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Masada (miniseries)
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Masada (miniseries)
Masada is an American historical drama television miniseries that aired on ABC in April 1981. Advertised by the network as an "ABC Novel for Television," the TV series' script is based on the 1971 novel The Antagonists by Ernest Gann, with a screenplay written by Joel Oliansky. It tells a fictionalized account of the historical siege of the Masada citadel in Roman Palestine by legions of the Roman Empire in AD 73. The siege ended when the Roman armies entered the fortress, only to discover the mass suicide by the Jewish defenders when defeat became imminent.
The miniseries starred: Peter O'Toole as Roman legion commander Lucius Flavius Silva, Peter Strauss as the Jewish commander Eleazar ben Ya'ir and Barbara Carrera as Silva's Jewish mistress. It was O'Toole's first appearance in an American miniseries.
Masada was one of several historical miniseries produced in the early 1980s, following the success of the miniseries Roots, that aired on the ABC Network in 1977, and Shogun, which aired on NBC in 1980.
In the year 70 AD, with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish rebellion against Roman occupation is declared over, but Eleazar ben Ya'ir and his family flee the city, vowing that the Judean War is not ended. Eleazar and his followers make their headquarters on top of the mountain fortress of Masada. From there they conduct raids on Roman occupied villages in the south of Roman Judea. These guerrilla attacks threaten the credibility of the declared Roman victory.
The commanding general of the 10th Legion, Cornelius Flavius Silva, arranges a meeting with Eleazar to negotiate a truce. Returning to Rome, Silva's hopes to implement a truce in Judea are quashed by the Emperor Vespasian, because of political pressures in the Roman Senate. Silva is sent back to Judea, after securing the services of veteran siege commander Rubrius Gallus. Silva is informed that his second-in-command, general Marcus Quadratus, and head tribune Merovius, are spies for the emperor's political enemy. While Silva is still in Rome, through the treachery of these two men, the truce is violently broken by the Romans.
Learning of the breaking of the truce upon his return from Rome, Silva marches the 5,000 men of the 10th Legion to the foot of Masada and lays a siege to the apparently impregnable fortress. He directs Quadratus and Merovius on a suicidal assault of the fortress, in order to remove them from his forces and make them an example to any others who share their political leanings. Rubrius Gallus directs that a ramp be built to almost the summit of the mountain, intent on breaking through the Masada walls with the aid of a 50-foot (15.24 m) siege tower that is being constructed out of sight of the rebels.
When Eleazar successfully attacks the Roman soldiers building the ramp with catapulted stones, Silva quickly rounds up hundreds of Jews from the surrounding area to use as slaves to continue the work, believing correctly that Eleazar will not attack fellow Jews. This makes Eleazar change his tactics to psychological warfare, allowing the heat of the sun and revealing the surplus of water on Masada to demoralize the Roman troops.
He acts to capitalize on the Romans' belief in reading the future from the entrails of sacrificed goats, leading a party through the Roman sentries at night to feed the goats maggots, knowing that their discovery during the rituals will be seen as a bad omen. Eleazar's problems are further compounded by his own religious doubts and opposition from the more pacifist groups on Masada.
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Masada (miniseries)
Masada is an American historical drama television miniseries that aired on ABC in April 1981. Advertised by the network as an "ABC Novel for Television," the TV series' script is based on the 1971 novel The Antagonists by Ernest Gann, with a screenplay written by Joel Oliansky. It tells a fictionalized account of the historical siege of the Masada citadel in Roman Palestine by legions of the Roman Empire in AD 73. The siege ended when the Roman armies entered the fortress, only to discover the mass suicide by the Jewish defenders when defeat became imminent.
The miniseries starred: Peter O'Toole as Roman legion commander Lucius Flavius Silva, Peter Strauss as the Jewish commander Eleazar ben Ya'ir and Barbara Carrera as Silva's Jewish mistress. It was O'Toole's first appearance in an American miniseries.
Masada was one of several historical miniseries produced in the early 1980s, following the success of the miniseries Roots, that aired on the ABC Network in 1977, and Shogun, which aired on NBC in 1980.
In the year 70 AD, with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish rebellion against Roman occupation is declared over, but Eleazar ben Ya'ir and his family flee the city, vowing that the Judean War is not ended. Eleazar and his followers make their headquarters on top of the mountain fortress of Masada. From there they conduct raids on Roman occupied villages in the south of Roman Judea. These guerrilla attacks threaten the credibility of the declared Roman victory.
The commanding general of the 10th Legion, Cornelius Flavius Silva, arranges a meeting with Eleazar to negotiate a truce. Returning to Rome, Silva's hopes to implement a truce in Judea are quashed by the Emperor Vespasian, because of political pressures in the Roman Senate. Silva is sent back to Judea, after securing the services of veteran siege commander Rubrius Gallus. Silva is informed that his second-in-command, general Marcus Quadratus, and head tribune Merovius, are spies for the emperor's political enemy. While Silva is still in Rome, through the treachery of these two men, the truce is violently broken by the Romans.
Learning of the breaking of the truce upon his return from Rome, Silva marches the 5,000 men of the 10th Legion to the foot of Masada and lays a siege to the apparently impregnable fortress. He directs Quadratus and Merovius on a suicidal assault of the fortress, in order to remove them from his forces and make them an example to any others who share their political leanings. Rubrius Gallus directs that a ramp be built to almost the summit of the mountain, intent on breaking through the Masada walls with the aid of a 50-foot (15.24 m) siege tower that is being constructed out of sight of the rebels.
When Eleazar successfully attacks the Roman soldiers building the ramp with catapulted stones, Silva quickly rounds up hundreds of Jews from the surrounding area to use as slaves to continue the work, believing correctly that Eleazar will not attack fellow Jews. This makes Eleazar change his tactics to psychological warfare, allowing the heat of the sun and revealing the surplus of water on Masada to demoralize the Roman troops.
He acts to capitalize on the Romans' belief in reading the future from the entrails of sacrificed goats, leading a party through the Roman sentries at night to feed the goats maggots, knowing that their discovery during the rituals will be seen as a bad omen. Eleazar's problems are further compounded by his own religious doubts and opposition from the more pacifist groups on Masada.