Cold Open

It’s the summer of 36 BCE, inside the walls of a new fortress at Masada a rocky plateau high above the Judean desert.

King Herod, a large, bearded man in his mid-thirties, strides around deep foundations that will one day support two great palaces overlooking the Dead Sea.

Herod is flanked by Roman guards, there to protect him from the slaves carrying out the construction work.

For the past two years, King Herod has been the ruler of Judea, a mountainous vassal state of the Roman Empire. But his position is not a birthright. Herod was appointed as King of the Jews by the Roman Senate. He’s been tasked with keeping order over the Jewish people from Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, some 60 miles north of Masada.

Herod has taken to his new position with a brutal glee, inflicting high taxes on his people and killing any who defied him. But his own actions have made Herod paranoid. Knowing how the people of Judea despise him, Herod has made plans to keep himself and his family safe - he’s rebuilding an ancient mountain-top fortification at Masada and turning it into an impenetrable stronghold. 

The summer sun beats down on the king’s head, and the wind whips across the open plateau. As Herod watches his people work, an enslaved man dares to glance up at the King. At once, one of the guards removes a whip from his belt… and cracks it across the man’s shoulders. The struck slave falls to his knees in agony. A child, barely ten, runs up to comfort him - it’s the enslaved man's son, who glares at Herod with undisguised hatred. Herod smiles and nods to the guard to whip the man again. But before the order can be carried out, the little boy flies at the king and starts beating his fists against Herod’s legs.

The boy’s swings break like waves against a mighty cliff. Herod turns to his guards and laughs. Then he picks the boy off the ground, watching as his small arms and legs flail.

With giant strides, Herod walks toward the edge of the plateau with the child held aloft. The faces of the other enslaved people fall into anguish as they realize what’s about to happen.

The king hoists the boy above his shoulders… and flings him over the edge of the cliff.

Herod doesn’t watch the child fall. He simply turns and walks away, sure that he’s taught his people an important lesson in obedience.

Over the next three years, King Herod will use slave labor to build two fortified palaces at Masada. By the time construction is complete, the fortress will house a swimming pool, barracks - and enough food for his family and a small band of soldiers to survive a siege for years if necessary.

But despite his paranoia, King Herod will never face a direct assault by his own people. He will die an old man in the year 4 CE. But long after his death, there will be an uprising with Masada at its center. And although Herod designed it to be impenetrable, the fortress will eventually fall on April 16th, 73 CE.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is April 16th, 73 CE: The Fall of the Fortress of Masada.

Act One: An Uprising

It’s the Spring of 67 CE, in the Judean town of Yodfat, nearly a century after King Herod finished building his fortress. 

Hundreds of miles north of Masada, a 30-year-old Jewish priest named Yosef Ben Matityahu cowers inside the catacombs of a rocky hilltop town. There are dozens of other young men beside him, their bodies weak with hunger, and eyes wide with fear. They can hear the sound of fighting in the streets of the town above them. The clash of metal on metal. The screams of dying citizens. And the roar of town on fire. Yodfat’s defiance of the Roman Empire is coming to a bloody end.

This region has been dominated by the Romans for over a hundred years. Following the death of King Herod in 4 CE, Judea was brought under the direct control of Rome. For the most part, the local religion, Judaism, was allowed to continue with little interference. The Romans themselves worshiped many gods after all, and tolerating local religious customs has helped them keep the peace in their vast Empire. So, while many of the Jewish people wished for independence from Rome, for decades, there was little in the way of outright resistance.

But this all changed in 66 CE. Discontent had been growing for some time over the taxes Jews were asked to pay Rome. But the flashpoint came when a group of Greek merchants blocked the entrance to the sacred Jewish Second Temple. The Romans did nothing to remove the merchants and a wave of violence broke out across Jerusalem as a result. When Roman troops were deployed to restore order, their heavy-handed response turned a riot into a rebellion. The Jewish people were no longer willing to sit back and be ruled. And so began the First Jewish-Roman War.

