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The Siege of Masada (73 AD) - Last Stand of the Great Jewish Revolt

in 73 ad Masada the impregnable mountain
fortress in the Judean Desert stood as
the final hold out against the onslaught
of Rome's legions the siege that
followed would mark the final bloody
suppression of the Jewish revolt with an
encounter whose aw inspiring remains can
still be seen in the desert today
[Music]
prior to the Jewish revolt Judea was a
minor Roman province under the
administration of a procurator and under
the overall control of the governor of
Syria the region had long been divided
along ethnic religious and class
divisions and was made even more
unstable by a Roman Authority which
lacked the competency or military power
to impose proper order simply put the
region was a highly combustible powder
keg waiting to go on in 66 AD a local
riot in Caesarea morphed into an
anti-tax protest which challenged Roman
rule in response the procurator gaseous
Flores responded with heavy-handed
retribution plundering Southwest
Jerusalem and killing 3,600 people the
revolutionary spark was lit and the
situation quickly spiraled out of
control
a wave of communal violence surged
through the entire region with the
population of Judea splintering along
its divisions amidst the chaos the
Jewish rebels drove the Romans from
Jerusalem and eliminated Garrison's
throughout the province
this included the capture of the
fortress at Masada by radical Sakaki
rebels
the great Jewish revolt would last eight
years and involve the personal command
of to future emperors this Bayesian and
his son Titus incredible amounts of
blood would be spilled in a campaign
that revolved primarily around sieges
this was epitomized by the epic siege of
Jerusalem in 70 AD which Josephus claims
killed 1.1 million people with another
ninety seven thousand captured and
enslaved while these numbers are
dismissed by historians they do a test
to the intense levels of violence
accompanying the fall of the city and
the revolt as a whole while the
destruction of Jerusalem ended the
organized resistance of Jewish forces
the fires of revolution still burned in
the fringes of Judea where the die-hard
rebels holed up in fortresses refused to
surrender when Titus set sail for Rome
in 71 ad he left the new military
governor Lucilius fascist to conduct
mopping up operations passes to command
of the tenth pratensis Legion and
marched first on the garrison
followed swiftly by Hebron he then swung
the legions around the east side of the
Dead Sea to take the hill fortress of
Mackerras before returning West to
destroy 3000 rebels hiding in the forest
of Gerardus in the Jordan Valley now
only the stronghold of Masada remained
however basa soon died of natural causes
and the legion returned to its new base
at Jerusalem before setting out with a
new commander Flavius Silva in 73 ad
this force now marched south intent on
terminating the last of the Jewish
resistance Masada lies 2.4 kilometers
from the Dead Sea on a barren flat top
limestone mountain amidst a desolate
landscape on its eastern side the summit
rises a hundred and forty metres above
the desert floor roughly half the height
of the Eiffel Tower here a torturous
zigzagging trail known as the serpent
path makes its way to the top by
comparison the Western approach is more
salable and yet even this side towers 80
metres above the surrounding landscape
the approximate height of the Statue of
Liberty as if natural defenses weren't
enough the cleared plateau at the top
was ringed with a 1,400 meter long
case-mate wall standing six metres tall
the wall design was such that it was
actually made of two parallel layers
with a central gap that could be filled
with stones or dirt during a siege such
walls were common in antiquity as they
were cheaper and faster to construct
while also doubling a storage space in
the case of Masada the outer wall was
1.4 metres thick and the inner was one
metre making for a combined width of
four meters
the walls were reinforced by 30 towers
spaced out for topographic and strategic
reasons these were generally 6 metres
wide and 20 metres tall with stairs
leading to the top the entire defensive
structure could only be crossed at four
points the snake path gate the water
gate the western gate and the cistern
gate
as with all impregnable fortress 'as the
Achilles heel of any defense would be
access to food and water for the
defenders
however Masada was well-prepared in this
respect cut into the rock were numerous
cisterns and reservoirs twelve were
constructed in two rows along the north
western slopes with the total capacity
of 40 thousand cubic meters or 16
Olympic pools buildings also dotted the
top of the plateau with a series of long
store houses built into the northern
complex these could hold large
quantities of corn oil wine dates and
food supplies that would be preserved
for long periods of time do that a
naturally dry climate even if stockpiles
