Masada: Last Stronghold of the Jewish Resistance Against Rome

In the first century B.C.E., Herod the Great, who ruled Judea as client king on behalf of Rome, built a fortified palace atop the mountain of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea.  Seventy years after Herod's death, the First Jewish Revolt against Rome broke out and Jewish rebels occupied Masada.  According to the ancient historian Flavius Josephus, at the end of the revolt the Romans besieged the mountain and the Jewish rebels committed mass suicide.   In this slide-illustrated lecture, we survey the history and archaeology of Masada, including the results of excavations in the Roman siege works which Professor Jodi Magness co-directed in 1995.  Magness’ recent book is Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth (Princeton University Press, 2019). Instructor: Jodi Magness