Our editions and translations

Latin Bellum Judaicum

The seven-book Latin Bellum Judaicum presented here uses Edward Cardwell’s edition of 1837. R.M. Pollard prepared the electronic edition in 2017; it was revised in 2026.

Printed source and electronic edition

Cardwell’s text is indirectly based on the Gelenius edition of 1534. The reader provides both chapter divisions and Niese sections, alongside the Greek and independently selectable English translations.

Read the Bellum Judaicum · View Cardwell’s Latin volume (Google Books).

Cardwell as a witness to the medieval Latin tradition

Some editors have made an overhasty dismissal of Cardwell’s Latin version. They imply that because its ultimate source text, the 1534 Gelenius edition, improved the text (particularly by reference to the Greek), it no longer presents anything like what medieval readers would have known.¹ Painstaking collation of the text for this project, and word-by-word comparison with the recent edition of Bellum book 1 by Bernd Bader (2019), shows that these concerns are rather overblown. Cardwell’s text is not too different from what Bader has restored, and therefore well represents the medieval text.

Indeed, Andreas Ammann describes how the extent of Gelenius’s revisions varies across the seven books of the Latin Bellum.²

The density of emendations also varies across the seven books of the Bellum Judaicum. Corrections are quite frequent in some passages […]. On other pages, Gelenius made only a few minor changes to the text, and sometimes none at all. This is partly because the late antique translator of the Bellum had a good command of Greek and because the text was reasonably well preserved. Gelenius therefore had less reason to make corrections to this work of Josephus.

For a detailed comparison of an example passage between the editions of Froben, Cardwell, and Bader, that illustrates Gelenius’ changes, see here.

Below are a few passages drawn from Book I that show why Cardwell remains valuable for studying the Latin Josephus read in the Middle Ages. Despite relying on a chain of editions going back to Gelenius, Cardwell’s text preserves distinctive vocabulary, elaborations and interpretations that differ from the edited Greek, things that one might expect Gelenius to have smoothed away. Bader’s apparatus and commentary help us to see the general reliability of Cardwell as a witness to the medieval tradition, but also reveal some occasions where the original/traditional Latin has been “improved”.

Five examples of inherited Latin readings

• I.282: a clasp of right hands. Cardwell’s junctae cum Antipatro dexterae gives concrete expression to Antony’s friendship with Antipater. Bader retains the same handclasp: an elaboration of the Greek reference to guest-friendship, characteristic of the Latin translator’s more expressive treatment. (Bader, pp. 103–104, 189–190.)

• I.300: an unusual word for obtaining grain. Both editions preserve qui frumentatu hostes prohiberent, “who would prevent the enemy from obtaining provisions.” The rare noun frumentatus survives in Cardwell, whereas some manuscripts split the difficult form into frumenta tunc. (Bader, p. 107.)

• I.398: “after the first Actiad.” Cardwell retains Post primam vero Actiada, an unfamiliar chronological formula referring to the cycle of the Actian games. Bader likewise prints actiada, attested in manuscript A. Other witnesses alter its ending; manuscript T replaces the unfamiliar expression with a reference to the battle of Actium. (Bader, pp. 124, 194.)

• I.452: an inexperienced judge. Both editions retain imperitissimum, “extremely inexperienced,” where the edited Greek describes an experienced judge. Bader preserves the Latin departure and considers whether the translator knew a different Greek reading. Cardwell thus transmits the Latin tradition’s interpretation, even where it reverses the familiar Greek sense. (Bader, pp. 134, 229–230.)

• I.612: a kingdom resting on one man. Both print quod solo ipso niteretur, “which rested on him alone.” Bader considers nutaret, “was tottering,” to approach the Greek image of a storm-tossed state, but rejects the conjecture and retains the transmitted Latin wording also found in Cardwell. (Bader, pp. 162, 204.)

Three counterexamples

• I.278: an early printed addition. Cardwell has curarum aestum, “the surge of cares,” where Bader prints curarum. Bader identifies aestum in Froben’s edition of 1524, against the manuscripts he collated: a vivid word in Cardwell that lacks their support. (Bader, pp. 19, 103.)

• I.392: a reconstructed subject. Cardwell supplies Ventidius as the writer of a letter. Bader instead conjectures Didius in place of the manuscripts’ idonea. Both solutions repair a difficult text; neither name can simply be treated as the manuscript reading. (Bader, pp. 123, 193–194.)

• I.419: a Greek word explained away. Cardwell’s in mammae formam, “in the shape of a breast,” replaces the difficult mastoiden retained by Bader with support from manuscript A. The image remains, but Cardwell obscures the form in which the Greek word entered the Latin tradition. (Bader, pp. 16–17, 128.)

These examples support using Cardwell as a historically mediated witness to medieval Latin Josephus. Its readings deserve attention in their own right. Of course, it can never claim to represent all of the medieval tradition. For this, the manuscripts and Bader’s critical apparatus remain essential.

Editions

• Flavius Josephus, Flavii Josephi De bello Judaico libri septem, ed. Edward Cardwell, 2 vols. (Oxford: e Typographeo Academico, 1837). Digitised volume II (Google Books), the source used for the project’s complete Latin text.
• Bernd Bader, ed., Josephus Latinus: De Bello Iudaico. Buch 1 (Stuttgart, 2019), a critical edition and commentary on Book I.

English translations

Whiston translated from Greek. Lodge described his translation as made from Latin and French. The reader allows these English versions to be selected independently.

Institutional affiliation and research support

This project draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Ce projet s’appuie sur des recherches financées par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada.

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