It dates the earthquake to the time of the Battle of Actium (31 BC) between the forces of Octavian and Mark Antony.
A number of Jewish ambassadors were slain by the Arabians, who believed that Judea could no longer oppose their army.
[1] The "Judea" of Josephus' account may be equated with the relatively small area of the Kingdom of Judah, rather than the larger realm Herod had inherited from the Hasmonean dynasty.
According to both Josephus and Pliny the Elder, the Judea known to the Romans had expanded to include Galilee, Samaria, Perea, Idumea, and Golan.
[1] It is unclear from the narrative whether the earthquake affected the Negev and Arabah, sparsely populated areas where even a major impact might have escaped the notice of contemporaries.
[1] In 30 BC, a year later, the victorious Octavian advanced across Roman Syria and the region of Palestine to reach the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt.
Neither Josephus, nor other ancient sources mention Octavian encountering the devastation left by a major earthquake.
The other Diospolis was the modern city of Lod, which received its Roman name by order of Septimius Severus in 199 AD.
[1] Malalas may have confused the name of the city, giving a Greek name to various locations of the Levant called "Salem" or "Salam".
[1] It is considered improbable that Malalas made a geographic error and described more distant locations as cities in Palestine.
Agrippa found that collapse rubble from old earthquakes had accumulated in the city's hippodrome, and ordered its removal.
The rubble which Agrippa found indicates that either Pompey's repairs were incomplete, or Antioch had suffered a second earthquake at some point between 64 and 15 BC.
The narrative reports that Jonathan ben Uzziel used the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi as sources for a targum.
[1] The Book of Shem contains a prediction about a severe earthquake which would affect Galilee, when the year stars in Libra.
These include an earthquake fault across one of the ritual baths, the fallen ceiling of a pantry, damage to the main tower, and collapse of rooms in the southeastern part of the site.
[1] Archaeologists have searched for damage caused by the 31 BC earthquake at Masada and Jericho, at Agappias (identified with Anthedon), at Ashkelon, at Antipatris, and at Tiberias.
[1] The lack of archaeological evidence suggests that this was a relatively modest earthquake in the range of 6–6.5 moment magnitude scale, and not a "major catastrophe".
At the Ze'elim Terrace a series of seismites are recognised that have been dated using radiocarbon techniques from organic detritus included in the sequence.
A seismite of the same estimated age has been described from the Darga fan delta site further north in the basin.