The Sack of the Temple in Josephus and Tacitus

Abstract

AbstractComparing Josephus’ and Tacitus’ (lost) account of the sack of the Temple in Jerusalem from Histories Book 5, this chapter underlines the importance of the Jewish War as a central defining event (or even a ‘foundation myth’) for the Flavian dynasty. There was not one, but in fact three successive versions of this foundation myth; the first, developed in the 70s, glorified Vespasian, the second gave much greater prominence to Titus, while the third integrated Domitian into the story. Josephus may well have used as a source the (lost) histories of Pliny the Elder, which probably ended by describing the triumphal procession of 71. As a result, there is some evidence for Josephus using a Latin historian and, more generally, for his conscious reworking of such material to suit the particular situation in which he found himself while writing the Jewish War.