It is the role of a contemporary historian to look at events from the outside and to explain them objectively. Like the journalist their job is to tell the story, not to become the story themselves. It has not always been so, as is apparent when we read the works of the 1st century historian, Flavius Josephus.
Josephus was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family of priests in Jerusalem. When the Romans launched their all-out assault on the rebellious province of Judea, an attack that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE, Josephus was appointed commander of the Jewish troops in Galilee. Many years later he wrote a history of the war. Known as Bellum Judaicum, or The Jewish War, it is the only known eye witness account of events that were to become pivotal in world history.
As a commander of rebel forces it is not too surprising that Josephus includes himself in his history, writing always in the third person. What is odder is the heroic role that he ascribes to himself. At the beginning of the war the men he was commanding ran away, even before the Roman forces had arrived. Josephus tells his readers that he too could have deserted at that stage but that he chose “to die many times over rather than betray his country and dishonour the supreme command of the army which had been entrusted to him.”
When the Roman army reached Galilee they headed for the town of Jotapata. The Roman commander Vespasian had been told that it held a large contingent of Jewish fighters. Having made up his mind to stay and fight, Josephus went to Jotapata, to co-ordinate its defence and, in his words, “raise the drooping spirits of the Jews.” He declared that when Vespasian heard that Josephus was in the town he hurried to reach it, believing that if he could only capture him, he would have effectively won the war. Josephus does not sound like a man prone to underestimating his own importance.
Josephus describes in great detail how he organised the town’s defence over the course of the next few days. Eventually though the power of the Roman army was too great and he realised that the town would soon fall. He considered making a strategic retreat with his best soldiers but gave into the entreaties of the townspeople who believed their lives depended on him.
The city did fall however and Josephus hid in a cave with forty of his fighters. Hearing that Vespasian had sent envoys to find Josephus and bring him to the Roman camp, the fighters hiding in the cave decided that their only way out was to commit suicide. Josephus did not agree and his companions, angered at his attitude, threated to kill him themselves. Seeing an opportunity to save himself he told his companions that the only way they could successfully all commit suicide would be if each of them was to slay their neighbour. Eventually only one man would be left standing who would have no alternative but to kill himself. As we might expect, when the slaughter was over Josephus was the last man standing. However, he had no intention of killing himself and gave himself up to Vespasian’s envoy, a man named Nicanor, who had been waiting patiently while the drama of the suicide pact unfolded.
Nicanor, coincidentally, happened to be a friend of Josephus. Josephus’s history has often been questioned for its veracity. This fact however might well be true. We know from other sources that when they weren’t at war the Roman leadership in Judea were on reasonably good terms with the Jewish aristocracy, of whom Josephus was one.
As Josephus was being led through the Roman camp to Vespasian he heard someone say that he would be sent to Rome, to be placed at the mercy of the Emperor Nero. Anxious to avoid this, Josephus asked for a private word with Vespasian. When they were almost alone, with just Vespasian’s son Titus and a couple of others present Josephus embarked on his greatest gamble. He told Vespasian not to think of him as a prisoner but rather as a divine messenger. Nero, he predicted, would not rule long as emperor and nor would his successors. Instead Vespasian was destined to be proclaimed Emperor of Rome and his son Titus would succeed him. He told Vespasian it would be a good idea to keep him by his side. “Bind me now still faster, and keep me for thyself, for thou, O Caesar, are not only lord over me, but over the land and the sea and all mankind.”
Vespasian of course did not believe him. But he did hear from other Jewish captives that Josephus had correctly predicted (or at least so Josephus tells us) that Jotapata would fall after exactly 47 days of fighting. He decided to not to send Josephus to Nero in Rome, instead he kept him prisoner in the Roman camp, bestowing on him, according to Josephus, “suits of clothes, and other precious gifts; he treated him also in a very obliging manner and continued so to do.”
When the war was over and Jerusalem had been destroyed Josephus defected to Rome and became a Roman citizen. Vespasian was now Emperor and Josephus allied himself to the imperial house. He was given the name Flavius to show his allegiance to the Flavian family from which Vespasian hailed. He spent a comfortable retirement in Rome writing histories. Josephus’s flattery of Vespasian had paid off.
