Masada ~ 73 CE

[BeauJangles]

Siege of Masada

[73 ce]

 

Written By:

• Tony Bunting

 

Siege of Masada, (73 ce). After the fall of Jerusalem Emperor Titus returned to Rome and received a triumphant welcome. At the same time, the Romans began to restore order in Judaea by putting down any final resistance and regaining control of the last few strongholds held by Zealots. The last and longest of these final encounters was the Siege of Masada.

                                                        Masada, Israel

Ruins of the Masada fortress, southeastern Israel, near the Dead Sea.Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images

 

Only a small number of Zealots escaped the massacre of men, women, and children when Jerusalem fell in 70 ce. Some of those who escaped—members of the extremist Sicarii sect—settled in the apparently impregnable mountaintop fortress of Masada.

The Romans, commanded by Lucius Silva, laid siege to Masada, building a circumvallation wall around the mountain. A blockade would have been lengthy, however, because the defenders had plentiful food and water supplies. So the Romans also set about building a massive earth ramp on the western side of the fortress. Built under constant fire from the defenders, the ramp was 1,968 feet (600 m) long and rose 200 feet (61 m) to the fortress walls. The Romans then pushed a siege tower up the ramp. Equipped with a ram, this soon battered a breach in the wall. When the Romans entered the fortress, however, they discovered that its 960 inhabitants had committed mass suicide, preferring death at their own hands to slavery or execution. Jewish historian Josephus claimed to have been given a full account of the siege by two women who survived by hiding inside a drain. The witnesses claimed that, because suicide was against Jewish belief, the Sicarii had drawn lots to kill each other, with the last man the only one to take his own life. Masada was the last act of the Jewish war. The Jews became scattered into areas around the Mediterranean with many thousands being sold into slavery.

Losses: Sicarii, 1,000; Roman, unknown.

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by BeauJangles

[BeauJangles]

     April 16 — in history

Siege of Masada - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Masada

The siege of Masada was one of the final events in the First Jewish–Roman War, occurring from 73 to 74 CE on and around a large hilltop in current-day Israel. The siege is known to history via a single source, Flavius Josephus, a Jewish rebel leader captured by the Romans, in whose service he became a historian.