Page:Selections. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (1919).djvu/192

 surroundings. The style of Josephus is variable, now easy and flowing, now extraordinarily difficult. The testimony to Christ is imbedded in a portion of the Antiquities (XVII. 1-XIX. 275) which contains some of the hardest Greek in our author. The language throughout this group of nearly three books is distinguished by some well-marked characteristics, e.g. a large use of periphrastic expressions. The simple verb is replaced by the combination of the nomen actoris in -[Greek: tês] with [Greek: kathistasthai], [Greek: gignesthai], [Greek: einai] or the like (thus [Greek: kritês ei ai] = [Greek: krinein] XIX. 217); [Greek: mê apêllagmenos] with inf. (ibid. "not incapable," "competent") is a similar mannerism of constant occurrence in these books and is based on Thuc. I. 138. [Greek: Chrêsthai] is used with extraordinary frequency in periphrases. Other peculiarities are the use of the neuter participle with article as an abstract noun (Thucydidean), of [Greek: ouden (mêden) eis anabolas] for "quickly" (after Thuc. VII. 15), and of [Greek: hoposos] (100 examples in these books) for [Greek: hosos] in other parts of Josephus. The departure from the author's normal practice extends to the spelling; the double [Greek: s] (of Thucydides) in words like [Greek: prassein] in these books replaces as a rule the so-called "Attic" [Greek: tt] employed elsewhere in the Antiquities. Imitation of Thucydides, found sporadically in other parts, here reaches its climax. This practice largely accounts for the cumbrous phrases and involved periods prevalent in these books. The style is artificial and imitative and does not lend itself readily to imitation by another, The sources of this portion of the work are mainly, if not entirely, Roman, notably the narrative of the accession and (at quite disproportionate length) the death (XIX. I. 275) of Caligula; and I can only account for the phenomena by supposing that the author here handed over entirely to one of his literary collaborateurs or [Greek: synergoi] (cp. Ap. I. 50), who had hitherto rendered