Regarding My Brother, Justus of Tiberias

Don't you be acting so innocent, it's not like we didn't leave you lots of clues. Why do you think we argued over the royal jewels in Tiberias, during a time of great peril, and who else would have the foresight and wisdom to challenge my view of things? The only quibble I have with my brother is that I rarely saw him in the decade before his book came out, and most of the places where he contradicts my work are really in the eye of the beholder. While it's true that mom and I went more fully over to the Roman side than he did, the fanatics who killed our father were also destroying Jerusalem and the nation. Besides, our mediation, and negotiation of several key peace treaties, saved tens of thousands of lives and much livestock, acreage and orchards. Where the Romans found greatest resistance, they laid land to waste...

In the beginning my brother and I were as close as could be, far closer to each other than to Tim. Justus looked up to me, and I always found him to be brilliant and funny, and a joy to be around. I remember the first time I took him to Briton, that summer was great fun and fishing was splendid. Between family trips and individual excursions with dad, mom, myself, brother Tim and uncles Paul and James, Justus had seen much of the Empire before turning fifteen.

The fact that he shared my father's burden of being the designated Messiach was not something to be taken lightly, and I knew in the grander scheme of things that as the Joseph, I would be his tutor. Some may now believe that the pupil can give the master a lesson, and from a Judaic perspective my brother has been a pure beacon, respected by the Way, the Essenes, the Mandeans, the Saabans and most loved indeed by the Armenians and the Greeks, who also loved our dad so dearly. I am honoured that Justus worked hard to maintain a permanent Hebrew scripture school in Tiberias, in the first house he bought there, and the second has become a meeting place for The Way.

There was a time when people claimed that my father Aristobulus and my mother salome would never attain power, but he became the true King of the Jews, as Agrippa was always a Roman puppet, and he and my mom were honoured for their peacemaking in many, many lands, Justus and I are fortunate to carry forth these traditions, and re govern Rome and Armenia with pureness of heart and gldness of soul.