began to run low the open plateau area
might be used to grow additional food
it's safe to say then a defensive force
could expect to hold out indefinitely
against just about any attacker
unfortunately for the Jews the Roman
army wasn't your average foe in fact the
Roman force bearing down on Masada had
at its core the 10th for tensest legion
this unit of 4,800 men was a descendant
of Julius Caesar's famed 10th Legion and
was adorned with numerous battle honours
recently it had been blooded by
campaigns in Armenia and was battle
hardened by the siege of Jerusalem this
grizzled legion was joined by six
auxilary cohorts and thousands of jewish
prisoners of war in total silver arrived
at Masada with a force of nearly 10,000
bunkered atop the fortress looking down
on the incoming troops would be a
defensive garrison of less than 1,000
even this number is inflated since a
large part of Masada's occupants were
actually refugees these women and
children were certainly not deadweight
and could have helped with the defensive
operations under the guidance of the
jewish commander eliazar Ben Yair
eliazar was an important figure in the
Jewish revolt and was one of the
principal leaders of the Sicari who now
made up the main fighting force at
Masada
these troops were a splinter group of
the Hebrew zealots and whose name means
literally dagger men they were fierce
resistance forces made famous for being
one of the earliest organized
assassination units that would strike
their targets and public gatherings
before disappearing into the crowd
such zealots had successfully held the
Romans at bay and even defeated them in
the past
despite being poorly equipped and were
not to be underestimated when the Romans
arrived in the autumn of 73 AD they had
no illusions that the siege would be
over quickly with this understanding
they set up camp on the western approach
and went about securing their own
position whilst undermining the
defenders first the Romans targeted the
aqueduct serving the fortress and
diverted them for their own use next
they set to work constructing a wall of
circumvallate this was a textbook Roman
operation meant to encircle enemy
positions the fortification would ensure
that defenders were cut off from the
outside world and helped thwart attempts
at a breakout during the siege of
Jerusalem Titus had failed to construct
such a wall from the get-go and was
harassed mercilessly by Jewish sorties
Silva was determined not to make the
same mistake and put his men to work
immediately using pickaxes and
entrenching tools the Romans quarried
local stones and erected a three metre
wall which ran 3.2 kilometers this was
reinforced by eight camps and numerous
guard posts in addition a string of
towers help shore up defenses on the
more exposed eastern Valley this
impressive network was built in a matter
of days and can be clearly seen in the
desert today
silva established his headquarters on
the higher ground to the west along with
legionary cohorts one through five
while corps had six through ten took
residence on the low ground to the east
the remainder of the auxilary forces
were then stationed in the surrounding
minor camps thus ensuring that troops
completely surrounded the fortress now
that the attackers had their prey
cornered it was time to close in for the
kill the Romans decided that taking the
fortress by force would be necessary
since their own supplies would run out
long before those of the defenders but
the question still remained of how best
to assault a mountain top a quick
storming of the walls with ladders was
out of the question
since any attack would be forced to
advance at a dangerously slow pace and
would be funneled through narrow killing
fields in this scenario the defenders
would be at a huge advantage and any
outcome would be Pyrrhic at best
typically Roman forces would overcome
such adversity by using siege equipment
to offer protection from projectiles
whilst artillery suppressed the
defenders however the terrain at Masada
was far too steep for siege equipment
and too high for artillery it would
therefore be necessary to not only
overcome the defenders but nature itself
ultimately the Romans decided to turn
the rocky cliff side into a gradual
highway for an assault to do this the
engineers would build an enormous siege
ramp by taking advantage of a natural
spur called the White Rock on the
western side of the mountain the plan
was to bridge the existing gulf up to
the walls with the man-made 20 degree
incline to support a ramp of this scale
the base had to be huge so as not to
collapse under its own weight and was
started roughly 200 meters out from the
cliff here the 10th for tensest took the
lead in construction while Jewish
prisoners were used to bring a continual
stream of water and supplies to the
camps day in and day out they slowly
added more and more material to the
foundation at first the volume being
added would do little to increase the
height of the ramp but
