After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. Masada remained the only point of Jewish resistance. Few surviving Jewish fighters that managed to travel across Judean mountains joined the defenders of Masada, and it became the rebels' base for raiding operations.
In 72 C.E. the Roman governor Flavius Silva resolved to suppress this outpost of resistance. He marched against Masada at the head of the Tenth Legion, its auxiliary troops, and thousands of Jewish war prisoners, total ten to fifteen thousand people. The troops prepared for a long siege; they established eight camps at the base of the Masada rock and surrounded it with a high wall, leaving no escape for rebels.
Then Romans started to build an assault ramp to the top; thousands of slaves, many of them Jewish, have done that in nine months. After the ramp was complete, the Romans succeeded to move the battering ram up and to direct it against the wall. They broke the stone wall, but the defenders managed to built a wall of earth and wood that was flexible and hard to break. Eventually Romans managed to destroy it by fire, and decided to enter the fortress the next day.
At night Eleazar gathered all the defenders and persuaded them to kill themselves rather than fall into the hands of Romans. The people set fire to their personal belongings, and then ten people chosen by a lot killed everyone else and then committed suicide. In the morning Romans entered a silent fortress and found only dead bodies. Two women and five children survived the mass suicide by hiding in a cave; they came out to Romans. Josephus describes all the dramatic details of the last hours of the Masada defenders as told by these survivors.
A Roman garrison was stationed in Masada for some time after the fall.
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in News of Interest by mewize, 29-08-09 22:10