The Jewish War: First half of Book 2

[cahn]

Last week: Discussion on how Herod stacked up against various Roman emperors in terms of body count of his nearest and dearest; how Friedrich Wilhelm might hear the Josephus text; Herod throwing money around; Cleopatra!

This week: ...uhhhh there was a lot going on and I haven't actually finished the reading yet *ducks* -- I am doing that right now and I should most likely be able to comment tomorrow. (I don't anticipate this being a problem again for at least two more months, and most likely not then either; this was a confluence of various time sinks that doesn't usually happen all at the same time.) But I wanted to go ahead and get the post up because I know you guys have read it... (ETA: have finished the reading now :P :) )

Next week: finishing up Book 2!

Comments

Re: German tangent

[selenak]

Yes indeed, it is the very man poor Berthold is supposed to do a presentation on in The Oppermanns .

And hey, Luther would argue that the Romans never ruled over all the Germans, just some of the tribes, just like the Germans of his day ended up divided between those he helped see the light and those who insisted on being slaves to Rome. :)

Speaking of the Oppermanns, you may recall Berthold’s cousin Ruth the Zionist argues that despite not beating Rome for good Arminius’ temporary victory makes for an inspiring national resistance narrative, and she connects that directly with Zionism. Of course, Feuchtwanger wrote The Oppermanns in between Josephus Trilogy Volume I and II, so the “is it worth fighting a superior military power occupying your country if you know you don’t have the chance for long term military victory?” Question was very much on his mind.

In the correspondence between Feuchtwanger and Brecht, Brecht teases him when LF is working on Josephus that he should take care not to be swept away by emotion “or else I will write a drama about Hermann the Cheruscan”.

=> Varus isn’t the only connection between Jewish rebels and German rebels on a meta level

Re: German tangent

[cahn]

Ahahaha, I am amused, this is very on-brand for me to not remember this from history at all, but it was in a novel, and I at least remembered that!

In the correspondence between Feuchtwanger and Brecht, Brecht teases him when LF is working on Josephus that he should take care not to be swept away by emotion “or else I will write a drama about Hermann the Cheruscan”.

hee!