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Flavius Josephus ranks among the most influential and prolific ancient Jewish writers. His account of near-contemporary events in the Jewish War and the latter half of the Jewish Antiquities have often been subjected to critical scrutiny.Josephus´ writings, however, also include an account of the most remote past of the Jewish people in the first eleven books of the Jewish Antiquities . Yet, only rarely has this part of his authorship been subjected to a historiographically oriented analysis.Martin Friisoffers such an analysis with emphasis on Josephus´ various strategies of self-presentation. He provides numerous examples of the comprehensiveness of Josephus´ self-presentational style, and shows how Josephus consistently presents himself as a capable and competent historian in a manner that is highly reminiscent of, and easily comparable to, that of some of the greatest ancient Greco-Roman historians.

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