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

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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

[Music]

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