5 BC

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2 notes:

Herobill said...

The major source for 5 BC is Josephus, plus a few lines from Dio Cassius.

To be more specific...

A single paragraph in Dio Cassius (Book 55, Chapter 9) begins to tell about 5 BC, but then the text is missing and skips the rest of the year (plus two more years!) It's sad, but true.

and...

The death of Herod was mentioned in Matthew , but it won't happen until "next year" (4 BC).

but...

Josephus' Antiquities, Book 17, Chapters 4(b) & 5 tell ALL about the events of 5 BC.

So, this year, we rely almost totally on Josephus.

10/22/2006 1:48 PM
Herobill said...

All the information about Antipater & Herod for this year came from Josephus, of course.

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Suetonius (3.11-14) gives us some good information, over the next few years, about Tiberius' time on Rhoads.

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We have fragments of copies of Dio's work for the years 5 BC to 3 AD. Quirinius definitely fights the Homanadensian War somewhere during that span. (Dio absolutely would have mentioned that war - so it must be from the gap.) Levick & Syme put the main fighting in the years 4-3 BC.

Cornutus was governor in 6 AD. And Quirinius has to be in Rome by late 1 AD (so he can get a new assignment from Caesar in early 2 AD). So any way you cut it, Quirinius has to be in Galatia for at least 24-36 months out of the 70 months between July of 5 BC and July of 1 AD.

I simply followed Levick & Syme's conclusion, with six months lead & follow time on either side of the fighting.

For more on Quirinius, see the notes to 9, 8 & 7 BC.

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The only part of Dio's text that survived for 5 BC was the part about Gaius' receiving the "toga virilis".

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So after all that...

It's actually amazing how much we really DO know, about 5 BC!

11/06/2006 4:04 AM

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