² “Ancient History” ( ἀρχαιολογία) is Josephus’ shorthand title for his 20-volume work, which we term his Antiquities (cf. 1.54, 127; 2.136, 287; Ant. 20.259, 267; Life 430). Its public title (if it had one) would have had to indicate whose “ancient history” this recounted (cf. Ant. 1.5; Apion 2.136, “our ancient histories”). The connotations of the term are ambiguous at a critical point (see Rajak 2002: 241-55). For some in antiquity, ἀρχαιολογία suggested “ancient lore,” the sagas and “myths” which historians could at best sift for true history, but might wholly discard (Plutarch, Mor. 855d; Thes. 1); for others (presumably Josephus; cf. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. rom. 1.4.1) it simply meant the history of ancient times. In his Antiquities Josephus had not fully defended his almost complete dependence on a particular, Judean source for the most ancient history (the Judean scriptures), and thus encountered (or imagined) scepticism (1.2).