Lucius Flavius Silva

[1] Silva was the commander of the army, composed mainly of the Legio X Fretensis, in 72 AD that laid siege to the near-impregnable mountain fortress of Masada, occupied by a group of Jewish rebels dubbed the Sicarii by Flavius himself.

The siege ended in 73 AD with Silva's forces breaching the defenses of the Masada plateau and the mass suicide of the Sicarii, who preferred death to defeat or capture.

The historical context of Silva's siege of Masada was Rome's 'cleaning up' of the remaining Jewish resistance to Roman rule after crushing the rebellion in Jerusalem in 70 AD.

After initial efforts to breach Masada's defenses failed, Silva's army built a siege ramp against the western face of the plateau, using thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth.

During the Census Vespasian and his son Titus performed between April and the end of June 73, Silva was adlected into Praetorian rank and to the Patrician class.

Later that year he was appointed legatus Augusti pro praetore of Judaea, replacing Sextus Lucilius Bassus, who had died during his tenure.

[1] In October 2005, Hungarian archaeologist Dr. Tibor Grull published an article about a stone tablet unearthed in 1999 near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.