Lucius Flavius Silva

Lucius Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus is a late-1st century Roman general, governor of the province of Iudaea and consul.

History remembers Silva as the Roman commander who led his army, composed mainly of the Legio X Fretensis, in 73 CE up to Masada and laid siege to its near-impenetrable mountain fortress occupied by a group of Jewish rebels called the Sicarii.

The end of the siege culminates with the mass suicide of the Sicarii who prefer death to defeat or capture.

His actions are documented by 1st century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus; the remains of a 1st century Roman victory arch identified in Jerusalem in 2005; and of course the extensive earthworks at the Masada site, a monument to the highwater mark of Roman siege warfare.

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