the days weeks and months rolled by it
only grew faster and faster the sheer
audacity of the construction project
must have awed the defenders who woke up
every morning to a mountain slowly
rising towards their walls however as
the ramp got closer and closer and meant
that workers were more and more
vulnerable to projectiles launched from
the walls and towers above in response
the Romans surely would have begun to
erect temporary walls and sheds to cover
their progress additional archers and
artillery he also been called up to
provide covering fire for the work crews
and said dissuade counter-attacks within
two months the ramp up the fortress was
complete it measured 220 metres wide and
its face rose 90 metres and was topped
with a 20 meter stone pier nearest the
wall according to archaeologists this
obscenely large amount of earthwork
weighed the equivalent of one and a half
times the Empire State Building
it is stunning to imagine that this was
accomplished without the use of modern
equipment
now a 25-meter siege tower was
constructed and slowly rolled up the
ramp it was specifically designed to
handle the angled slope and included a
battering ram at the front the tower
likely also carried small artillery
pieces which could be used to shoot down
at the enemy walls which it now
overlooked it is important to note that
this was often the primary purpose of
siege towers rather than being glorified
elevators for infantry assaults they
were actually meant to provide elevated
positions for sniping at defenders and
forcing them away from the walls while a
larger breach was formed in the case of
Masada the siege tower guarded the
battering ram which started to break
down the walls in response the defender
said about reinforcing their defenses
when the Roman Ram broke through the
main wall the attackers were faced with
a second hastily erected wall made of
alternating layers of wood and earth
this wall proved far more resilient to
the battering ram seemingly absorbing
every blow it was however flammable and
so the Romans set fire to the Timbers
the flames caught on the wind changed
direction and blew the flames back onto
the siege tower setting and alight the
attackers now face the devastating
prospect of having their equipment
destroyed without having set foot within
the fortress fortunes once again shifted
however and the wind reversed direction
concentrating the fire back onto the
inner wall by nightfall the defenses
were sufficiently weakened and the
Legionaries made preparations for a full
force assault the next day as the Sun
rose over Masada on the 3rd of May the
10th pratensis legions stormed through
the wall and burst out onto the plateau
rather than being met by screams and
shouts however they faced a deafening
silence
the complex was filled with bodies of
dead Jews according to the historian
josephus the defenders had accepted the
inevitability of their fate and chosen
death rather than capture the grisly
details of this mass suicide were
apparently recounted by the handful of
women and children who evaded the
slaughter more recent historical
findings however have found
discrepancies with Josephus's story and
cast doubt on the final fate of the
defenders nonetheless the symbolism of a
heroic Jewish last stand against
oppressors lives on to this day
and is a point of pride for the Israeli
Defense Force recruits particular never
to let Masada fall again
the fall of Masada in 73 ad brought an
end to the great Jewish revolt which had
raged on for eight years the land of
Judea now became an independent Roman
province under the administration of its
own governor however the overwhelming
use of force did little to quell the
tensions which permeated the region in
the following years the Jews would rise
up twice more only to be beaten
mercilessly into submission with immense
casualties according to Casias do 50 of
the most important jewish strongholds
and 985 of the better-known villages
were razed to the ground teaching the
Torah was forbidden and the province was
renamed Syria Palestrina this
effectively marked the beginning of the
Diaspora and extinguished the idea of a
Jewish state for the next eighteen
hundred years throughout the struggle
and especially at Masada we were
confronted with feelings of both great
awe and sadness the feats of Engineering
displayed by the Romans undeniably
capture our imagination and yet at the
same time ring hollow in our hearts give
the ultimately destructive purpose of
these engines
for me the siege of Masada and its two
thousand-year-old remains are a striking
testament to the lengths our species
will go to kill one another as an
admirer of the Roman war machine this is
a particularly important reminder of the
field of corpses it left behind personal
human tragedies rarely shined through
the fog of history and we would do well
not to forget them after all one day we
will find ourselves in such books
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