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[259]
I shall now, therefore, make an end here of my Antiquities; after
the conclusion of which events, I began to write that account of the war;
and these Antiquities contain what hath been delivered down to us from
the original creation of man, until the twelfth year of the reign of Nero,
as to what hath befallen the Jews, as well in Egypt as in Syria and in
Palestine, and what we have suffered from the Assyrians and Babylonians,
and what afflictions the Persians and Macedonians, and after them the Romans,
have brought upon us; for I think I may say that I have composed this history
with sufficient accuracy in all things. I have attempted to enumerate those
high priests that we have had during the interval of two thousand years;
I have also carried down the succession of our kings, and related their
actions, and political administration, without [considerable] errors, as
also the power of our monarchs; and all according to what is written in
our sacred books; for this it was that I promised to do in the beginning
of this history. And I am so bold as to say, now I have so completely perfected
the work I proposed to myself to do, that no other person, whether he were
a Jew or foreigner, had he ever so great an inclination to it, could so
accurately deliver these accounts to the Greeks as is done in these books.
For those of my own nation freely acknowledge that I far exceed them in
the learning belonging to Jews; I have also taken a great deal of pains
to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the elements of the
Greek language, although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our
own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for
our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations,
and so adorn their discourses with the smoothness of their periods; because
they look upon this sort of accomplishment as common, not only to all sorts
of free-men, but to as many of the servants as please to learn them. But
they give him the testimony of being a wise man who is fully acquainted
with our laws, and is able to interpret their meaning; on which account,
as there have been many who have done their endeavors with great patience
to obtain this learning, there have yet hardly been so many as two or three
that have succeeded therein, who were immediately well rewarded for their
pains.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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- LSJ, ἐπικομψεύω
- LSJ, περιδρομ-ή
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