Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Masada (Hebrew: מְצָדָה məṣādā, 'fortress'; Arabic: جبل مسعدة) [1] is an ancient fortification in southern Israel, situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert , overlooking the Dead Sea 20 km (12 miles) east of Arad .
One of Ben-Yehuda's subjects of research is the fall of the Masada fortress, the last refuge of a Jewish group, the Sicarii, to the Romans in 73 CE. During the Siege of Masada, the Sicarii committed mass suicide rather than surrender to slavery. He views the story of Masada, as presented in the early decades of the State of Israel, as a modern ...
Herod also developed an innovative combination of palace and fortress; examples include the Antonia Fortress in Jerusalem, the Herodium in the Judean Desert about 2 miles south of Bethlehem, [2] and Masada. Characteristically, they have (or had) one tower higher and stronger than the others.
The siege of Masada was one of the final events in the First Jewish–Roman War, occurring from 72 to 73 CE on and around a hilltop in present-day Israel.The siege is known to history via a single source, Flavius Josephus, [3] a Jewish rebel leader captured by the Romans, in whose service he became a historian.
[101] [102] [e] Around this time, a faction of Sicarii, led by Menahem ben Judah, a descendant of Judas of Galilee, [103] [100] launched a surprise assault on the desert fortress of Masada. They captured the fortress and slaughtered the Roman garrison. [100] The looted weapons were then transported to Jerusalem. [104] [105] [103]
In the Koine Greek of Josephus the term σικάριοι sikarioi was used. In Latin, Sicarii is the plural form of Sicarius "dagger-man", "sickle-man". [5] Sica, possibly from Proto-Albanian *tsikā (whence Albanian thika, "knife"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- ("to sharpen") possibly via Illyrian.
However, Dani Zion emphasizes that Masada was a fortress, originally built as a fortification facility, where several hundred families of rebels were hiding and where there was no battle as such. Gamla, in contrast, was a city where fortification was carried out in connection with military operations and where heavy fighting took place before ...
The fortress of Masada is called in Hebrew "Metzadá" (מצדה), but Yitzhak Lamdan, although writing in Hebrew, used the name as it is known from the works of Josephus, "Masada" (מסדה). Lamdan's poem was extremely influential among Zionist Jews at the time the kibbutz was established.