Download The Siege of Masada: The History and Legacy of the Battle that Ended the First Jewish-Roman War AudioBook Free
Many westerners have never even heard of the Siege of Masada, and the ones who have may simply know it as an obscure mention of a minor struggle fought in a remote located area of the Roman world. By contrast, nearly all Israeli school children know the history of Masada as a premier example of nationalistic pride. The heroic history of a small strap of fighters facing incalculable chances has many elements that are reminiscent of both the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of the Alamo. The refrain "Masada shall not fall season again", coined in a poem about them by Yitzak Lamdan, became a cry of deal with in struggle for Israeli soldiers in the 20th century, just as the cry of "Remember the Alamo" got galvanized Americans. For decades the Israelite armed forces used the site of Masada as the location for swearing in their new recruits; the decision of the site was made to evoke within the new soldiers a profound sense of connection with their national history. The Siege of Masada was the ultimate battle in an extended series of fights that constituted the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman Empire got founded control over the region in the first century BCE, when the Roman proconsul Pompey the Great needed control of Jerusalem and ceremonially defiled their temple by getting into it. This mixture of politics control and spiritual desecration was a contentious concern for the Judeans throughout the Roman period, and militant activists opposed to Roman rule, often espousing highly held religious beliefs, frequently developed large followings to task the Roman specialists. This resulted in multiple violent clashes between the Judeans and the Romans, and the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE) was one particular clash (albeit on a larger level than most). The Roman troops marched through and made their armed forces might felt, first in the north region of Galilee, then down the seacoast where they finally laid siege to the administrative centre city of Jerusalem. This remaining three Roman fortress outposts, including Masada, that had been built by Herod the Great but have been bought out by various Judean factions. Masada was the previous of these fortresses that the Romans attacked and proved the most challenging for them to seize, but seize it they did. However, what made this struggle qualitatively not the same as most was not simply the issue Rome got in retaking control of it with incredibly disproportional armed forces equipment and volumes, but also the activities of the Judean defenders. In the ultimate time of the struggle, just as the Romans were about to breach the surfaces of the town, the defenders accumulated together and devoted mass suicide, alternatively than being wiped out or taken captive by the Romans. Josephus, a modern historian of the period, vividly identified the mass suicide.
