Siege of Masada - Account of The Siege

Account of The Siege

The account of the siege of Masada was supposedly related to Josephus by two women who survived the suicide by hiding inside a cistern along with five children, and repeated Eleazar ben Ya'ir's exhortations to his followers, prior to the mass suicide, verbatim to the Romans. Because Judaism prohibits suicide, Josephus reported that the defenders had drawn lots and killed each other in turn, down to the last man, who would be the only one to actually take his own life. Josephus says that Eleazar ordered his men to destroy everything except the foodstuffs to show that the defenders retained the ability to live, and so had chosen death over slavery. However, archaeological excavations have shown that storerooms which contained their provisions were also burnt, though whether this was by Romans, by Jews, or natural fire spreading is unclear.

Josephus also reported that the Romans found arms sufficient for ten thousand men as well as iron, brass and lead. Historians point out the parallels between the incidents at Jotapata and Masada, including Eleazar's second speech corresponding to the speech which Josephus himself delivered at Jotapata under similar circumstances and the transference of the lottery motif from the former to the latter. Whether Josephus had added Eleazar's speech in his own name at Jotapata or vice versa is unclear.