At first, the Jewish rebels inflicted heavy defeats on the Roman forces in Judea and seizing control of towns and cities across the province. But the Romans were never going to allow such defiance. Four legions under the command of General Vespasian were dispatched to Judea to crush the Jewish rebellion and restore Roman rule in the region.

The Romans soon laid siege to the town of Yodfat. The Jewish stronghold has now held out for almost fifty days. But the Romans have finally broken through the defenses and in the damp catacombs beneath the town, some of the final Jewish fighters must decide what they will do next.

As water drips off the cave roof, the men know that their defiance is coming to an end.

One emaciated soldier turns to Yosef and tells him he would rather die than be returned to Roman bondage. As a man of faith, Yosef doesn’t believe in taking one’s own life – even if it means avoiding slavery. So as another man suggests they take out their swords and slay each other one by one, Yosef says nothing.

The soldiers draw lots to decide who should die first. And then it begins. In the catacombs of Yodfat, forty men end each other’s lives at once, until Yosef is the last man standing. Now he’s left with a decision to make. He can follow the other men into death. Or live to see another sunrise.

Yosef looks down at the lifeless bodies lying on the cave floor and fear grips him. He can't do it. He decides that any life is better than death, so he walks out into the city and surrenders to the Romans.

Yosef is a prominent figure in Judea and, following his surrender, is granted an audience with the Roman General, Vespasian. Bowing before him, Yosef knows that the only thing that can save his life now is flattery.

He tells Vespasian that God came to him in a vision and told him that Vespasian and his son will one day lead Rome. Happy to hear this prophecy, Vespasian spares Yosef’s life. The Jewish leader is imprisoned for two years - until his prophecy comes true.

In 69 CE, the Roman General Vespasian becomes Roman Emperor Vespasian. Believing that Yosef is a prophet, the new Emperor orders his release.

In the years that follow, Yosef Ben Matityahu turns from Jewish rebel to Roman insider. He will change his name from the Jewish Yosef to the Roman Josephus. And from this new vantage point, Josephus will go on to write several history books. The most famous of these will be an account of another final stand by Jewish fighters, one that will take place three years after the fall of Yodfat at the mountain fortress of Masada. 

Act Two: The Sicarii

It’s the Spring of 70 CE, at the fortress of Masada, three years after Yosef Ben Matityahu handed himself over to the Romans. 

From the walls of the citadel, a Jewish rebel general named Eleazar Ben Yair squints against the bright desert sun. Peering down over the steep cliffs that surround the fortress, he can see a large group of people marching across the rocky landscape far below. A storm of dust is kicked up in their wake and, from this distance and height, Eleazar can’t tell if the group is friend or foe. But he doesn’t want to wait to find out. So sounding the alarm, he gathers up his best men and rides south on a reconnaissance mission. Taking Masada from the Romans was not easy, and Eleazar is unwilling to give up his fortress without a fight.

Eleazar’s fighters call themselves the Sicarii. Considered by many to be the most violent and dangerous of all the Jewish rebels, the Sicarii are named after the curved Sica daggers they conceal beneath their cloaks. They’re known to carry out assassinations of high-level Roman figures but also kill any fellow Jews they believe are colluding with Roman forces.

Three years earlier, at the outset of the war, Eleazar Ben Yair led his men up to the summit of Masada. Under the cover of darkness, Eleazar and his men slit the throats of the Roman soldiers stationed in the fortress. Then they set up base behind the great walls, plotting ways to rid Judea of the hated Romans. 

By now though, the Jewish revolt is collapsing in the face of the brutal Roman counter-offensive. Galilee has fallen, as has the town of Yodfat. Eleazar knows that the Romans won’t allow Masada to remain in the hands of the Jews either. 60,000 legionaries have been sent to restore Roman rule, and as Eleazar leads his own small scouting force down the mountain slope, he wonders whether the enemy has finally come for them.

