Josephus's short autobiography defending his conduct as a Jewish general in Galilee during the war with Rome, appended to his Antiquities.
The Life (Vita) is Flavius Josephus's brief autobiography, written late in his career as an appendix to the Antiquities of the Jews. It opens with his priestly and Hasmonean royal ancestry, traced generation by generation from public records, then describes his teenage sampling of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, three years living an ascetic life with a desert teacher, and his eventual choice to follow the Pharisees. As a young man he traveled to Rome to intercede for imprisoned priests and survived a shipwreck in the Adriatic that killed most of the six hundred aboard.
The bulk of the work covers his time as commander in Galilee at the outbreak of the Jewish revolt against Rome, and it is fundamentally a defense. Josephus recounts constant challenges to his authority: mobs turned against him by rivals, the people of Tiberias and Sepphoris wavering between him and King Agrippa, a plot by John of Gischala, and above all a sustained feud with Justus of Tiberias, who is named as having incited his city to revolt and later fled to the king. Much of the narrative is devoted to countering specific accusations, including claims made in a rival history by Justus, about Josephus's role in the war and his loyalty to Rome versus his own people.
The Life closes with the Roman siege material handled briefly (referred back to his longer Jewish War), his capture, his service as an interpreter and intermediary for Titus during the siege of Jerusalem, his rescue of relatives and friends from among the captives, and the honors and land grants he received successively from Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, plus the punishment of a slave who had falsely accused him. It matters as one of the only surviving first-person accounts by a participant in the Jewish-Roman War, and as a case study in ancient self-justification, written explicitly to answer critics of his generalship.
“There are three of these: the first is that of the Pharisees, the second that of the Sadducees, and the third that of the Essenes, as we have often said.”
— Life of Josephus (Vita) · read this chapter →
“wearing only clothing that came from trees, eating only what grew of itself, and bathing frequently in cold water, day and night, for purity's sake, I became his devoted follower.”
— Life of Josephus (Vita) · read this chapter →
“For when our ship went down in the middle of the Adriatic, we who numbered about six hundred swam through the whole night, and around daybreak, by God's providence, a ship from Cyrene appeared to us”
— Life of Josephus (Vita) · read this chapter →
“Having suffered a fracture of the bones of my wrist, I was carried to a village called Cepharnocus.”
— Life of Josephus (Vita) · read this chapter →
“he punished the Jews who had accused me, and ordered the punishment of a slave, a eunuch, the tutor of my son, who had brought an accusation, and he granted me exemption from taxation”
— Life of Josephus (Vita) · read this chapter →
It is Josephus's short autobiography, appended to his Antiquities, that traces his priestly and royal ancestry, his youthful sampling of Jewish sects, and above all his conduct as commander in Galilee during the revolt against Rome. Most of the text defends his generalship against accusations, especially from his rival Justus of Tiberias.
Justus, son of Pistus, was a Tiberian who, according to Josephus, persuaded his city to revolt against Rome while himself seeking power, then fled to King Agrippa when things turned against him. Justus later wrote his own history of the war criticizing Josephus, and the Life responds directly to those charges.
Yes. He says that at about sixteen he decided to examine the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes so he could choose the best, then spent three years living an ascetic life with a teacher before returning to the city and beginning his public career as a Pharisee at nineteen.
As a young man traveling to Rome to plead for the release of imprisoned priests, his ship sank in the middle of the Adriatic. About six hundred people were aboard; he and roughly eighty others swam through the night until a ship from Cyrene rescued them near daybreak.
He was captured but survived, served as an interpreter and intermediary for Titus during the siege of Jerusalem, and used his position to rescue relatives and friends among the captives. Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian each granted him land, honors, and tax exemption, and Domitian punished a slave who had falsely accused him.