Editing Josephus (section)

=== ''The Jewish War'' ===
{{Main|The Jewish War}}
His first work in Rome was an account of the Jewish War, addressed to certain "upper barbarians"—usually thought to be the Jewish community in [[Mesopotamia]]—in his "paternal tongue" (''War'' I.3), arguably the Western [[Aramaic language]]. In AD 78 he finished a seven-volume account in [[Greek language|Greek]] known as the ''[[The Wars of the Jews|Jewish War]]'' ([[Latin]] ''Bellum Judaicum'' or ''De Bello Judaico''). It starts with the period of the [[Maccabees]] and concludes with accounts of the fall of [[Jerusalem]], and the subsequent fall of the fortresses of Herodion, Macharont and Masada and the Roman victory celebrations in Rome, the mopping-up operations, Roman military operations elsewhere in the empire and the uprising in [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]]. Together with the account in his ''Life'' of some of the same events, it also provides the reader with an overview of Josephus's own part in the events since his return to Jerusalem from a brief visit to Rome in the early 60s (''Life'' 13–17).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Josephus: The Life of Flavius Josephus |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/autobiog.html#S13 |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>
[[File:Von alten jüdischen Geschichten. Vom jüdischen Krieg.jpg|thumb|1581 German translation of Josephus's ''[[The Jewish War]]'' in the collection of the [[Jewish Museum of Switzerland]]]]
In the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt, Josephus would have witnessed the marches of [[Titus]]'s triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and carrying treasures from the despoiled [[Temple in Jerusalem]]. It was against this background that Josephus wrote his ''War''. He blames the Jewish War on what he calls "unrepresentative and over-zealous fanatics" among the Jews, who led the masses away from their traditional aristocratic leaders (like himself), with disastrous results. For example, Josephus writes that "[[Simon bar Giora|Simon [bar Giora]]] was a greater terror to the people than the Romans themselves."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Josephus |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Jews/Book_IV#Chapter_9 |title=The War of the Jews}}</ref> Josephus also blames some of the [[Roman governor]]s of [[Iudaea Province|Judea]], representing them as corrupt and incompetent administrators.