$ 1. * PREFACE. W HEREAS the war which the Jews made with the Romans, hath been the greatest of all thofe, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought againft cities, or nations against na tions ; * I have already obferved more than once, that this hiftory of the Jewish war was Jofephus's firft work, and published about A. D. 75, when he was but 38 years of age; and that when he wrote it he was not thoroughly acquainted with feveral circumstances of hiftory from the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, with which it begins, till near his own times, contained in the first and former part of the fecond book, and fo committed many involuntary errors therein. That he published his Antiquities 18 years afterward, in the 13th year of Domitian, A. D. 93, when he was much more compleatly acquainted with thofe ancient times, and after he had perufed thofe moft authentic hiftories, the first book ofMaccabees, and the Chronicles of the Priesthood of John Hyrcanus, &c. That accordingly he then reviewed thofe parts of this work, and gave the public a more faithful, compleat, and accurate account of the facts therein related; and honeftly corrected the errofs he had before run into. |