DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5074#0122
106
MASADA.
interesting to relate, in a few words, something of the
magnificent tragedy* which has made the name of
Masada famous for all history.
Simon Maccabeus, the last of the seven hero-brothers
of Judah, built this fortress about the year 140 B.C.; but
it is probable that it had always been a fortified retreat
during the wars of the country. Little is known of its
history till Herod the Great took possession of it, en-
closed the flat top in a strong wall, rather less than a
mile in length, upon which he erected thirty-eight
towers, and added a lofty and magnificently-furnished
palace for himself: the rest of the ground was left for
growing corn, as the soil was rich, and a great .number
of tanks or reservoirs of water were hewn in the rock,
so that the garrison holding it conld live independent of
supplies from the outer world. To this inaccessible for-
tress he intended to retire in case of revolt among his
subjects, or any other great danger. There were but
two ways of ascending to it—one by the narrow neck wre
have described, which was defended by a tower, and the
other by a zig-zag path up the cliff facing the lake, called
the Serpent, the danger of which Josephus describes as
"sufficient to quell the courage of everybody by the terror
it infuses into the mind . . . for that he who would walk
along it must go first on one leg and then on the other,
and there is nothing but destruction in case your feet
slip." Herod laid up stores of all manner of arms in it,
and vast quantities of food. A few months after, he
made good his retreat from Jerusalem when attacked by
the Parthians, and having placed his mother and his
beautiful fiancee, Mariamne, in the stronghold, he went
himself to Eome, while Antigonus besieged Masada in
vain for three months. A hundred years later, the im-
* Josephus, War, vii. viii.
MASADA.
interesting to relate, in a few words, something of the
magnificent tragedy* which has made the name of
Masada famous for all history.
Simon Maccabeus, the last of the seven hero-brothers
of Judah, built this fortress about the year 140 B.C.; but
it is probable that it had always been a fortified retreat
during the wars of the country. Little is known of its
history till Herod the Great took possession of it, en-
closed the flat top in a strong wall, rather less than a
mile in length, upon which he erected thirty-eight
towers, and added a lofty and magnificently-furnished
palace for himself: the rest of the ground was left for
growing corn, as the soil was rich, and a great .number
of tanks or reservoirs of water were hewn in the rock,
so that the garrison holding it conld live independent of
supplies from the outer world. To this inaccessible for-
tress he intended to retire in case of revolt among his
subjects, or any other great danger. There were but
two ways of ascending to it—one by the narrow neck wre
have described, which was defended by a tower, and the
other by a zig-zag path up the cliff facing the lake, called
the Serpent, the danger of which Josephus describes as
"sufficient to quell the courage of everybody by the terror
it infuses into the mind . . . for that he who would walk
along it must go first on one leg and then on the other,
and there is nothing but destruction in case your feet
slip." Herod laid up stores of all manner of arms in it,
and vast quantities of food. A few months after, he
made good his retreat from Jerusalem when attacked by
the Parthians, and having placed his mother and his
beautiful fiancee, Mariamne, in the stronghold, he went
himself to Eome, while Antigonus besieged Masada in
vain for three months. A hundred years later, the im-
* Josephus, War, vii. viii.