The Jew of Rome

"There are seventy-seven who have the ear of the world, and I am one of them." This was no idle boast on the part of Flavius Josephus, and, in the days the Roman Empire's greatness, it was no small achievement. It had not, however, been an easy task for the Jewish historian to make his way as a Roman and a Jew, and in the years to come it was to be yet more difficult. Christianity was emerging for the first time as a world idea. The conflict between the forces of nationalism and world...
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"There are seventy-seven who have the ear of the world, and I am one of them." This was no idle boast on the part of Flavius Josephus, and, in the days the Roman Empire's greatness, it was no small achievement. It had not, however, been an easy task for the Jewish historian to make his way as a Roman and a Jew, and in the years to come it was to be yet more difficult. Christianity was emerging for the first time as a world idea. The conflict between the forces of nationalism and world citizenship was of growing importance then as today. Josephus' heartbreaking role in this struggle has a poignant modernity. With all the ambiguity of his character, his work, his destiny, a participant fighting and suffering in the great events of the period, he is more than a man of importance---he becomes a symbol of his age.Lion Feuchtwanger's second volume of the "Josephus" trilogy takes up the story of Josephus at the time when he had become a power in Rome, and Rome was determined to be the only power in the world. Through the novelist's eyes the reader relives the dramatic events of Titus's reign---the Fire, the Plague, the visit from Judea of the exotic and exquisite princess Berenice. He travels with Joseph to Judea, sits in the councils of the Jewish fathers in the days of their great sorrow, searches for information about a certain prophet said to have been crucified at Jerusalem. Thus he is sharing in the strange spectacle of a new faith coming to birth.Feuchtwanger paints his hero against the background of great historical events, against the background of an era that more than almost any other was adventurous and colorful and profoundly stirred by the eternally crucial questions of the destiny of human civilization. "The Jew of Rome" is a magnificent panorama of a brilliant age, and a moving portrait of a man whose essential honesty and clear reason made of him a wanderer through the world and a singular historian in the annals of humanity.