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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2016
If we wanted to approach Josephus with the question “Is his work accurate?” his distances would be an obvious place to start. His distances have often been used to successfully identify sites: Josephus claims that A is 30 stadia (ca. 6 km) from B, but if a candidate for B is actually 37.5 stadia (ca. 7.5 km) from A, we look for a better option. Here as always we need to understand the nature of our evidence before using it in historical reasoning.
Josephus nowhere explains his method or sources for indicating distance. His main unit of distance measurement is the stadion, and if we review all occurrences of numbered stadia (plural) in his works, some general patterns suggest themselves. The word appears 121 times in total, although in a few cases it refers to a stadium facility or to an undefined number (“many stadia” etc.). Below are all the passages that give numbered stadia as measurements. The figures down the left side are not ordinals. They are the numbers of stadia given by Josephus in the corresponding passages to the right.
1: Ant. 15.415; Life. 399
2: War 2.189; 5.133, 134, 270; Ant. 7.225, 243
3: War 3.245; 5.68; Ant. 20.95
4: Ant. 9.225; 15.400; Life. 64, 322
5: Ant. 20.169; Life.. 398
6: War 4.533; 5.70, 192
7: War 2.528; 3.146; 5.68; 7.286; Ant. 19.340
10: Ant. 5.20
20: War 1.403, 425; 3.521; 4.107, 467, 659; Ant. 5.140; 7.34, 312; 10.114; 15.297; Life. 118, 265, 395
30: War 2.386, 551; 3.447, 521; 4.3, 44, 615; 5.51; 7.101, 217, 284; Ant. 5.139; 12.408; 19.6; Life. 157, 281, 349
33: War 5.159
40: War 3.506; 5.508; Ant. 7.283; 8.303; Life. 234
50: War 2.516; Ant. 5.20; 13.175; Apion 1.197
60: War 1.265, 419; 2.188, 291, 338; 4.3, 474; Ant. 4.112; 5.4; 14.359; 15.324; Life. 115, 214, 349
70: War 1.673; 4.467; Ant. 12.369
80: Ant. 13.276; 17.199
90: War 5.523; 6.5; Ant. 18.365
100: War 2.188; 6.151, 375; Ant. 18.179; 20.113
120: War 2.188; 3.510, 515; 4.456; 7.229; Life. 349
140: War 3.506
150/ War 4.474, 482; Ant. 13.390
160:
180: War 7.426
200: Ant. 18.60
230: War 4.456
300: War 4.613; Ant. 9.7; 15.168
400: War 2.175
520: War 3.10
580: War 4.482
600: War 1.79; Ant. 13.312
2000: War 4.610
3600: War 4.610
From this inventory several patterns become clear.
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