Javier Ormazabal Echeverría Historical Geography I

Masada: Josephus’ description of the Roman assault vs the archaeological data

Masada is an ancient fortress located on top of a rocky plateau in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea. Its historical
and archaeological importance is due primarily to events that took place during the first half of the 1st century AD,
during the Second Temple period of Jewish history. King Herod the Great, known for his architectural projects,
built the Masada complex between 37 and 31 BC as a fortress and retreat palace. The findings have contributed
significantly to our understanding of architecture and daily life in Herod's time. The best-known story suggests that,
faced with the imminent fall of the fortress and Roman enslavement, the besieged decided to die (by a collective
suicide) rather than submit, which has made Masada become a symbol of Jewish resistance and determination in
the face of oppression, but Josephus' account must be confronted with the archaeological evidence to determine the
degree of truth in the national myth that has grown up around the fort.

There is now a majority consensus on the veracity of Josephus' version; however, interpretations of it vary, some
being more loose and others more literal. Masada is set in the context of the Jewish Revolt against the Roman
Empire in 66-73. If Josephus' words are followed faithfully, the Jews who were involved in the Masada episode are
described as Sicarii, i.e. reactionary zealots and organized as cloak-and-dagger units of organized murder. The
Sicarii most likely took the fortress of Masada, commanded by Manachem, in 66, after being expelled from
Jerusalem for their indiscriminate acts of terrorism shortly before the siege of the Holy City. While the Sicarii were
at Masada, it is clear that they raided nearby villages for supplies. According to Nachman Ben-Yehuda, “most
researchers seem to accept that the siege and fall of Masada only took a few months – probably from the winter of
72/73 A.D. until the following spring”1.

While Josephus' description of the siege of Jerusalem describes rather valiant raids by the Jewish defenders of
Jerusalem against the Romans, no such description of the siege of Masada is available. Naturally, Josephus had a
clear interest in presenting the heroic struggle of the Jews to show how much more heroic the Roman army that
conquered them was. It is not insignificant that he does not mention any active fighting or resistance by the
defenders of Masada against the Romans. The impression is that the Sicarii of Masada were not really good fighters
and, in fact, avoided opportunities to fight. Josephus notes, in particular, that commander Eleazar Ben Yair had to
make two speeches to persuade his people to commit suicide, which means that the Jewish rebels at Masada were
originally quite reluctant to commit collective suicide.

The archaeological studies confirm much of Josephus’ narrative. For instance, “Josephus reported that 960 Jews
committed suicide, and the skeletal remains of 25 found buried in a cave outside the southern wall' and 3 found in
the northern palace were reported by the excavators” 2. The two main mismatches here are the lack of clear
evidence of the Hasmonean presence in Masada mentioned by Josephus, and the fact that a recent study of the
assault ramp indicated, beyond reasonable doubt, that “the construction of the ramp was never completed and that
there could have been no stone platform built on it. It is therefore plausible to assume that Josephus' descriptive
drama of the "battle scene" of the last night, culminating in the breach of the wall, did not take place, at least not in
the form in which it was narrated by him” 3. Moreover, according to Josephus, the Jews destroyed their personal
possessions prior to the collective suicide lest they fall into the hands of the Roman forces but there are few if any
direct archaeological finds from the excavations to support this. In short, both the archaeological finds and

1 Ben-Yehuda, N. (1995). “Scholar presents evidence that the heroes of the Jewish Great Revolt were not
heroes at all”. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. (p.3).
2 Zias, J., & Gorski, A. (2006). “Capturing a Beautiful Woman at Masada”. Near Eastern Archaeology, 69(1).
(p.45).
3 Bagnall, R. S., Brodersen, K., Champion, C. B., Erskine, A., & Huebner, S. R. (Eds.). (2013). The
Encyclopedia of Ancient History (1st ed.). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (p.4339).

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 Javier Ormazabal Echeverría Historical Geography I

Josephus' text present us with a similar event, despite his rhetorical overtones. In any case, it is clear that its
romantic reading in the last century responds more to political tools for the unity and identity of the State of Israel
than to the historical and archaeological sources.

Used Bibliography

Bagnall, R. S., Brodersen, K., Champion, C. B., Erskine, A., & Huebner, S. R. (Eds.). (2013). The Encyclopedia of
Ancient History (1st ed.). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (pp.4338-4241).

Ben-Yehuda, N. (1995). “Scholar presents evidence that the heroes of the Jewish Great Revolt were not heroes at
all”. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Zias, J., & Gorski, A. (2006). “Capturing a Beautiful Woman at Masada”. Near Eastern Archaeology, 69(1).
(pp.45-48).