Myths of Masada

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

In 73 AD, 967 Jewish rebels against the Romans committed mass suicide atop the Masada Fortress. Or did they? In this second part of Tristan’s interview with Jodi Magness from the University of North Carolina, who co-directed the 1995 excavations of the Roman siege works at Masada, we separate myth from mystery. Jodi weighs the question of Josephus’ sole account of this event against the archaeological evidence, and the external forces which may have influenced the mythologising of Masada.

Jodi is the author of 'Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth'.

Part 1: historyhit.com/masada1

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast
0:08.4	we are continuing the story of Masada with the enthralling Professor Jody Magnus. It was
0:15.3	fantastic to see how well received the first episode was that was released last week and
0:21.2	today we are continuing the story. In this second part we are going to be looking at the
0:25.6	myths of Masada we're going to be looking at the end of the siege and we're also going
0:30.6	to have a look at the legacy of Masada into more recent times particularly it's important
0:36.4	to the state of Israel. Here's Jody.
0:46.2	If we go back to the siege then Jody and we've talked about the camp and you've mentioned
0:50.9	the siege ramp because you've done some work on the siege ramp when you were out there.
0:54.7	To the Romans they have to build the siege ramp to get to Masada and the fortifications.
0:59.9	What does your work on the siege ramp reveal about it?
1:02.7	Yeah that was really interesting. So Josephus actually you know you asked before about Josephus'
1:08.4	accuracy and in my opinion Josephus' description of the siege of Masada is overwhelmingly accurate.
1:15.7	It doesn't mean it's accurate in every single detail. There is one detail that's fairly
1:20.1	significant that it's not accurate in it but overall with regard to the siege not the
1:24.5	story of the mass suicide but the siege. His description of the siege is pretty darn accurate
1:29.2	or at least corresponds very well with the archaeological remains.
1:33.2	One of the things that Josephus describes is that when Flavius Selva comes in he's got
1:37.0	to build this assault ramp where are you going to build it. He notices that on the western
1:41.2	side of the mountain not far from the foot of the mountain is a natural white hill which
1:46.2	Josephus actually calls in Greek the white hill left key. And what Flavius Selva does is he fills
1:51.7	up the space between this hill and the top of the mountain to create the assault ramp. Now
	...

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