly.
1.19[For example, I shall relate] how Antiochus, who was named Epiphanes,
took
Flavius Josephus, Jewish War (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Joseph. BJ]. | ||
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