Crossing the rocky plain though, Eleazar soon sees that it’s not a troop of soldiers marching on Masada. Instead, it’s a ragged column of hundreds of refugees: Jewish men, women, and children, fleeing the Judean capital of Jerusalem. Through tears and curses, they tell Eleazar that the Romans have sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the sacred Second Temple, and ejected all Jews from the city’s walls. Some of the refugees are battle-scarred, most are traumatized, and all are exhausted. With the help of his men, Eleazar gathers the refugees and begins the trek back toward Masada. But there’s no time to rest. Eleazar is sure that the Romans will be coming soon.

Still, once he brings the refugees back to the high fortress of Masada, Eleazar feels confident and secure. He knows that old king Herod built the walls of Masada to withstand any attack. Herod was always fearful that one day there would be an uprising against him and designed this great fortress to be impregnable. He just never imagined that it would be his Roman allies that would one day be the ones to lay siege. 

And indeed, even with thousands of men, taking Masada will not be easy. There is only one way to reach the fortress: a snaking path up the mountainside that’s barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The Romans’ usual tactics of moving relentlessly forward in tight formations will be impossible here. It will take all the might and ingenuity of the Roman Army to win a victory.

But back in Rome, the new Emperor is not discouraged. It was Vespasian’s military prowess that helped him seize the Imperial throne. And now that he is ruler of the Roman Empire, he’s eager to demonstrate that there is no corner of the world where Rome’s enemies can hide. He wants to bring the Jewish revolt to a decisive end, so, he orders his generals to march on Masada and take it back. 

Within days, a force of 5,000 Roman troops have assembled at the Judean capital of Jerusalem and is ready to move out. But their task will not be a simple one. Inside the well-supplied mountain fortress are almost a thousand people ready to fight and stand their ground to the very last man, meaning the siege of Masada will drag on for three years. None of the rebels will survive. But their story of defiance and sacrifice against the greatest Empire in the ancient world will become legendary.

Act Three: The Battle

It’s April 16th 73 CE, at Masada in Judea, three years into the siege of the mountain fortress.

Deep within the citadel, Jewish general Eleazar Ben Yair can hear the pounding of a mighty battering ram. The noise shakes the very foundations of the fortress. Dust and tiny rocks fall onto Eleazar’s head and shoulders. And beside him, his soldiers anxiously wait for their next instruction. As Eleazar thinks, a thunderous rumbling sound announces that the outer walls have finally given in.

The high ground the Jewish rebels once had is no more. The Romans have built huge mud ramps up the side of the mountain, enabling them to deploy an enormous battering ram against the outer walls of the fortress. Those efforts have paid off. Now, Roman troops have brought the walls down and are forcing their way into the fortress. The Jewish defenders light fires to slow down the Roman attack and fight for every inch of ground. But it’s hopeless. As smoke fills the citadel, Eleazar orders any remaining survivors into the main temple in the middle of the fortress.

No-one can say for certain what happens behind those closed doors. After Eleazar’s orders his people to shut themselves inside the temple, their story passes into the realm of legend. One of the most famous accounts will come from Josephus, the Jewish priest-turned-soldier-turned-Roman-historian.

In his version of the story, the Romans breach the walls of the temple to find nothing but bodies inside. According to Josephus, in the last moments of the siege, Eleazar speaks powerfully to his followers, telling them that he would rather die by his own hand than be killed by Romans or live as slaves. The story is clearly inspired by the experience of Josephus in the catacombs of Yodfat. But while Josephus himself could not go through with a similar pact, Eleazar and his men keep their promise and all take their own lives.

Little archaeological evidence will ever be found to support Josephus’ account of mass suicide. Still, the ruins of the fortress will evolve into a site of pilgrimage for some, and the phrase ‘Masada shall not fall again’ will become a rallying cry against antisemitism. The bravery and defiance of the defenders of Masada will remain legendary in Jewish history, even centuries after the fortress fell on April 16th, 73 CE.

Outro

Next on History Daily. April 17th, 1975. Cambodia falls to Khmer Rouge after the radical communist insurgency captures the nation's capital.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammed Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by Joel Callen.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.