Josephus led Jewish rebels against Rome, then became Rome's historian
Yosef ben Mattityahu commanded Jewish forces in Galilee during the revolt against Rome. After surrendering to Vespasian, he predicted the general would become emperor. When that came true, Vespasian freed him, and as Flavius Josephus he wrote the histories that remain, after the Bible, the chief source on Second Temple Judea.
He was born in Jerusalem around AD 36 into a wealthy elite family. His father Matthias was a priest from the first of the Temple's 24 priestly orders, and his mother claimed descent from the Hasmonean royal dynasty. At about 26 he travelled to Rome and, with help from Nero's wife Poppaea and a Jewish actor, won the release of priests held there.
When war broke out he was made military governor of Galilee, a region split in its loyalties: Sepphoris sought Roman protection and Tiberias turned to King Agrippa. He trained a reported 65,000 troops, fortified towns across Lower and Upper Galilee, and competed with a rival leader, John of Gischala, who enjoyed backing from the Sanhedrin. His resistance ended at Yodfat, which fell in AD 67 after a six-week siege. By his own account he was one of the last two survivors of a group sheltering in a cave who had resolved not to be taken, and he gave himself up.
Vespasian kept him as a captive, apparently as an interpreter, then freed him in AD 69 after becoming emperor; Josephus adopted the family name Flavius and Roman citizenship. He advised Titus and translated for him during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, which ended with the city largely razed and the Second Temple destroyed, while his own parents were held hostage by the rebel leader Simon bar Giora.
His major works are The Jewish War, around 75, Antiquities of the Jews, around 94, a history of the world from a Jewish viewpoint aimed at Greek and Roman readers, and an autobiography. They cover the revolt through to Masada and offer rare accounts outside the Bible of figures including Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
Source: Josephus
