The Jewish War: Second half of Book 1

[cahn]

Last week: Some really interesting discussions on (among other things) Caesar Augustus, the temple in Egypt, and the destruction of the temple (in Jerusalem) as divine punishment and also free will.

This week: More Herod! Definitely went quite a bit faster than last week! Featuring lots and lots of family drama... the kind that includes a ton of bloodshed. I'll talk more about it in comments.

Next week: selenak can you give us a halfway point for Book 2? It looks a bit shorter but I'm also going to be crunched for time next week (and definitely won't be able to post until Sunday) so half a book is what it's going to have to be!

Comments

[selenak]

This is definitely bloody soap opera to the max. As if Josephus wants to tell his readers: I'll see your Roman Emperors and Hellenistic monarchs and raise you a Herod! Did Caligula preserve anyone's corpse in honey after killing them, huh? Did he?

Hee, I find that interesting that the lack of cunning is considered "upper-class"?

Rather the behaviour of Mariamme's sons is presented as a classic case of privilege. They - as opposed to their father, and like their mother - do have that flaawlessroyal bloodline and can trace their ancestors back directly to David. They were educated in Rome. OF COURSE they will be the successors. Of course they don't need to be discreet about their opinions. Meanwhile, Antipater, son of non-royal Doris, has already experienced going from oldest son to also ran once and is aware of the value of keeping your mouth shut about your true thoughts, especially around almighty Dad with the increasingly hair triggery temper.

Incidentally, Josephus clearly thinks Antipater was THE WORST , and I have no reason to think he wasn't an ambitious bastard with few if any scruples, but if he was able to keep his circle of friends/minions loyal and not blabbing through years of high pressure situations in lethal danger, then he clearly must have been at the very least charismatic and exuding competence. It's one thing to side with the most powerful guy around, that makes sense in a monarchy, but the most powerful was never Antipater. So anyone siding with him was gambling on Antipater surviving Dad and being able to succeed him, which as Herod got more and more paranoid must have looked like an increasingly high stakes gamble.

Also, your translator sounds a lot smoother and less stuffy than my 19th century German translator, I have to say.:)

...In Josephus' rendition, Herod seems very... susceptible... to whoever is trash-talking whomever of his family.

Indeed. I'm in two minds about this. Otoh, it's the classic "evil advisor" trope, isn't it, and let's not forget that he's build up Herod in the first half of this book as the coolest, most competent of the various Jewish monarchs or regents, so this bloody soap has to be someone's fault who isn't Herod, or not exclusively so. Otoh: psychologically it makes sense that Herod gets increasingly paranoid, the longer he is in power, and that the circle of people he trusts gets smaller and smaller until it really is only just himself. And once you start with the family killing, you must be aware it can be done to you by other family members as well.

"A most unfortunate father" and so forth - this reminded me of FW, in that this would absolutely be how FW would summarize his relationship with Fritz.

Did people really know enough about drugs to do this, or was this just one of those things, like witchcraft in the 1600s, that people thought was possible but really wasn't?

I haven't researched the history of drugs, so I don't know when exactly opiates became a massive thing, but then again, if you believe in the existence of love potions, I suppose hate potions aren't that much of a stretch. Plus it's easier for Herod to believe this than to acknowledge that his own behaviour has estranged his brother from him.

I agree with Josephus, compared to all the king-types from last week, Herod's actual career as a king (discounting his family life) seems to actually have been pretty fortunate??

Yes, and I think this is also why Josephus can't go all gospel on Herod and present him as an all evil tyrant. Especially given later members of this family won't be able to maintain this status as (sole) client king of Judaea, or a good relationship with the Romans that prevents the realm from going from client state to conquered province. Basically, you wouldn't want to have been related to Herod, but in terms of living as a Jewish citizen in either his life time or earlier or later, well, that seems to be a very different question.

Incidentally, it's not on the same level in either political success or family drama, but you could say the same thing about Augustus. He was a really successful ruler - but a terrible father and grandfather, and for that matter none too stellar as an adopted father, either.