Josephus in the Diaspora

AbstractThis chapter lays out the evidence for the continued importance of Josephus’ personal connections with diaspora ‘Ioudaioi’ in the years after he had settled in Rome. First, Josephus needs to be related to the large diaspora community in Rome itself. Furthermore, he most likely maintained connections in various parts of the eastern Mediterranean (his second wife was from Alexandria; his third wife was from the diaspora Jewish community on Crete; he also had some dealings with the diaspora community in Cyrene, and he may well have returned to Judaea to visit his estates and possibly the emerging Rabbinic centre at Jamnia). In short, Josephus — despite his Roman citizenship, his obvious links to the Flavian emperors, as well as the importance of Graeco-Roman literary traditions to his development as a historian — still retained a strong Jewish identity.