Background

Who Translated Josephus’ Works into Latin?

Cassiodorus (d. 580 CE) was a Roman aristocrat and scholar, who founded a monastery on his familial lands in southern Italy. This monastery was named Vivarium. Around the middle of the sixth century, Cassiodorus wrote the Institutions, a book meant to act as a study guide for monks in his monastery. In it, he speaks highly of Josephus, and mentions commissioning a Latin translation of the Antiquities. Cassiodorus also notes that he has access to an earlier translation of the Jewish War, seemingly made around 400 CE.

Institutions, I.xvii.1 (ed. Mynors, p. 55):
[De Historicis Christianis] . . . Ioseppus, paene secundus Livius, in libris Antiquitatum Iudaicorum late diff.usus, quem pater Hieronymus, scribens ad Lucinum Betticum, propter magnitudinem prolixi operis a se perhibet non potuisse transferri. hunc tamen ab amicis nostris, quoniam est subtilis nimis et multiplex, magno labore in libris viginti duobus converti fecimus in Latinum. qui etiam et alios septem libros Captivitatis Iudaicae mirabili nitore conscripsit, quam translationem alii Hieronymo, alii Ambrosio, alii deputant Rufino; quae dum talibus viris ascribitur, omnino dictionis eximia merita declarantur.

English translation (James and Barbara Halporn)
‘[Christian Historians] … Josephus (almost a second Livy) who composed his books of Jewish Antiquities on a large scale. Father Jerome writing to Lucinus Betticus says that he cannot translate Josephus because of the size of this prolix work. We have had him translated into Latin in twenty-two books by our friends, a task involving great labor on their part since he is subtle and complex. He also wrote seven other marvelously clear books on the Jewish Captivity [= the Jewish War]. Some ascribe the translation of this work to Jerome, others to Ambrose, still others to Rufinus. This work, since it is ascribed to such men, declares the special merits of its composition.’