Josephus, Flavius. De bello Judaico

The Jewish War is a seven-book history of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), written by the Jerusalem-born Jewish priest, military commander, and historian Josephus. A former commander of Jewish rebel forces in Galilee who later surrendered to and allied himself with the Roman general (and future emperor) Vespasian, Josephus composed the work in the late 70s CE. The narrative opens with a summary of Jewish history from the Maccabean Revolt through the reigns of the Hasmoneans, the Herodians, and the period of direct Roman rule. It then narrates in detail the revolt's outbreak, infighting among Jewish factions, the Roman military campaigns under Vespasian and his son Titus, and the eventual siege and destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 CE, concluding with the fall of the fortress of Masada in 73/74 CE. Josephus writes that the work was first composed in his paternal tongue (either Aramaic or Hebrew) for Jewish audiences in the eastern diaspora, before he produced the surviving Greek version with the help of literary assistants. Because Josephus wrote under the patronage of the Flavian dynasty, historians have long debated the work's reliability, noting its tendency to place blame for the devastation on Jewish rebel factions. Nevertheless, the work expresses sympathy for Jewish suffering and defends Judaism to a Greco-Roman readership. As the only extensive eyewitness narrative of the revolt to survive antiquity, The Jewish War is a foundational source for the late Second Temple period of Jewish history. It remains central to archaeological and historical study of sites such as Jerusalem, Yodfat, Gamla, and Masada. The text survives through the Christian manuscript tradition, and it has shaped later portrayals of the war, informing works such as Josephus's own Antiquities of the Jews as well as centuries of historiography on the fall of Jerusalem.