[2] Nicolaus is known to have had a brother named Ptolemy, who served in the court of Herod as a type of book-keeper or accountant.
[10] Extensive fragments of the first seven books are preserved in quotation in the Constantinian Excerpts, compiled at the order of Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus.
15–17) because where Nicolaus stops, in the reign of Herod Archelaus, the account of Josephus suddenly becomes more cursory.
[13][14] Josephus also references Nicolaus' history on Abram and in book 7 of Antiquities of the Jews on the Jewish King David.
[15] For portions dealing with Greek myth and oriental history he was dependent on other, now lost works, of variable quality.
Robert Drews has written: He wrote a Life of Augustus (Bios Kaisaros), which seems to have been completed before the death of the emperor in AD 14.
[19] It mentions that he wanted to retire, in 4 BC, but was persuaded to travel with Herod Archelaus to Rome.
[25] One of the most famous passages is his account of an embassy sent by an Indian king "named Pandion (Pandyan kingdom) or, according to others, Porus" to Augustus in the winter of 20/19 BC.
The embassy was bearing a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members was a sramana who burnt himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith.
[28] A tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time of Plutarch, which bore the mention "ΖΑΡΜΑΝΟΧΗΓΑΣ ΙΝΔΟΣ ΑΠΟ ΒΑΡΓΟΣΗΣ" (Zarmanochēgas indos apo Bargosēs – Zarmanochegas, Indian from Bargosa).