Place · Land of Israel / Judea
Masada
Herod's fortress above the Dead Sea, where some 960 rebels held out against the Romans until 73 CE.
31.3164°N 35.3537°E · representative coordinate · Pleiades 687968 ↗
Statements linked to this place
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Resistance did not end in 70. At Masada, about 960 rebels, Sicarii rather than Zealots, endured the Roman siege until 73 CE; when capture became imminent, they killed themselves so as not to be enslaved. Herod's fears had grounds: rivals abounded, surviving Hasmoneans among them, and there were attempts on his life. He kept ahead of his enemies, raised fortresses such as Masada and built a large network of spies. In this way, with effective propaganda, intelligence and violence, he held the throne for more than thirty years.
Community: The Sicarii of Masada
Resistance did not end in 70. At Masada, about 960 rebels, Sicarii rather than Zealots, endured the Roman siege until 73 CE; when capture became imminent, they killed themselves so as not to be enslaved. There are good reasons to believe the episode. Masada yielded remains of men, women and children, perhaps the defenders and the families they killed, and eleven pottery sherds bearing men's names or nicknames, possibly the lots (Josephus mentions ten). Recently some scholars have come to doubt the account: certain details may have been invented, by Josephus or his source, to win over Greek and Roman readers, and Eleazar's speech recalls the last words of Socrates.