The Roman Siege of Masada May Have Lasted Weeks, Not Years
New research suggests that the Romans defeated the Jewish rebels at Masada much more quickly than scholars previously assumed
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For many years, historians’ understanding of the Roman siege of Masada, which took place on a mountain in present-day Israel around 73 C.E., relied primarily on a detailed account by the famous historian Flavius Josephus.
According to Josephus’ writings, the siege was a lengthy affair that ended with the Jewish rebels choosing to kill themselves rather than surrender to the emperor Vespasian’s forces. The historian didn’t specify exactly how long the siege lasted, but some scholars assumed it went on for several years.
Now, a study published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology suggests that the siege may not have stretched on for such a long time. Instead, the construction of the siege wall and camps around Masada may have occurred over just 11 to 16 days.
“From the Roman perspective, [the siege] was not such a big story,” co-author Guy Stiebel, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, tells Haaretz’s Ariel David. “They came, they made a precision strike and they left after a few weeks.”
To reach their conclusions, the team surveyed the site using aerial drones and photogrammetric 3D modeling. They then used workload calculations to estimate how quickly the Roman fortifications could have been built.
“We know that there were 6,000 to 8,000 Roman soldiers. And we have data and charts showing how many stones young soldiers can move in a day,” Stiebel tells the Times of Israel’s Gavriel Fiske. “The data is very clear. We are talking about a very short period to build the siege system.”
The new study builds on research conducted in the 1990s, which suggested that the siege took between one and two months. Other evidence against a years-long siege includes the lack of a robust archeological record: The site hasn’t revealed artifacts or other signs of a lengthy encampment, which “clearly shows us that this episode was a short one,” Stiebel tells the Times of Israel.
Masada, which overlooks the Dead Sea, is one of Israel’s most famous tourist attractions. However, while the fortress was carefully excavated, the Roman siege system “has not received due attention,” write the researchers.
In recent decades, historians have also questioned other parts of the Masada story. For instance, Josephus’ account states that around 1,000 rebels took their lives toward the siege’s end, but some academics have argued that such an event may never have occurred.
The recent study does not focus on the mass suicide, but it does shed new light on an understudied chapter in history.
“The fact that the siege lasted less time than we thought doesn’t make the site less interesting or less important,” Stiebel tells Haaretz. “It still raises questions that are no less exciting. Why did the Romans make this effort, years after the official end of the war, to send 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers to the middle of the desert? It’s still a huge logistical undertaking.”
Stiebel suggests the Romans were motivated by economic concerns: The rebels had raided a site in nearby Ein Gedi where workers produced balsam, a coveted ancient perfume. As such, the Romans may have been trying to protect a valuable resource.
“The moment that they damaged the balsam production, they affected empire finances,” Stiebel tells the Times of Israel. “We know that the revolt happened during a period of weakness in the Roman Empire. They needed money. And it seems [the raid] crossed a red line for the Romans.”