Masada, present-day Israel, on the Dead Sea. The Romans capture the fortress of Masada, the last stronghold of the Sicarii, who commit suicide when all hope was lost, just before the arrival of the legionaries. The Sicarii are a Jewish extremist movement that practices targeted assassinations of Jews who collaborated with the Romans. After each man kills his loved ones, ten men are drawn by lot to kill all the others; finally, one is chosen by lot to kill the others. After setting fire to all the buildings, the last man also takes his own life. In the imagination of the centuries to come, the 960 suicides at Masada will weigh more heavily than the hundreds of thousands of deaths in Jerusalem and surrounding cities. The fall of Masada, on the 15th of the month of Xanthicos, the day after Passover (March-April), puts an end to the first great Jewish revolt.
