The siege of Yodfat

HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY: Yodfat, the Jewish Town Attacked by 60,000 Roman Soldiers. Commanded by Josephus, the rebellious Jews of Yodfat withstood the Roman siege for 47 days. And when they knew it was hopeless, they chose how to die. Two millennia later they were finally brought to rest (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

One town there was Yodfat. A hallmark of Judaism is that some homes had their own mikvehs, or ritual baths, says Prof. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret Academic College, who has been involved in the study at the site for decades. Last week he brought a group of graduate students to Yodfat, which probably is named after a Seleucid princess, he explained. I was invited to join the tour.

This a fascinating and nearly comprehensive account of what we know from Josephus and archaeology about the fall of Yodfat (Jotapata) during the Great Revolt.

It does gloss over Josephus' self-described creative handling of the suicide pact he had as part of a group of forty defenders of the city. He managed to be one of the two who didn't carry out the pact. For more on that, see my posts on the Josephus Problem (the algorithm he supposedly used to come out among the last in the suicide rota).

For PaleoJudaica posts on the siege of Yodfat, see here and links.

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