There is another story about Vespasian hearing a prophecy that he would become Emperor of Rome. It occurs in the Talmud, at the end of a long passage describing events in Jerusalem while the Romans were laying siege to the city. The city itself was under the control of a militant party of zealots who were adamant that there would be no surrender. While the Romans were obstructing the city gates from the outside, to stop food and weapons from being taken in, the zealots in the city were blocking the gates from the inside, to stop anyone who had a mind to escape from getting out.
The Zealots were one of several factions in the city. There was a peace faction who argued that rather than facing the inevitable slaughter that the actions of zealots were likely to bring about, the city should try to negotiate a surrender with the Romans. The leader of this faction, a rabbi named Yohanan ben Zakkai, realised he could only negotiate with the Romans if he could get past the Zealots who were guarding the gates. He told his students to place him in a coffin and carry him to the gates as if he were being taken for burial. When the students were challenged by the guards, who wanted to check what was in the coffin, they persuaded them that it would be disrespectful to open the elderly sage’s casket. Once the coffin was safely outside the city walls they opened it and Yohanan ben Zakkai entered the Roman camp
When he met Vespasian, Yohanan ben Zakkai greeted him with the words “Peace to you O King.” Vespasian was enraged. “You are liable to two death penalties” he told him, “one for calling me King and the other, if I am a king, for not paying homage to me sooner.” “But you are a king,” replied Yohanan ben Zakkai, quoting a verse from Isaiah indicating that Jerusalem would be captured by a monarch. “And the reason I didn’t come to see you up till now is that the Zealots would not let me out of the city.”
Sure enough, while they were talking, a messenger arrived from Rome to tell Vespasian that the Roman Emperor was dead and that he was to travel there immediately to be crowned. Astonished at the turn of events, Vespasian, who for some reason was only wearing one shoe, bent down to put on the other. But he could not put it on, and nor could he remove the shoe that he was already wearing. Yohanan ben Zakkai told him this was a good sign, quoting a verse from the Book of Proverbs that good news makes one’s bones swell.
Other than the prediction that Vespasian would become Emperor, there is very little to link the two stories. The only other common feature is that both Josephus and Yohanan ben Zakkai were rewarded for their prophesies. Yohanan ben Zakkai negotiated for the town of Yavneh to be spared so that he could establish a school of religious study there. Josephus, as we know, became a privileged Roman citizen.
It is notable that two separate stories exist, each predicting Vespasian’s rise to the Roman throne. We might wonder why. It is possible of course that both events really occurred, that Josephus and Yohanan ben Zakkai each made an identical prediction to Vespasian. It is more likely though that the stories were written after the fact, once Vespasian had already become Emperor. Josephus, the Jewish defector living in Rome may have invented his prediction because he felt the need to talk himself up to his Roman readers, boasting about himself and claiming to have the powers of prophesy. The Talmud’s story about Yohanan ben Zakkai may have been written to explain why the small town of Yavneh became an important centre of scholarship in the years following the destruction of the Temple.
At first sight it looks as if Josephus’ story was the original version and that the Talmud copied the prophecy into its own narrative. Josephus wrote his history towards the end of the 1st century CE whereas the Talmud was not complete until the 5th or 6th century. But Talmudic stories often circulated for generations as oral tales before being compiled into the Talmud, so we can’t be certain that its story is later than Josephus’s. And there is no mention of Vespasian’s shoe in Josephus’s story, which suggests that the Talmud was drawing on a different legend.
It is also possible that both Josephus and the Talmud copied their predictions from another source that is now lost. There are other accounts in Roman literature of similar prophesies made to Vespasian, although they were all written after Josephus. Nobody has come up with a compelling explanation as to whether the two stories are connected. But it would be odd if they didn’t have some sort of common origin.
I appreciated reading Josephus many years ago. One story that I found compelling and astonishing was his account of Miriam of Bethezob [The Jewish War, 6: 210-11]. I draw attention to it in my book on Miriam of Nazareth. I wonder what you think of the story. I find it somewhat serendipitous that at the same time as there was a civil war in Judea and destruction of the Temple, Rome was also experiencing a civil war and the Temple of Jupiter was destroyed. [Tacitus Annales quoted in Greenlaugh, The Year of the Four Emperors]. Right now it appears that in both Israel and the USA [the new Rome] democracy is under siege.