Spectacle and Theater in Josephus's Bellum Judaicum
| Honora Howell Chapman Abstract:This dissertation explains how Josephus employs spectacle and theater in his Bellum Judaicum to focus and color the events he is portraying and how his elite hellenized audience from both Graeco-Roman and Jewish backgrounds could have understood his history of the war. Previous scholars have identified tragic allusions in the Bellum, but I present the first study of Josephus’s use of spectacle and theater as literary devices. These are clearly attested in other literature of his day and, therefore, conform to his audience’s literary tastes and expectations. This dissertation shows how the historian attempts to persuade his readers to accept his account of the “truth” concerning the Jewish War by focusing his audience’s vision upon particular people, places, and events, which are presented in a theatrical framework. The three main chapters concentrate on scenes in the Bellum which contain spectacular and dramatic material and which thereby serve as vehicles for promoting Josephus’s message. Chapter 2 examines the beginning of the Roman siege of Jerusalem and how Josephus makes the Temple the most prominent focus of visual attention for both “good” Jews and Romans, especially Titus. Chapter 3 investigates Josephus’s account of a mother’s act of cannibalism against her own baby as a mythos. I argue that the theatrical framing and language of this scene set up the tragedy of the destruction of the Temple and the innocence of Titus. Chapter 4 discusses the dramatic mass suicide of the Sicarii at Masada within the larger context of book 7’s treatment of the exercise of Roman military power. In this study I apply a game theory model which has been developed by Paul Plass to describe political opposition at Rome. Through this examination of reactions to Roman power, I conclude that Josephus was not endorsing the methods or message of Eleazar and his group of Jewish rebels. |