ABSTRACT
The “Great War” of the Jews against the Romans struck Josephus as a contest of monumental significance. He spared no rhetoric in the preface to his War (1.1): this war was not only the greatest of any in his own time but nearly the greatest of any conflict between cities or nations throughout history. This, of course, is wild hyperbole, a patent attempt to imitate Herodotus and Thucydides who made similar claims for the wars about which they wrote-with rather more justification. For the Jews, to be sure, this conflict did have momentous implications. To confront in all-out war the predominant imperial power of the world could only have been viewed as a clash of colossal proportions. Such, at least, would be a Jewish perspective.
