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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.
The Roman legion surrounded Masada, building a circumvallation wall and then a siege ramp against the western face of the plateau. [11] According to Dan Gill, [ 19 ] geological investigations in the early 1990s confirmed earlier observations that the 114 m (375 ft) high assault ramp consisted mostly of a natural spur of bedrock.
The Sicarii [a] (“Knife-wielder”, “dagger-wielder”, “dagger-bearer”; from Latin sica = dagger) were a group of Jewish Zealots, who, in the final decades of the Second Temple period, conducted a campaign of targeted assassinations and kidnappings of Roman officials in Judea and of Jews who collaborated with the Roman Empire.
The Jewish–Roman wars were a series of large-scale revolts by the Jews of Judaea against the Roman Empire between 66 and 135 CE. [10] The term primarily applies to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73) and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136) which sought restoring Judean independence that was lost since the Hasmonean civil war .
Despite the common misconception, Eleazar ben Simon the Zealot is not the same person as Eleazar ben Ya'ir, the Sicarii leader at Masada.In Josephus' Bellum Judaicum, the primary source of the First Jewish-Roman War, important historical figures are introduced with their patrimonial name when they first appear, and addressed by first name in all following appearances.
After fifteen days of futile attempts by the Jews to burn the Roman siege engines, the Roman battering ram finally breached Jerusalem's third wall, forcing the Jews to retreat to the second wall. [211] The new neighborhood of Bezetha fell to the Romans in Iyar 70. [citation needed] Titus directed his forces to assault Jerusalem's Second Wall.
Jewish–Roman tensions resulted in several Jewish–Roman wars between the years 66 and 135 AD, which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple and the institution of the Jewish Tax in 70 (those who paid the tax were exempt from the obligation of making sacrifices to the Roman imperial cult).
The First Jewish War had in the siege of Jerusalem the "key" operation in the Roman victory. [49] It is said that the future emperor Titus first built around the besieged city in addition to a large camp, used as headquarters, thirteen forts [ 50 ] connected by a contravallation of almost 8 km [ 51 ] and as many as 5 siege ramps. [ 52 ]