(June 15, 2012 at 3:31 am)cratehorus Wrote:(June 14, 2012 at 12:52 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Rome in 1,000 bc was a small collection of neolithic mud huts on the Palatine Hill. Five centuries later they threw out the Etruscans ( but kept a lot of their technical knowledge ) and began to grow by absorbing ( not destroying ) other Latin communities in Central Italy. Any actual empire building begins with the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC where the Romans defeated Gauls in addition to various Italian tribes and came into contact with the Greeks of Tarentum and Crotona.
None of this has anything to do with Josephus, of course.
So Josephus invented the myth? Josephus...... Joseph.... coincidence?
I'm doing research on him and Plutarch. I believe (without the adequate evidence yet..) that Josephus ben Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew and maybe was involved with Mark.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle