Thank you Ian for your comments on En Gedi. By "Herodian" remains, did
the excavators include the period of Herod the Great, or are we speaking
later Herodian?
A question that had been raised some time ago on Orion is that, if
Nicolas of Damascus was the source for Pliny's excursus on the Essenes (as
seems certain from its paradoxographical genre), why isn't he listed as an
authority for Book 5? I consider that question now fully resolved. The
foremost Greek authority for both books 5 and 6 is listed as Juba, i.e. King
Juba II of Mauretania (c. 37 BCE? - c. 23 CE). Juba was educated at Rome and
was famous for his great learning and wrote a number of books, all now
perished. He had some interesting contacts with Nicolas by was of his wives.
Juba's first wife was a Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Anthony and Cleopatra,
and Nicolas had tutored the couple's children before entering service under
Herod the Great. Juba's second wife was Glaphyra, daughter of King Archelaus
of Cappadocia (also an author). Glaphyra had first been married to
Alexander, Herod the Great's son, and as such had substantial contact with
Nicolas. (Nicolas may have indeed had a role in arranging that marriage, and
may have tutored her in Judea.) After Herod executed Alexander, Glaphyra
went back to her father and then was married to Juba. Both of Juba's highly
educated wives undoubtedly recommended Nicolas to King Juba, not that he
wouldn't have read his works anyway. One of Juba's books was on Arabia, and
Pliny uses it extensively in book 5 and especially book 6. It gave an
account of all of Arabia, from the Mesopotamia skenitae (tent-dwellers) to
the Arabian coasts around the Red Sea and of course to Arabia's border region
abutting Syria. It contained both geographical and ethnographical material
(unlike Agrippa's commentarii) which Pliny frequently utilized. That Juba's
work also dealt with the Dead Sea is made probable by the statement at Pliny,
NH 5.72, "On the east it is faced by Arabia of the Nomads." This unusual
description specifically points to Juba's work on Arabia as the immediate
source of Pliny's description of the Dead Sea; Juba in turn utilized Nicolas'
colorful description of the Essenes.
Best regards,
Russell Gmirkin
For private reply, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the
message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web
site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.
