Late Antique Historiography

The Jewish war

Title(s):
  • The Jewish war
  • Historiae libri V
    (Historiae libri V, Five books of history)
  • De excidio Hierosolymitana
    (De excidio Hierosolymitano, On the sack of Jerusalem)
  • Historia Iosippi
    (Historia Iosippi, History of Josephus)
  • De bello Iudaico
    (De bello Iudaico, On the Jewish war)
Author:
Period covered:
Maccabees-73
Language:
Latin
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Sacred history
  • Form (translation)
Remarks:
The work is an adaptation of Flavius Josephus' Jewish war. Cyprian, bishop of Toulon (524-546), composed a new preface to the work.
Generally, a date in the third quarter of the fourth century is preferred, but there is little evidence to support that idea: Van Hoof and Van Nuffelen (2020). Anonymous (Deeds of the Maccabees) has been ascribed to Pseudo-Hegesippus.
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • (1995) Clavis patrum Latinorum (CPL) 131
  • A.A. Bell (1977) An historiographical analysis of the De excidio Hierosolymitano of pseudo-Hegesippus. Diss. Chapel Hill.
  • A. Berger, J. Fontaine, P.L. Schmidt (2020) Handbuch der Lateinischen Literatur der Antike. Sechster Band: Die Literatur im Zeitalter des Theodosius. Erster Teil: Fachprosa, Dichtung, Kunstprosa. Munich: 557-561,
  • T. Leoni (2016) 'The text of the Josephan corpus'. In: A companion to Josephus, ed. H. Howell Chapman - Z. Rodgers (Blackwell companions to the ancient world). Chichester: 307-321.
  • T. Leoni (2007) 'Translations and adaptations of Josephus' writings in Antiquity and the Middle Ages'. Ostraka 16: 481-492.
  • D.B. Levenson, T.R. Martin (2016) 'The ancient Latin translations of Josephus'. In: A companion to Josephus, ed. H. Howell Chapman - Z. Rodgers (Blackwell companions to the ancient world). Chichester: 322-345.
  • R.M. Pollard (2015) 'The De excidio of "Hegesippus" and the reception of Josephus in the early Middle Ages'. Viator 46.2: 65-100.
  • H. Schreckenberg (1972) Die Flavius-Josephus-Tradition in Antike und Mittelalter. Leiden: 56-58.
  • C. Somenzi (2009) Egesippo-Ambrogio: Formazione scolastica e cristiana a Roma alla metà del IV secolo. Milan.
  • J. Stover, G. Woudhuysen (2022) 'Historiarum libri quinque: Hegesippus between Josephus and Sallust '. Histos 16:1-27.
  • L. Van Hoof, P. Van Nuffelen (2020) The fragmentary Latin histories of Late Antiquity (A.D. 300-650): Edition, translation and commentary. Cambridge.