Masada was one of the last hold-outs against the Roman invasion of Israel. It was a mesa upon which a fortress was built. It was very well defended yet the Romans, with their superior armies and technology, was able to penetrate into Masada. Instead of dying by the Romans hands, or falling into horrible oppression at the whim of the Roman emporor, the inhabitants of Masada all committed suicide....
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Masada
By Kim Stubbs
It is the spring of 73 AD and the revolt that has raged in the Roman province of Judea for eight years is about to reach its bloody and tragic conclusion. On an isolated rock overlooking the Dead Sea at the edge of the Judean Desert 967 men, women and children - the last remnants of Jewish resistance to Imperial Rome - await their fate. The rock that has become their final refuge is called Masada, from the Hebrew mezuda meaning “fortress” or “stronghold”. And it is a most appropriate name for this spectacular natural redoubt.
The diamond-shaped prominence is about 600 metres long and 200 metres wide rising almost vertically on its higher eastern side to a height of 450 metres above the desert floor. The mountaintop slopes from east to west with the western approach reaching a height of 100 metres.
There are only two paths that lead to the summit of Masada. The Jewish historian Joesphus (who wrote the only contemporary account of the siege) refers to the one ascending the eastern slope of the mountain as the Serpent because of its “narrowness and perpetual windings” and promises any who use it “nothing but destruction in case your feet slip”. The second path, on the western side, is somewhat easier but in no way conducive to launching an assault. Josephus also describes the soil on Masada as “fat” (i.e. productive) thus allowing enough food to be grown to feed the inhabitants in the event of a siege.
As if Masada’s natural defences were not formidable enough, the Jewish king Herod (who carried out major construction work at the site a century before) had a casemate wall six metres high and four metres deep constructed around the entire hilltop. This was strengthened by the addition of 38 towers each approximately 25 metres high, one of which was positioned at Masada’s only potential weak point – the top of the more accessible path on the western approach. Finally several cisterns on the north-western side of the hill, also constructed by Herod and fed by run off from the surrounding mountains, meant the inhabitants would never suffer from thirst.
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The defenders reacted by throwing up a second wall of timber beams and earth that proved much more effective at absorbing the blows of the ram. Silva countered by ordering troops forward with burning torches which they hurled at the wooden wall, eventually setting it alight (after an inopportune change in the wind almost resulted in the fire being blown back on the Roman lines and destroying their own siege engines). Jospehus relates that the Romans then retired to their camp planning to storm the breach they had created and take the citadel on the following morning (an odd course of action to take with victory seemingly in their grasp).
By now Masada’s defenders knew they were doomed, but rather than surrender, their leader Eleazer ben Yair proposed a gruesome alternative. “Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery: and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another”.
So it was that every man on Masada became the executioner of his own wife and children. Once this terrible task was completed ten men were chosen by lot to kill the survivors. These ten then drew lots to establish which among them would kill the other nine. Having dispatched his compatriots the sole survivor set fire to the fortress (with the exception of the well supplied store houses that, according to Josephus, were left intact to show the Romans that the defenders had not been “subdued for want of necessaries”) before finally dispatching himself. Only two women and five children (who had hidden themselves in the caverns beneath the citadel) survived to relate the story of Masada’s last hours.
In short, Masada seemed impregnable, and no doubt when the Roman governor of Judea, Flavius Silva, moved to invest the citadel in 73 AD, the now besieged inhabitants probably believed all they needed to do was sit tight and wait for the enemy’s patience to run out. But Rome was a ruthless and determined foe with huge reserves of manpower and resources at its disposal.
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