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Another elaborate description concerns the Lake of Gennesareth with its surrounding area, which reminds one of Herodotus’s descriptions of exotic regions. Josephus draws attention to the unique species of fish that live in the lake and to the strange fact that the river Jordan runs straight through the middle of it (3.508–509). He includes a short excursus on the sources of the river Jordan. The surrounding district is “remarkable for its natural properties and beauty” (3.516). It supplies all kinds of fruit for no less than ten months a year and is being watered by a spring which some hold to be a branch of the Nile (3.516–520). The description implies that by his conquest Vespasian managed to turn an exotic nation at the edge of the inhabited world into a well-organized Roman province. Josephus follows Vespasian’s campaign step by step and also describes Peraea, Samaria, Judaea, and the kingdom of Agrippa (3.35–58). As indicated already in the prologue, the conflict culminates in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, described in detail in books 5 and 6.

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