THE PERSISTENCE OF THE ROMAN ARMY IN THE SIEGE OF MASADA.

The Roman army had fought numerous battles, but one deserves a special mention because of the patience and persistence of the Roman army. The ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus ended his monumental account of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (the Jewish War) with the story of a mass suicide at Masada, located on the Dead Sea.According to Josephus, some 960 Jewish rebels holding out on top of Masada – the last stronghold to remain in Jewish hands after Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E. – chose to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Roman troops besieging the fortress.For the Jews was unconceivable to become part of an rome tour guide based on polytheism. The Roman siege brought the Romans to build eight camps that housed approximately 8000 troops and a circumvallation (siege) wall, still are clearly visible encircling the base of the mountain.After having surrounded the fortress with a wall, the Romans decided to build a ramp in order to have a direct access to the fortress.The ramp consisted of a slope of 375 feet built using natural bedrock. The ramp was completed in 2 months and in 73 AD the Roman army breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram. However, when the army entered the fortress, its 960 inhabitants had already committed suicide to avoid slavery.Interesting to note that because Judaism strongly discourages suicide, Josephus reported that the defenders killed each other in turn until the last man, who was the only one to commit suicide.Before the arrival of the Romans, Masada was fortified and embellished by Herod the great who transformed the citadel into his winter palace and place to go in the occurrence of a revolt.