The Jewish War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Flavius Josephus (Author), Betty Radice (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 7, 1984 | ISBN-10: 0140444203 | ISBN-13: 978-0140444209 | Edition: Reissue

Josephus' account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a Rome-appointed negotiator, and so was uniquely placed to observe these turbulent events, from the siege of Jerusalem to the final heroic resistance and mass suicides at Masada. His account provides much of what we know about the history of the Jews under Roman rule, with vivid portraits of such key figures as the Emperor Vespasian and Herod the Great. Often self-justifying and divided in its loyalties, "The Jewish War" nevertheless remains one of the most immediate accounts of war, its heroism and its horrors, ever written.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (February 7, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140444203
• ISBN-13: 978-0140444209
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Greek (translation)

About the Author

G.A. Williamson was born in 1895 and was a Classical Exhibitioner at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating with a First Class Honours degree. He was Senior Classics Master at Norwich School from 1922 to 1960. He also translated Josephus: The Jewish War (1959) and Procopius: The Secret History (1966) for the Penguin Classics. He died in 1982.
G.A. Williamson was born in 1895 and was a Classical Exhibitioner at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating with a First Class Honours degree. He was Senior Classics Master at Norwich School from 1922 to 1960. He also translated Josephus: The Jewish War (1959) and Procopius: The Secret History (1966) for the Penguin Classics. He died in 1982.
Betty Radice read classics at Oxford, then married and, in the intervals of bringing up a family, tutored in classics, philosophy and English. She became joint editor of the Penguin Classics in 1964. As well as editing the translation of Livy’s The War with Hannibal she translated Livy’s Rome and Italy, Pliny’s Letters, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise and Erasmus’s Praise of Folly, and also wrote the introduction to Horace’s Complete Odes and Epodes, all for the Penguin Classics. She also edited Edward Gibbon’s Memoirs of My Life for the Penguin English Library, and edited and annotated her translation of the younger Pliny’s works for the Loeb Library of Classics and translated from Renaissance Latin, Greek and Italian for the Officina Bodoni of Verona. She collaborated as a translator in the Collected Works of Erasmus, and was the author of the Penguin Reference Book Who’s Who in the Ancient World. Betty Radice was an honorary fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and a vice-president of the Classical Association. Betty Radice died in 1985.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (February 7, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140444203
• ISBN-13: 978-0140444209
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 81 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Forgotten Classic in an accessible yet scholarly edition November 4, 1998

By James J. Bloom VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

The "real" Josephus is a very hot topic among Christian theologians looking for the actuality behind the gospels and students of Judaica trying to go beyond Josephus' usual superficial "traitor" image. If you can't read the original Greek, the next best thing is to read the Loeb (Harvard U. Press) Classics edition with facing English and Greek text. However, even that format might be heavy going for the more casual, but curious, reader. The Penguin edition is far from a watered down popularized version of the Loeb. It is a condensed rendering without sacrificing essential detail. The liberties taken by Williamson largely consist of rearranging J's clumsy seven parts into 23 easily digested chapters. The most valuable part of this edition, however, is not Willliamson's lucid translation but E. Mary Smallwood's outstanding notes and appendices. Her historical asides provide a crash course in the then-current scholarship on the Josephus Problem.

The narrator is a self-serving,wiley ex-Priest of the Jerusalem Temple who was a "general" on the crucial Galilee front, until he was taken captive under mysterious circumstances. He cleverly prophesized" that his captor, Vespasian, would be the next emperor. Meanwhile, J served his former enemy as an intelligence analyst and intermediary. Eventually, after the fall of Judaea, he became a protege Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus, soon to be successor. Using his own notes and memory (quite selective and filtered) and the official field reports as well as the war diaries of Vespasian and Titus, Jewish expatriate Josephus wrote what amounts to the official Roman military history of the war against the Jews. Yet he did not totally sell out.... He managed to portray his countrymen as mounting a valiant, though nherently futile, effort.

This is no dry dusty "classic" -- it is an exciting, dramatic illustration of how Roman military power deals with an intractable and fanatic province. Apart from Julius Caesar's accounts of his military exploits, there are few such detailed expositions of imperial Rome at war.

If you have any interest in the crisis of Judaism, the birth of Christianity, the Roman War Machine, or simply a cracking good adventure yarn...this book is for you. Josephus' story behind the history would make an excellent topic for a screenplay.

Jim Bloom Read more ›

59 of 65 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Traitor's Tale June 28, 2001

By R. A Forczyk TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

A Traitor's Tale

Imagine if the only account of the American Revolution was written by Benedict Arnold and you get a good idea of what Josephus' history is like. The Jewish War is a contemporary account of the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation in 66-73 AD. In terms of ancient history, The Jewish War is unusually detailed since the author was an active participant in events. Josephus was born in 37 AD, seven years after the crucifixion of Christ, and he was educated as a scholar and priest. Shortly after Judaea erupted in rebellion in May 66 AD, Josephus joined the insurgents and was tasked with organizing the military defense of Galilee. Although the initial Roman effort to suppress the rebellion in late 66 AD failed, the Roman Empire quickly responded to the Jewish revolt. A 50,000 man Roman army under the general Vespasian was assembled in Syria and invaded Galilee in Spring 67 AD. Although Josephus put up a stout defense of the province, Vespasian overran one town after another until Josephus' own stronghold of Jotapata fell in July 67 AD. While most of the Jewish defenders were killed in the final assault or committed mass suicide, Josephus decided to remain alive and collaborate with the all-conquering Romans. Initially Josephus was treated as a prisoner but after demonstrating himself as a willing collaborator, he was treated as a guest. For the remainder of the war, Josephus remained close to the Roman command headquarters and was able to gather insights that he would commit to his history of the war. However it is important to remember that Josephus was a traitor (after the war he settled in Italy), and his desire to flatter his former enemies and to rehabilitate his tarnished reputation are important bias factors that shape the account....

