Josephus’ Antiquities tell the story of the Judaean people, from creation to the outbreak of the war in 66 CE. Louis Feldman has shown how the Flavian author depicts Jewish patriarchs and heroes in the guise of Graeco-Roman great men, but at the centre of the story is Moses, who is shown not only as a paragon of virtue, but also, and more importantly, as the founder and lawgiver of his people.
My project compares this portrait with the founders and lawgivers of Plutarch’s paired Lives, aiming to discover the role played by such figures in the articulation of ethnic, religious, and cultural difference in the Roman world of the late first century.