The Ruins of Masada and the Sicarii, History’s First Terrorists
In his history of the Great Jewish Revolt, the Romanized Jewish historian Josephus describes a last stand by a band of Jewish fanatics known as the Sicarii, who holed up in a hilltop fortress known as the Masada. The Romans besieged the fortress, and their engineers began building a ramp that daily brought the legionaries closer to the rebels. When it became clear that the fortress was bound to fall, the defenders committed mass suicide, killing their wives and children, then each other. 960 people died, and when the Romans finally entered Masada, they discovered only two women and five children still alive.
The Sicarii were a militant faction of the Zealots, a 1st century AD Judean faction that sought to launch a rebellion to free Judea from the Roman yoke. Their efforts would lead to the Great Jewish Revolt of 66 – 73 AD. While the Zealots were radical, their Sicarii splinter went to extremes that qualify them as history’s earliest identifiable terrorists.
Sicarii, meaning “dagger men” in Latin, got their name from the knives known as sicae, which they used to kill their victims. They aimed to rid Judea of the Romans and their Jewish collaborators, and resorted to terrorism and assassination to accomplish their goal. They hid in crowds at public gatherings, waited for an opportune moment, then charged their targets, stabbed them, and escaped in the ensuing confusion and panic by blending into the crowd.
Their main victims were the pro-Roman Jewish aristocracy, whom they slaughtered, and whose estates they torched. Eventually, the Sicarii turned to kidnapping and hostage taking for ransom. Their prominent victims included a High Priest of the Jewish Temple, after whose killing they went on an assassination spree that terrorized Judea’s upper strata of Jews and Romans.
Sicarii victims, particularly Imperial officials, were often targeted in a deliberate attempt to provoke the Romans, who seldom needed much provocation before visiting massacre and collective punishment upon the Jewish population. That kept the embers of discontent smoldering, lit new flames of resentment, and ensured a steady stream of new recruits and sympathizers from the families and friends of the Romans’ victims.
Sicarii terrorism had many modern traits. They engaged in sabotage to worsen the populace’s living conditions and keep them disgruntled. Faced with an occupier prone to indiscriminate violence, the Sicarii deliberately provoked the Romans by committing atrocities that all but guaranteed massive Roman retaliation. That forced the hands of many fence sitters by presenting them with unenviable choices. They could do nothing, but it would not keep them from getting massacred or enslaved by angry Romans, in no mood to distinguish “good” Jews from bad. Or they could join the resistance in the hopes of gaining freedom, or at least the dignity of dying while fighting.
That strategy was evident during the run up to the Jewish Revolt, when the Roman governor responded to tax protests by arresting prominent Jews and looting Jerusalem’s Temple. The protests escalated into a full blown revolt that forced the Romans and their pet king to flee Judea. Early on, the Sicarii attacked and seized the fortress of Masada near the Dead Sea, then descended upon nearby Roman enclaves to massacre whomever they could find. They slaughtered over 700 Roman women and children. That ensured that there could be no turning back, and thus solidified their own ranks. It also confronted other Judeans with the prospect of massive retaliation and collective punishment of the innocent and guilty alike, if the Romans won.
The Sicarii then joined other rebels in attacking Jerusalem, which they liberated in 66 AD, then began killing known and suspected collaborators en masse. Sicarii victims included opponents, suspected opponents, and those who failed to display sufficient enthusiasm in supporting the Sicarii. Their extremism led to a backlash and uprising by the city’s population, and a falling out with the other rebels. It ended in Sicarii defeat, the capture, torture, and execution of their leader, and the group’s expulsion from Jerusalem. The survivors retreated to the fortress of Masada, and contented themselves with plundering the surrounding countryside.
In the meantime, the Zealots and other radicals managed to crush the popular backlash and retained control of Jerusalem until it was besieged, conquered, and razed by the Romans in 70 AD. The Romans then began mopping up operations, and eventually reached the final holdouts, the Sicarii in Masada. Considering all they had done, the prospects of leniency were slim if the Romans got a hold of the Sicarii. Rather than face what was bound to be an unenviable fate if they were captured alive, the Sicarii opted for mass suicide.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Sources & Further Reading
Ancient Origins – Goujian: The Ancient Chinese Sword That Defied Time
Ancient Origins – The Destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria
Guardian, The, January 11th, 2010 – Great Pyramid Tombs Unearth Proof Workers Were Not Slaves
Harvard Magazine, July-August 2003 – Who Built the Pyramids?
Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture and Tourism – The Antikythera Mechanism
io9 – The Great Library at Alexandria Was Destroyed by Budget Cuts, Not Fire
Megiddo Expedition, Google Sites – History of Megiddo
National Geographic, October 19th, 2013 – Beautiful Skull Spurs Debate on Human History
National Geographic, June 19th, 2017 – Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows
New Scientist, September 10th, 2015 – New Species of Extinct Human Found in Cave May Rewrite History
New York Time, October 18th, 2013 – Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage