Josephus: Selections. Edited, with Introduction, by S. E. Winbolt, M.A.
(Blackio and Son. ls.)—Mr. Winbolt has found that Josephtur can be profitably used for school teaching, and gives a selection of passages from the " Autobiography " and the "Jewish War." To these he adds the preface with which the "Antiquities of the Jews" begins. Mr. Winbolt does not rate his author's veracity very highly ; he puts the case clearly enough when he says : "A great deal that Josephus relates cannot be implicitly believed, but what he mentions is apt to be true." It would have added to the interest of the introduction if the remarks that Josephus is "obviously at pains to extol the Roman Empire under its Flavian rulers," and that we must discount what is said about the humanity and heroism of Vespasian and Titus, had been illustrated by the curious story of the destruction of the Temple. Josephus attributes it to the fury of his countrymen ; Twitter, whose narrative has been preserved by Sulpicius Severna (as discovered by the German scholar Bernays), declares that it was the act of Titus dictated by considerations of Imperial policy.
The book is certainly likely to be useful In bygone days, when ' Sunday reading" was far more rigidly restricted than it is now, Josephue was a great resource to readers who had a taste for stories of fighting.
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