Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 4359483, member: 72790"]Not at all. It is a shame that another historian's works, Tacitus' histories, are not complete as he apparently did write about the Jewish uprising but only a few peripheral passages have survived. I find him to be about as good as an ancient historian can be, second only to Thucydides who, was of course, a participant and contemporary of his writing. As I said above, when Josephus is not part of the  story, his reporting seems at least plausible and when he is the only game in town, better than nothing. The second rebellion of the Jews under Hadrian may have been bloodier, for both sides, and more decisive for Jewish history, but is far less known simply because that uprising had no Josephus to relate it. I did read recently in a 2002 book that employed some of the more recent archaeological research that the absence of skeletal remains may be attributed to the Roman's permitting other Jews to give the dead a  Jewish burial on the ground below the fortress. If the Romans were to garrison Masada something would have to be done to the dead and allowing the Jews to remove and bury the dead would have been a favor to the Romans. The author cites an example of this from the Romans having captured a town in Galilee earlier in the war where this was done. The author thinks that there may yet be uncovered in the vicinity of Masada a mass grave site that time may yet reveal.[/QUOTE]