¹ I translate the δέ here in order to show the parallel with § 2, which opens with the same phrase: ἐμοι δέ. This opening δέ does not, however, carry its full (originally adverbial) weight as a conjunction. Josephus’ inceptive usage here is paralleled in each of the last five books of the Antiquities ( Ant. 16.1; 17.1; 18.1; 19.1; 20.1). Since he will also use δέ frequently in the opening sections of the Life (§§ 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 24), even where he opens a new episode (compare Matt. 1:18; 2:1), the word should often be left untranslated or rendered with a comparable English spice word such as “now.” Many scholars have observed that, lacking its own prologue, the Life directly continues from Ant. 20.262-67, and they have singled out this δέ as an index of that continuity (Luther 1910:60; Laqueur 1920:4; Rajak 1973:354 n.1; Barish 1978:69; Cohen 1979:175; S. Mason 1991:311). Although the observed connection stands in any case, on the basis of content, Josephus’ liberal use of δέ should prevent us from placing too much weight on it here.