The first six chapters (130 pages) deals mostly with the reign of Herod the Great and the internal power struggles in Judaea in the 1st Century BC. Although this third of the book is only intended to provide the background history of Judaea, it does hammer home the reality of constant struggles for dominance by various factions. Jew on Jew violence was endemic. The seventh chapter covers the period 6 - 58 AD when Judaea came under direct Roman rule due to anarchy in the province after Herod's death. Pontius Pilate, the famous Roman governor of 26-36 AD, is only mentioned in three paragraphs. Jesus Christ is not mentioned at all in this Penguin translation, but the Loeb translation does offer a short section on Christ and John the Baptist. Certainly these chapters are disappointing in the relative lack of detail provided on recent events prior to the revolt, as opposed to the highly-detailed accounts of events that occurred 100-200 years prior.

Josephus' account of the outbreak of the war is a bit confusing. Whether they were revolting for political or religious reasons is unclear. The relative impact of Roman heavy-handedness versus nationalist aspirations is ambiguous. Josephus covers the period May 66 to July 67 AD in great detail, primarily because he was an active commander in Galilee in this period. Most of this account is probably factual, except to where it relates to the author's prowess or the incident in which he was captured.

After Josephus capture, the account then focuses primarily on the rival Jewish factions which attempted to seize power in Jerusalem and the Roman siege of that city. Josephus covers the four-month siege of the capital (summer 70 AD) in great, bloody detail. While the author's claims that over one million Jews died in the siege are greatly exaggerated since the population was only 600,000, there is little doubt that the final capture of the city was a scene of great carnage. Josephus spends great effort to paint the Jewish defenders in the blackest light as impious gangsters, bent only on looting their own city and eliminating all rivals. On the other hand, the Romans are painted in a very favorable light. Both these portrayals are colored by Josephus' circumstances as a traitor (during the siege he repeatedly went to the walls and called on the defenders to surrender).

The siege of Masada is covered in only the last fifteen pages, with little discussion of the Roman assault ramp. This overly-succinct section, which covers the dramatic ending of the war, is disappointing. As military history, The Jewish War does provide interesting lessons. The initial Roman punitive expedition to crush the rebellion failed due to poor planning and hasty execution. Vespasian's campaign was methodical and successful, particularly in eliminating all insurgent towns around Jerusalem before beginning a major siege. The Roman Army fought best in open, set-piece battle but was several times defeated in confused street fighting inside Jerusalem and other towns. Untrained but fanatical enemies can inflict losses on even well prepared regular troops, particularly when the fanatics are cornered and their situation is desperate.

Despite omissions that were included in the Loeb translation, the Penguin editors are to be applauded for the excellent footnotes and appendices covering topics such as money, provincial administration and Jewish bandit factions. The map of Judaea is decent, but the map of Jerusalem does not show surrounding areas where the Romans camped. All in all, The Jewish War is valuable in covering a little-known war at a crucial time, but the author's veracity is often suspect. Read more ›

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Josephus's works are treaures in the Jewish history May 13, 1999

By Joecities

Format:Paperback

The Jewish War is a very valuable source in studying the Jewsih history under the Roman domination. The book covers the facts happened from the occupation of the Greek in Jews, to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. In other words, it is crossing from the Old Testament to the New Testament. However, most of the events it recorded are not covered in the Scripture. Such events as the domination of the Greek and the Macabee reovlt, a period between the two Testaments, are always missed by the Christian since it is not recorded in the Bible. Also, the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, famous to most of the Christian, but only know little. So, this book supplies a lot of information for the background of the Old and New testaments. Herod, Flenix, King Agrippas, they were the names that are familiar with. Therefore, to better understand the New Testament, this book is a must. In imitating Herotodus's style in writing history, Josephus left a lot of other information when depicting the Jewish-Roman war. This book is thus a good source-book for the solidery system of the Roman. How the Roman soldiers matched, how they fought, how they used their battling machinery etc. , and also the geographic information of Palestine and Israel. I highly recommend this book.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars 1st Century clash between Romans and Jews August 27, 2001

By Paul M. Dubuc

Format:Paperback

I bought this book to read before a trip to Israel in 1999. It's a very readable English translation. This gives Josephus' account of the war between the Romans and the Jews in the 1st century. Most fascinating (and horrible) are the accounts of the destruction of Gamla and Jerusalem and the final siege of Masada. Scholars are critical of Josephus because he puts too much of himself into the story and because it is probably biased in favor of his Roman benefactors. (Josephus began fighting against the Romans, but then came over to their side when he was captured and convinced of the hopelessness of the rebellion. He tried to convince the Jews not to fight, but to accept Roman rule. He wrote this history for the Romans' benefit after the war.) Nevertheless, there are very few good historical accounts of this place and time. Reading it gives you a taste of what life would have been like in that ancient land during this terrible period. It's well worth the time spent reading it, especially if you plan to visit the places described.