Josephus had already mentioned this famine in the same book of his Ant., chap. 2, §5.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
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Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12
1 complete historical source paragraphs and 7 editorial footnotes. Author and edition credits are shown for each record; original wording is retained.
English translation and editorial credits: Rev. Arthur Cushman McGiffert (Ph.D.).
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1. “And at this time it came to pass that the great famine took place in Judea, in which the queen Helen, having purchased grain from Egypt with large sums, distributed it to the needy.”
Josephus gives an extensive account of this Helen and of her son Izates in the Ant. XX. 2. Helen was the wife of the king Monabazus of Adiabene, and the mother of Izates, his successor. Both Izates and Helen embraced the Jewish religion, and the latter happening to come to Jerusalem in the time of the famine, did a great deal to relieve the distress, and was seconded in her benefactions by her son. After their death the bones of both mother and son were brought to Jerusalem and buried just outside of the walls, where Helen had erected three pyramids (Jos. Ant. XX. 4. 3).
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
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1. “And at this time it came to pass that the great famine took place in Judea, in which the queen Helen, having purchased grain from Egypt with large sums, distributed it to the needy.”
“Pausanias (in Arcadicis) speaks of these great monuments of Helen and compares them to the tomb of Mausolus. Jerome, too, testifies that they were standing in his time. Helen had besides a palace in Jerusalem” (Stroth).
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source
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3. But splendid monuments of this Helen, of whom the historian has made mention, are still shown in the suburbs of the city which is now called Ælia. But she is said to have been queen of the Adiabeni.
Ælia was the heathen city built on the site of Jerusalem by Hadrian (see below, Bk. IV. chap. 6).
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, editorial note cite_note-7 · Original source
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3. But splendid monuments of this Helen, of whom the historian has made mention, are still shown in the suburbs of the city which is now called Ælia. But she is said to have been queen of the Adiabeni.
Adiabene was probably a small province lying between the Tigris, Lycus, and the Gordiæan Mountains (see Dion Cassius, LXVIII.), but before the time of Pliny, according to Vaux (in Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography), the word was used in a wider sense to indicate Assyria in general (see Pliny, H. N. VI. 12, and Ammianus Marcellinus, XXIII. 6). Izates was king of Adiabene in the narrower sense.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, editorial note cite_note-8 · Original source
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3. But splendid monuments of this Helen, of whom the historian has made mention, are still shown in the suburbs of the city which is now called Ælia. But she is said to have been queen of the Adiabeni.
In the times of these procurators, Cuspius Fadus and Tiberius Alexander.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source
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1. “And at this time it came to pass that the great famine took place in Judea, in which the queen Helen, having purchased grain from Egypt with large sums, distributed it to the needy.”
Josephus, Ant. XX. 5. 2.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
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1. “And at this time it came to pass that the great famine took place in Judea, in which the queen Helen, having purchased grain from Egypt with large sums, distributed it to the needy.”
3. But splendid monuments of this Helen, of whom the historian has made mention, are still shown in the suburbs of the city which is now called Ælia. But she is said to have been queen of the Adiabeni.
Complete source paragraph · Book II, Chapter XII.—Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.; original source section: Chapter 12, source paragraph 4 · Original source