The historic authority and trustworthiness of Josephus, and his personal reputation, have furnished a subject, at different times, for vehement and acrimonious controversies. In fact, no ancient writer can be named who has been, at once, so hotly assailed, and so fondly defended; and it has become manifest that motives, taking their rise from a reference to the ulterior consequences, real or imaginary, of the argument, while they have sharpened the animosity of these attacks, have too much in?uenced the mode of defence.