by Evropa Soberana
Fall of Masada
In the spring of 71, assured Jerusalem, Titus marches to Rome, leaving the Legio X Fretensis, commanded by the new governor of Judea, Lucius Flavius Silva, in charge of giving the coup de grace to the Jewish resistance.
The last bastion of the entire rebellion was the fortified city of Masada, which had been erected by the Maccabees in a strategic area. Herod had improved it in his attempt to keep the Jewry happy, but when he died, Masada’s trade declined and became uninhabited. But after the war it housed what remained of the hard Zionist core: the Zealots and the Sicarii led by Eleazar ben Ya’ir.
In the year 72, Lucius Flavius Silva was at the foot of Masada. When, after a painful siege, the Romans entered the fortress the following year, they discovered that the 953 defenders had committed suicide.