If we leave biblical and New Testament authors out of the frame, Flavius Josephus (37–100+ CE) was the most consequential ancient writer in the West. This claim is not provable by statistics, but a process of elimination supports it. Plato was big, Aristotle too. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius had their admirers, and every literate Roman knew Cicero and Livy. But Christian Crusaders did not take Plato into battle in the Holy Land. Thucydides was not rewritten in Latin and Hebrew versions, as Josephus was, amplifying his already huge impact. From the first to the twenty-first centuries, Josephus’ work has mattered to more people and more consistently than any other non-biblical text.It is fair to say that Steve Mason owns Josephus studies. It is great to have an overview essay from him on the topic.Does that mean that he should matter now? Nothing simply matters. Classical music, stock prices, and American politics matter to some but not others. Things that mattered to us when we were twenty might not at forty or sixty. To ask why Josephus matters is to ask, first, why he has mattered, and second, why he might matter from now on, which is not the same thing.
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There are many, many PaleoJudaica posts on Flavius Josephus. For some of them, see here and follow the links. For many others, run the search term "Josephus" through the blog search engine.
For more on the siege of Jopata (Yodaft) and that rather complicated mass suicide pact, see my posts on The Josephus Problem. For pseudo-Hegisippus and other Latin translations of Josephus, see here and links. For the medieval compilation Sefer Yossipon (Jossipon), see here and links.
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