History of Dor. 73 



friendship with Alexander, and subdued Zoilus; but when he after- 

 ward heard that he had secretly sent to his mother Cleopatra, he 

 broke the oaths he had made to him, and attacked and besieged 

 Ptolemais because it refused to receive him." 



Strabo is most probably Josephus' source of information in this 

 section. In XIII, 12:6 Josephus expressly cites Strabo and Kico- 

 laus (of Damascus) as his sources. A comparison of XIII, 10:4 

 indicates that, of these two, Strabo was more probably the author 

 of the section XIII, 12:6 (and so of 12:2-4), concerned as they 

 both are with Ptolemy\ In fact, the so-called "Syriaca" would 

 all seem to belong to this writer^. Destinon', however, holds that 

 the direct use of Strabo and other sources by Josephus was limited 

 to the passages where the name of the source is expressly cited. 

 In other instances he leaves open the possibility that the anony- 

 mous historian he supposes Josephus used as source may have 

 utilized these authors. It appears quite probable therefore, that 

 Strabo was really the source of the sections under discussion. 



ANTIQUITIES XIII, 15 : 4. 



Dor is not included by Josephus in his catalogue of Syrian, 

 Idumean and Phoenician cities held by Alexander Jannaeus toward 

 this close of his career {A7it. XIII, 15:4). The list begins with 

 SrpaTwvos irvpyov, just south of Dor, and follows the coast toward 

 the south. As we have seen above, it is questionable whether the 

 Jews ever exercised any real control over Dor. This in spite of 

 the fact that Josephus further on in this same passage includes 

 ILapjXYjXLov opos ("Mount Carmel ") and oAAas tc ttoXus Tr/oorevoixras 

 T^s ^v/otas rfcrav KaTearpafXfjievoi (" Other prominent cities of Syria 

 which had been destroyed"). It would be unsafe to include Dor 

 in the list on the basis of such uncertain generalizations by 

 Josephus. It has already been suggested that there is no clear 

 statement in Ant. XIII, 12:2, 4 to the effect that Dor was ever 



' Timagenes (quoted in 12:5) was probably one of Strabo's sources, known 

 to Josephus only through the latter. 



2 Holscher, Die Quellen des Josephus, pp. 15, 39; Schiirer in Hauck-Her- 

 zog, s.v. Josephus. Holscher maintains (p. 40) that Polybius and Posidonius 

 are in turn Strabo's sources. For the period after 143 B.C. (and therefore 

 for the time of this passage) Holscher believes Posidonius is the original 

 source . 



2 Die Quellen des Fl. Josephus, pp. 57 ff . 



