(iii) The _Life_ was written as a sequel to the _Antiquities_, to which it is appended in the MSS. A promise of such an appendix is made at the end of _Ant._ (XX. 266); and the _Life_ closes with a dedication of the whole history to Epaphroditus, the patron named in the exordium to the larger work. But the _Life_ seems to have been an afterthought, added only after an interval of some six or seven years, since it is implied that, Agrippa II is already dead,[19] and his death is said to have occurred in A.D. 100. The immediate occasion for its production was the appearance of a rival history of the Jewish War by Justus of Tiberias, in which the writer accused Josephus of being the real cause of the war with Rome. “The appearance of Justus’s work, with its damaging criticisms, was likely to endanger the secure position which Josephus had won for himself at Rome, and the earlier historian of the war felt bound to defend himself. The _Life_, then, by no means answers to its name. It is not a complete autobiography, but simply an apologetic statement as to the actions of Josephus as commander in Galilee, to which have been added a few details as to the earlier and later events of his life, by way of prologue and epilogue.”[20] The defence, in which Josephus attempts to pose as friendly to the Romans, while he has to admit the part which he took in organizing the Jewish forces to oppose them, is extremely weak; and the work, which is characterized by inordinate self-praise, is the least satisfactory of the historian’s writings.