JOSEPHINE. 295 JOSHUA. fultillment of an early betrothal she married tlif 'icomte de Beauharnais, of which marriage were born Eug&ne, Viceroy of Italy, and Hor- tcnse, yueen of Holland, mother of the Emperor Napoleon 111. Josephine's husband was executed during the Reign of Terror in 1794, and she her- self barely escaped a like fate through the efforts of iladanie Tallien, after the fall of Robespierre. .She was married, March 9, 179G, to Xapoleon Bonaparte, and accompanied him during a part of his Italian campaign. Their union was marked by few quarrels, anct seemed destined to be a happy one. At ilalmaison. and afterwards at the Luxembourg and at the Tuileries, Josephine at- tracted round her the most brilliant society of Prance, and contributed not a little to the in- crease of her husband's power. She regarded hi.^ exaltation to the throne, however, with fear, and from the day of her becoming Empress (1804) seemed to dread that ambitious political motives might lead him to seek the dissolution of a marriage which had proved unfruitful. The marriage was in fact finally dissolved December 16. 1809. and in the following year NajKileon married ilaria Louisa of Austria. Josephine re- tained the title of Empress, corresponded with Bonaparte, and took the keenest interest in his doings. Slie died at ilahnaison before his final defeat. May 20. 1814. Consult: Aubenas, His- toire de Vimpcratrice Josephine (2 vols.. Paris, 1859) ; Madame de Remusat, Menioires (2 vols., Paris, 1879-80, and English translation, 1880) ; "Welschinger, Le divorce de' Napoleon I. (Paris, 1889) ; Inibert de Saint Amand, Citizeness Bona- parte, the ^yife of the First Consul; id., The f.'otirt of the Empress Josephine (Eng. trans., New York. 1890) : Ober, Josephine, Empress of the French (London, 1901). JOSE'PHUS, FLA^TJS (37-?). A celebrated Jewish historian. He was born at .Jerusalem in the year a.d. .37. of both royal and sacerdotal lineage, being descended, on the mother's side, from the line of Asmonean princes, while his father, Mat- thias, officiated as a priest in the first of the twenty-four courses. He received a good educa- tion, and became familiar with both Hebrew and Greek literature. Having attended the lecturer at the paramount religious schools of his time — 'sects,' as he terms them — he withdrew into the desert, to a man whom he calls Banos, and who is conjectured to have been either a follower of John the Baptist or an Essene. Three years later he returned to Jerusalem, and henceforth be- longed to the Pharisees. At the age of tweuty-si-^ he was chosen delegate to Nero. At the out- break of the great war between the Jews and Romans Josephus was appointed governor of Galilee. Here he displayed valor and pru- dence : but the advance of the Roman gen- eral Vespasian (67) made resistance hopeless. The city of .lotapata. into which Josephus had thrown himselif, was taken after a despe- rate resistance of forty-seven days. Along with some others he concealed himself in a cavern, but his hiding-place was discovered, and being brought before Vespasian, he would have been sent to Xcro. had he not — according to his own account, for .Josephus is his own and his sole biographer — prophesied that his captor would yet beconie Emperor of Rome. Xevertheless. he was kept in a sort of easy imprisonment for about three years. It was then that he adopted the Latinized name by which he is known. Josephus was present in the Roman army at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, and after the iall ot the city (70) was instrumental in saving the lives of some of his relatives. After this he appears to have resided in Rome, and to have devoted himself to literary studies. The exact period of his death is not ascertained. All we know is that he survived Herod Agrippa II.. who died in 100. His works are: History of the Jewish ll'or, in 7 books, written both in Hebrew and Greek (the Heljrew version no longer extant) ; Jewish Antiquities, in 20 books, containing the history of his countr^anen from the earliest times down to the end of the reign of Xero; an Apology of the Jews against Apion, valuable chiefly for its extracts from old historical writers; and an Autohiography, which may be considered supple- mentary to the Antiquities. The other works attributed to him are not believed to be genuine. .Josephus in the main was honest and veracious; he had a sincere liking for his countrymen, and rather more pride and enthusiasm in the old national history than he could well justify; but the hopelessness of attempting to withstand the enormous power of the Romans, and an aversion to martyrdom, caused him to side with the enemy — perhaps in the faint hope of being thus of some use to the national cause. The influence of Greek philosophy and learning is visible in all his writ- ings, and, as far as biblical history is concerned, infused into it a tone of rationalism. He' speaks of Moses as a human rather than a divinely inspired law-giver; he doubts the miracle in the crossing of the Red Sea. the swallowing of Jonah by the whale, and. generally speaking, whatever is calculated to teach that there was a special miraculous Providence at work on behalf of the chosen people. His style is easy and elegant, and Josephus has often been called the Greek Livy. Tlie editio prineeps of the Greek text appeared at Basel (Froben) in 1544. Since then the most important edition (with notes) is that of B. X"^iese (7 vols.. Berlin. 1885-95; the text alone, 6 vols., 1885-95). Consult: Biir- wald, Topographisch-historisches Lexicon zii den Schriflen des Josephus (Leipzig, 1879) ; Olitzki, Flavius Josephus und die BaJacha (Leipzig, 1886) ; Destinon. Die Qucllen des< Flavins Jose- phus (Kiel, 1882) ; Krenkel. Josephus und Lukas (Leipzig, 1894) : Schmidt, De Flarii Jo- sephi Elocutione (Leipzig, 1894) ; Driiner, Untcr- suchungen iiber Josephus (Marburg, 1897). The best known version in English is by W. Whiston (London. 1737), revised by A. Ti. Shilleto, in Bohn's Library (London, 1888-89. 5 vols.) ; especially valuable is the translation ol the Jewish ^Var and the Autohiography by K. Traill (London.' 1862). JOSH BILLINGS. The nom-de-plume of the American humorist Henry W. Shaw (q.v.). JOSH'UA (Heb. Yehdshu'n, Yahweh is deliv- erance). The leader of the Israelites in the con- quest of the land of Canaan. He is said to have been the son of Xun. of the tribe of Ephraim (Xum. xi. 28: xiii. 8). He is represented as having led the fight against the .malckites in the desert (Ex. xvii. 8-13) . was sent by Moses amonar the spies that went into Canaan (Xum. xiii. 8), and was appointed by !Moses to be his successor (Deut. xxxi. 23). Under his leadei-ship Israel crossed the .Jordan and conquered the Holy Land, and he assigned the territories to the various
