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! ETA: Death of Emperor Claudius!

Comments

[cahn]

leading to a wider swath of people in the killing zone.

I'm sorry, I totally laughed at that, I am a bad person. That makes a lot of sense, though.

I'm enjoying this discussion of Cleopatra! I only know about her from reading Judith Tarr's novel ages ago, although I vaguely remember (could be wrong, will reread as soon as I finish with Alexander the Great novels) that she takes essentially the same tack as both you and selenak -- that she made some decisions that were poor in hindsight but that seemed logical at the time. With perhaps a side of catching feelings (I mean, obviously who knows historically, but it's a novel).