Fascinating stuff. I 've often wondered why Jesus' followers didn't record the dates of his arrest, trial and execution.
The topic brings out a personal hobby horse.; ancient historians. There was no such creature as we understand the term much before Gibbon.
I'm very wary of accepting any single ancient writer as prime source.EG Josesphus was a notorious Roman apologist and needs to be read with that in mind.
Ancient historians rarely even approach being objective recorders of events.Everything written had a political agenda :Eg Suetonius' 'Life Of Caligula' is a good example of scurrilous political propaganda,with just enough truth to make it credible. Julius Caesar's* superb chronicles are worse,with ' a considerable amount of embellishment and exaggeration'.
*Caesar single handedly invented the Germans and 'Germania' as a threat to Rome.
The topic brings out a personal hobby horse.; ancient historians. There was no such creature as we understand the term much before Gibbon.
I'm very wary of accepting any single ancient writer as prime source.EG Josesphus was a notorious Roman apologist and needs to be read with that in mind.
Ancient historians rarely even approach being objective recorders of events.Everything written had a political agenda :Eg Suetonius' 'Life Of Caligula' is a good example of scurrilous political propaganda,with just enough truth to make it credible. Julius Caesar's* superb chronicles are worse,with ' a considerable amount of embellishment and exaggeration'.
*Caesar single handedly invented the Germans and 'Germania' as a threat to Rome.
