Steven H. Wander
Emeritus, University of Connecticut, Stamford
Flavius Josephus is the preeminent chronicler of the Jewish War and the Second Temple Period. His writings in Greek are a primary resource both for the current circumstances of Judaea during his own lifetime and for its past. For later times in the estimation of many, “Josephus occupies a place in Christian literature second only to the bible itself in importance.” The influence of his writings can be documented across the Mediterranean from Late Antiquity throughout the Middle Ages, and later during the Renaissance and the Reformation. In a 1989 review, however, it was recognized that “The texts, sources, and reception of Josephus have all been studied in modern times, but the pictorial tradition was neglected.” This has remained the case until recently when it can now be established unequivocally that his influence impacted artworks of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages both in the Latin West and Byzantine East. For example, his account of the Flavian Triumph of 71 was likely the direct inspiration for the design of the Spoils panel on the interior south wall of Arch of Titus. His statue rendered, it seems, in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 50, fol. 2r and attested to by Eusebius, Rufinus, and Jerome, was the probable model for the rear panel of the Franks Casket with its depiction of the Sack of Jerusalem (London, British Museum, Franks [Auzon] Casket) and mosaics known from the destroyed Portico of S. Giovanno in Laterano. Cassiodorus Senator’s Latin translation of the Antiquities Judaicae explains unique features of the illuminations in the first quire of Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1). Likewise, Kosmas Indicopleustes had at his disposal a copy of the works of Flavius Josephus which were responsible for numerous features of his renderings of the Tabernacle at Sinai and its liturgical implements in illustrations from the Christian Topography (BAV, gr. 699; Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 9.28; and Sinai, the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinait. gr. 1186). The Sacra Parallela (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, cod. gr. 923), now attributed to the patronage of the Emperor Basil I (867–886), as well as the Paris Psalter (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, cod. gr. 139), often associated with Basil’s grandson, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (913–959), show the continuing influence of his writings on artworks of the Middle Byzantine period. These connections have failed to receive the scholarly attention they deserve and are a striking feature of the dispersion of Greek culture in later centuries and across different lands.