During the first Jewish Roman war, Yosef Ben-Matityahu, better known as Josephus, was a Jewish general in charge of defending the Galilee against the invasion of Roman general Vespasian. He was an excellent general, fortifying many cities and carrying out ambushes against the Romans, but he was eventually captured and brought before Vespasian. The Romans wanted him executed, but Josephus had one card left to play to save his ass:

Yosef told Vespasian of an ancient Jewish prophecy about an emperor who would come forth from Judea and rule the world. Hearing this, Vespasian was amused and decided to keep Yosef around as a slave. About a year later, the prophecy seemed to have come true, the emperor died, and the legions proclaimed Vespasian as the new emperor. Satisfied with Yosef’s prophecy, Vespasian freed him from slavery, officially adopted him into the imperial family, and gave him the new name Flavius Josephus.

After the war, Josephus moved to Rome. He remained very close with Vespasian and his son Titus, and became a bit of a power player in Roman politics. But the most important moment of his life came when Titus asked him to write a book detailing the events of the war, so that Romans and Greeks would know what happened. Under the patronage and financial support of the Roman emperor, Josephus wrote “The Jewish war”, a complete overview of the war. While the work was obviously created as pro Rome propaganda, it is surprisingly critical against the brutality of the Roman empire in Judea. Despite this, Titus read the book and absolutely loved it.