James Baquet Sometimes a battle is remembered, not for the glory of a victory, but for the romance of a defeat. After the Greek successors of Alexander the Great ruled Palestine for some time; after the Jewish Hasmoneans took over circa 110 B.C.; after 63 B.C., when the Roman general Pompey the Great took Palestine; and after the Herodians ruled as vassals of Rome in 6 B.C., Palestine — including Jerusalem — became a Roman province known as Judea (not to be confused with the ancient Jewish kingdom of the same name). But in 66 the First Jewish-Roman War began when the people of Judea rose up against the Romans. This led to the destruction of the most significant edifice of Judaism, the Second Temple in Jerusalem, in 70. As you can imagine, a small group of rebels pitted against the might of the Roman Empire was not likely to succeed. By 73, despite early gains, the rebels had been backed into a corner. The final moments of their defeat took place at a remote hilltop named Masada, around 50 kilometers southeast of Jerusalem as the crow flies. An apparently impregnable location that had been fortified by King Herod the Great for building palaces between 37 and 31 B.C. (“Masada” comes from “metsada,” meaning “fortress” in Hebrew), it became the “last stand” for a group of 967 men, women and children. According to the contemporary historian Flavius Josephus, 960 of these died; two women and five children, who had hidden in a cistern, were captured. More shocking than these statistics is the method of their death. After a siege that lasted months, the Romans had built a ramp that would allow them to approach the rebel stronghold directly. (The only way to do so previously was up a trail so narrow that two men could not walk abreast.) Seeing that the end was near, the Jewish defenders chose to die rather than be taken prisoner, despite having ample supplies on hand. As Jewish law prohibits suicide, the rebels drew lots and systematically executed each other until the last man heroically violated the law by taking his own life. Masada today is a national park, and one of Israel’s top tourist destinations. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. opposing 2. side by side 3. living at the same time 4. water-storage tank 5. pushed reluctantly 6. around, about 7. story that evokes strong feelings 8. building 9. in a straight line 10. impossible to take by force | 