Revising his doctoral dissertation in classics at the University of California-Irvine, Brighton (biblical languages and literature, Concordia U., California) focuses on the final defenders in the last battle of the war against Rome, as described by the most detailed and therefore most cited historian of the wars. He draws together all the explicit references to the Sicarii that Josephus makes, as well as the passages in which their presence and activity must be inferred from the context. The term was originally applied to a group of bandits who embarked on high-profile assassinations in the early stages of the war, he concludes, but by the time of Josephus had come to be applied loosely to Jews of the Judean revolt who were associated with acts of violence against their own people for religious and political ends. Annotation 2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
