Joseph ben Matthias was a major Jewish Pharisee intellectual, an active participant in the Jewish uprising against the Romans (60s of the 1st century AD, it was after this uprising that all Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, where they could return only in the 20th century) - he commanded the rebels in Galilee, and then a traitor to the Jewish cause, who went over to the side of the Romans. Having predicted imperial power to the Roman commander Vespasian Flavius, Joseph earned life, patronage, the surname "Flavius" and the opportunity to engage in scientific research.