Roman legionaries were equipped so they could fight effectively as heavy infantry. The upper part of their body was protected with armor, including helmets with large cheek-pieces worn on the head and segmented armor (overlapping strips of metal) covering the torso. Legionaries wore short (knee-length) tunics to allow for mobility, shin guards, and heavy nailed sandals called caligae. Several items were attached to a belt worn around the waist: an apron of studded leather strips in front to protect the genitals (because nothing was worn under the tunic), and on either side a short dagger and a sword. The dagger and the sword were housed in reinforced leather sheaths attached to the belt.
In their left hands, legionaries carried a large rectangular shield that protected the unarmored lower parts of their bodies. In their right hands, legionaries carried a six-foot long javelin called a pilum, which consisted of an iron point set into a wooden shaft. The legionaries would throw the pilum while advancing toward the enemy and then use their swords for hand-to-hand combat.
(perhaps the same rebel leader mentioned by Josephus). The problem is that there are twelve ostraca, not ten, in this group of “lots." Yadin discounted one because it was incomplete, but that still leaves eleven. Joseph Naveh, an epigrapher who published these ostraca, was unable to determine whether they were in fact “lots," because ostraca are not uncommon at Masada and were used for various purposes, such as meal ration tickets.
More recently, Netzer noted an interesting phenomenon at Masada. Many of the rooms in the western palace complex show no signs of the burning that is attested elsewhere at Masada (for example, burnt wooden beams were found on the floors of storerooms in the northern palace complex). Netzer connected this with Josephus' account, postulating that because of the western palace's proximity to the ramp, the Jewish rebels took wooden beams from these rooms to construct the replacement wall. Netzer argued that this evidence confirmed the accuracy of Josephus' testimony, including the historicity of the mass suicide story. On the other hand, an Israeli archaeologist, Hillel Geva, has pointed to another interesting phenomenon at Masada: a huge mound of chalky dirt mixed with large numbers of artifacts was piled against the outside of the white plastered, stone wall that separated Herod's palace rooms from the rest of the northern palace complex. According to Geva, the pile of dirt and artifacts is a siege ramp or mound that the Romans erected when Jewish rebels took refuge inside the rooms of the northern palace. If Geva is correct, it would mean that there was intense fighting rather than a mass suicide at Masada.
Maybe there is some truth in both points of view: perhaps some of the Jews took their own lives while others fought to the death. In my opinion, we will never know for sure. Archaeology cannot prove or disprove the historicity of Josephus' mass suicide story, as the archaeological remains are ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. Whether the mass suicide story is true or not ultimately depends on how one evaluates Josephus' reliability as an historian.
Recommended Reading
Amnon Ben-Tor, Back to Masada (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2009).
Shaye J. D. Cohen, Josephus in Galilee and Rome (Boston: Leiden, 2002).
Tessa Rajak, Josephus, The Historian and His Society (London, Duckworth, 1983). Jonathan P. Roth, Roman Warfare (New York: Cambridge University, 2009).
Neil Asher Silberman, A Prophet from Amongst You: The Life of Yigael Yadin: Soldier, Scholar, and Mythmaker of Modern Israel (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993). Yigael Yadin, Masada, Herod's Fortress and the Zealots' Last Stand (New York: Random House, 1966).
World History
