MASADA - RESOURCES

THE ZEALOTS AT MASADA

Scene of a Mass Suicide    Click for information

For ZEALOTS' LAST STAND page 

''Masada, Herod's fortress beside the Dead Sea, had been seized from the Romans when the insurrection began. And now, even after the fall of Jerusalem, a determined group continued to hold out there for three more years.

They were led by Eleazar the son of Jair, who was apparently a grandson of the freedom fighter Judas the Galilean, and nephew of the murdered resistance leader Menahem. But Roman armies under Flavius Silva surrounded the precipitous hill.    

Their camp has been uncovered by archaeologists, who have also brought to light many pathetic personal possessions of the defenders and their families in the long siege that followed: fragments of fabrics, leather sandals, skeletons, skulls and plaits of hair.

When the Romans finally broke through, nine hundred and sixty members of the garrison, following and going beyond the ancient tradition of martyrdom, committed mass suicide. Only two women and five children were left alive.'  
(The History of Ancient Israel, Michael Grant, Phoenix, 1984, p242)

 
TERRORISM IN 1st CENTURY PALESTINE

Terrorism in antiquity        More information

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The Sicarii, or sica-users, (a sica is a short and easily hidden dagger)  did not invent conspiratorial assassination. That was already well established everywhere.

But what they invented was urban terrorism, and that term is no anachronism, no retrojection of modernity into antiquity.

According to Josephus's Jewish War (2.254-57) and Jewish Antiquities(20.208-10), the Sicarii killed high placed fellow Jews, especially ones from the high-priestly family, who were collaborating with Roman rule. 

But they assassinated them surreptitiously in the midst of urban crowds, so that, as Josephus recognized, "the panic created was more alarming than the calamity itself, every one, as on a battlefield, hourly expecting death." 

Second, before media coverage was available, "the festivals were their special seasons" not only for protection within the crowds, but also for the maximum public awareness of their activities. 

Roman Siege Ramp           Click for information

Third, they also invented kidnapping for prisoner-exchange purposes: "they kidnapped the secretary of the captain [of the Temple] Eleazar—he was the son of Ananias the high priest—and led him off in bonds. They then sent to Ananias saying that they would release the secretary to him if he would induce [the Roman prefect] Albinus to release ten of their number who had been taken prisoner." 

Fourth, that initial success led to the inevitable result of "greater troubles" as the Sicarii continued regular high-profile kidnappings for successive prisoner releases. 

Would we have imagined those tactics in first-century Jerusalem without Josephus's precise descriptions?  It warns us that we did not invent everything for either good or evil in the modern age.' 
Excavating Jesus, John Dominic Crossan & Jonathan Reed,Harper Collins,2001,p146

THE JEWISH REBELLION

The Arch of Titus, with looted Menorah  Click for information

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By 64AD the taxes from Judaea had fallen into arrears, and the governor raided the Temple and took seventeen talents as compensation. In response, the Jewish population rioted. The Roman soldiers plundered and killed in reprisal.

The revolt spread, and the Emperor Nero sent in the army, under Vespasian. This revolt lasted until 70AD.

• Jerusalem was captured
• Herod's magnificent Temple was plundered and burnt, never to be rebuilt
• the city was largely destroyed
• the residents were scattered.

Masada was only captured when the Romans built a gigantic siege ramp up to its walls - a ramp still visible to travellers who go there. But for the ramp, Masada might have held out indefinitely. 

At the end of the Jewish Rebellion, Titus celebrated a triumph in Rome, where his victory was commemorated in the Arch of Titus, at the lower end of the Roman Forum. On it you can see a relief showing plunder from the Temple being carried in triumphal procession.

The looted Menorah held aloft by soldiers was put into the Roman Treasury, but has disappeared from history.

Masada - who lived there?                              Click for information

Go to MASADA PHOTO GALLERY for extra images