footnote

just to illustrate
what kind of guy
josephus was

he was the only historian of his time
to mention jesus outside the bible in his writings
as well as the only one to write about masada
and coincidentally it sounds
suspiciously
like his own story
at jotapata
except
this time the tale was presumably reconstructed
from the accounts of roman soldiers on the one side

and on the other
a biblical seven
two women and five children
who survived the suicide pact
by hiding in a cistern

nevertheless the inventive josephus
out of the scant accounts
of the earwitnesses
from a distance
penned one of the most imposing pieces of rhetoric
in the voice of eleazar ben yair
in which the jewish leader
with the romans
looming beyond the wall
convinces the last 960 rebel jews
to kill themselves
albeit by means of a complex lottery system

go read it
it's still on the internet today
eleazar's greatest moment
à la mel gibson in braveheartian defiance:

that's just a fragment of the endless speech
preserved for us
by the woman in the cistern
or the roman commander
beyond the wall
or dug up from josephus himself
who had already survived a similar scenario
choose for yourself
which version
offers more credibility
which seems most likely

and of the marble at masada
mentioned in josephus's telling
not a speck is to be found
there was however a hell of a lot of marble in rome back then
so i imagine that story was made up in rome
maybe to disguise that
unlike the norm at the time
when romans slaughtered rebellious peoples
something else happened here:
the jews killed themselves at masada
according to josephus's fine words
that washed roman hands in innocence
or so the movie plays out in rome

just as with jesus
it is told
that it was the jews as well
who murdered the messiah
on a romish cross

nice work if you can get it
as a jewish author in the roman empire
if you're willing to betray your people
and wrap the truth
in the emperor's colours