Category:Masada (subject)

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Masada was a Herodian fortress.

History

Between 37 and 31 BCE, Herod the Great built the fortress for himself, as a refuge in the event of a revolt. The fortress included the royal palace.

In the first year of the Jewish War, Masada became the stronghold of the Sicarii led by Simon bar Giora. When Simon moved to Jerusalem in 69 CE, the command of the fortress was taken by Eleazar ben Yair.

In 72-73, after the fall of Jerusalem, Masada also was besieged by the Romans, led by Lucius Flavius Silva. The Roman legion X Fretensis surrounded the fortress and built a ramp against its western walls. According to Josephus, in anticipation of the final assault, Eleazar ben Yair and the Jewish occupants of Masada committed mass suicide, preferring death to surrender.

Masada, in ancient sources

The sole literary source of information about the site of Masada are the writings of Flavius Josephus.

See Masada (sources)

Masada, in scholarship

The site of Masada was identified in 1842 and extensively excavated between 1963 and 1965 by Yigael Yadin. The remoteness of the place had left the site virtually untouched.

See Masada: An Epic Story (2009 Eshel), book (English ed.)

Masada, in the arts

In 1927 the poem Metzadah by Isaac Lamdan transformed Masada from a symbol of destruction into an emblem of rebirth, renewal, and reconstruction. The line “Again Masada shall not fall” became a motto of the Zionist movement and made the poem Metzadah the most influential literary work for a whole generation of Jewish Israelis. Especially in the aftermath of the establishment of the State of Israel, the myth of Masada has generated a flow of fictional works.

In the 1950s, units of the Israeli army initiated the practice of holding their swearing-in ceremony on top of Masada.

The Observer published on November 20, 1966 a special issue of the magazine that helped solidify the myth of Masada.

See The Masada Myth (1995 Ben-Yehuda), book