The War of the Jews is a history of the Jews from the Maccabean revolt against the Syrian Greeks in the 2nd century BCE through the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans in 70 CE and its aftermath, composed around 75 CE in Aramaic or Hebrew by Josephus Flavius. Josephus was a Jewish general in the wars against the Romans and surrendered to Rome after a six-week siege. The War of the Jews was written in Rome under sponsorship of the Roman emperor. Despite the pro-Roman and personal biases, the work’s clear, pragmatic, and detailed style, and the fact that it is one of the only surviving sources describing these wars, render it a critical source of history for the period.