A RECONSIDERATION OF JOSEPHUS’ TESTIMONY ABOUT MASADA Jodi Magness The nearly completed final publication of Yigael Yadin’s 1963–1965 excavations at Masada by the Israel Exploration Society—in eight monumental volumes to date (Masada I–VIII)—provides an oppor- tunity to reevaluate Josephus’ testimony in light of the archaeological evidence. In this paper, I focus on Josephus’ account of the Roman siege because of my involvement with the publication of the military equipment from Yadin’s excavations, and because I co-directed the 1995 excavations in the Roman siege works at Masada and published the pottery from those excavations.1 I conclude that the archaeological evidence supports Josephus’ account of the siege. 1. Logistics of the Siege In B.J. 7.275–278, Josephus describes as follows the beginning of the Roman siege at Masada: The Roman general advanced at the head of his forces against Eleazar and his band of Sicarii who held Masada, and, promptly making himself master of the whole district, established garrisons at the most suitable points, threw up a wall all round the fortress, to make it difficult for any of the besieged to escape, and posted sentinels to guard it. He himself camped at a spot which he selected as most convenient for siege opera- tions, where the rocks of the fortress abutted on the adjacent mountain, although ill suited for commissariat purposes. For not only were supplies conveyed from a distance, entailing hard labour for the Jews told off for this duty, but even water had to be brought into the camp, there being no spring in the neighbourhood.2 1 See G. D. Stiebel and J. Magness, “The Military Equipment from Masada,” in Masada VIII: The Yigael Yadin Excavations 1963–1965 Final Reports (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2007), 1–94; J. Magness, “The Pottery from the 1995 Excavations in Camp F at Masada,” BASOR 353 (2009): 75–107. For the 1995 excavations in Camp F see eadem, “Masada 1995: Discoveries at Camp F,” BA 59 (1996): 181; B. Arubas and H. Goldfus, “Masada: The Roman Siege Works,” NEAEHL 5:1937–39. 2 All translations are from the Loeb edition unless otherwise indicated. 344 jodi magness Josephus’ description is consistent with the remains at Masada, where eight camps (A–H) and a circumvallation wall with watch towers still encircle the base of the mountain. In fact, the siege works at Masada are better-preserved than examples elsewhere in the Roman world, because they were built of stone rather than perishable materials such as wood and dirt, and because they are in a remote wilderness and were never destroyed or built over.3 Josephus accurately describes the location of Flavius Silva’s camp (F), as located “at a spot . most con- venient for siege operations, where the rocks of the fortress abutted on the adjacent mountain, although ill suited for commissariat purposes.” Indeed, Camp F’s placement at the top of a cliff to the northwest of Masada and adjacent to the base of the ramp allowed Silva to over- see the siege,4 but it was “ill suited for commissariat purposes,” since supplies were brought to Masada by way of the Dead Sea to the east. For this reason, a second legionary camp (B) was established on the eastern side of the mountain, which served as a base for the storage and distribution of supplies.5 Information from the 1995 excavations in the Roman siege works at Masada supports Josephus’ statement: For not only were supplies conveyed from a distance, entailing hard labour for the Jews told off for this duty, but even water had to be brought into the camp, there being no spring in the neighbourhood. (B.J. 7.278) The pottery from Camp F consists overwhelmingly of locally pro- duced, bag-shaped storage jars and a smaller number of local cooking pots. Nearly all of the fine table wares (which comprise a small per- centage of the overall assemblage) are Nabatean painted bowls, most of which were found in the praetorium (Unit XII in our excavations), together with the largest number of amphorae.6 Interestingly, what is missing from the Masada assemblage are table wares (dining dishes) and vessels for cooking and preparing Roman-style cuisine—the very types that were produced in the Tenth Legion’s kiln works at Binyanei 3 For the siege works see I. A. Richmond, “The Roman Siege-Works of Masada, Israel,” JRS 52 (1962): 143–55. 4 See ibid., 150. 5 See J. Roth, “The Length of the Siege of Masada,” Scripta Classica Israelica 14 (1995): 87–110 (89); Richmond, “The Roman Siege-Works,” 146. 6 See Magness, “The Pottery from the 1995 Excavations,” 77–81..