Yet more than one Jew felt an impulse to write the history of the dismal time.

Thus the first complete books which appeared in Jewish literature after the loss of nationality were historical works written by two men, Justus and Josephus, both of whom bore an active part in the most recent of the wars which they recorded.

Justus of Tiberias wrote in Greek a terse chronicle entitled, "History of the Jewish Kings," and also a more detailed narrative of the "Jewish War" with Rome.

Both these books are known to us only from quotations.

The originals are entirely lost.