Josephus was a Jewish historian to whom we owe most of what we know of the history of the Jewish nation from the reign of Herod the Great to the fall of the nation to the Romans in the First Jewish Revolt (66-73 AD).
Josephus was born into an aristocratic priestly family in 37 AD, and named Joseph ben-Matthias. When the Revolt began he was appointed commander of a brigade in Galilee. Even as he insisted that his men fight to the death against the Romans, he decided that the bread was better buttered on the Roman side. He surrendered himself to the Romans, and declared that Vespasian—the general tasked with putting down the revolt—would soon become emperor. When Vespasian was declared by his troops just a few months later, Josephus quickly gained the favour of the new Emperor, a Roman citizenship, a new name, and residence in the Emperor's former residence in Rome. There he wrote an account of the revolt called The Jewish War. Later he 're-wrote' the work but taking the history further back into the nation's past, calling it Antiquities of the Jews. His other works include an autobiography, The Life of Flavius Josephus and a work of polemics, Against Apion.
The thrust of his work is simple; the blame for the revolt and its failure was placed on the Zealots, who found the footing for their rebellion in "a certain oracle" of the Old Testament (Josephus does not identify the passage, but scholars think it is either Daniel 9, possibly v24 or 25, or Daniel 7:13-14).
Though we owe much to Josephus for our understanding of a very crucial era in the history of ancient Israel, his work is uneven in quality and reliability. Jews view him as biased since he had "gone over to the other side," and his works had been preserved largely due to Christians. In his report of the fall of Masada, e.g., Josephus recorded for us a poignant speech by the rebel leader Yair just before the rebels made a pact to commit mass suicide instead of surrendering to the Romans who had already breached the walls. Now did Josephus make up the speech for dramatic purposes or did he really have excess to the two women who survived? Could they have, in fact, remembered such a speech even if Yair did make it?
Josephus died c.100 in Rome.
Further Reading & Resources:
Most Christian pastors have a copy of Josephus's Complete Work translated by William Whiston, but are usually left unread. The reason is not difficult to find; Whiston seems to think it necessary to use six words when two will do. Nonetheless Whiston remains serviceable for us lay-preachers, and it is now in the public domain; Click here to download a pdf from the Christian Classic Ethereal Library.
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