Original sentence: Ben-Yehuda, Sacrificing Truth: Archaeology and the Myth of Masada'', Humanity Books (June 2002).Masada became famous after the First Jewish-Roman War (also known as the Great Jewish Revolt) when a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to a mass suicide of the site's Jewish Sicarii fugitives when defeat became imminent.This account of the siege of Masada was related to Josephus by two women who survived the suicide by hiding inside a cistern along with five children, and repeated Elazar ben Yair's exhortations to his followers, prior to the mass suicide, verbatim to the Romans
Edited sentence: Ben-Yehuda, Sacrificing Truth: Archaeology and the Myth of Masada, Humanity Books (June 2002).Masada became famous after the First Jewish-Roman War (also known as the Great Jewish Revolt) when a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to an alleged mass suicide of the site's Jewish Sicarii fugitives when defeat became imminent.Shay Cohen (1982) and others challenge the story due to archeological evidence.Shay Cohen, Masada, Literary tradition, and the Archeological Evidence,'' Journal of Jewish Studies: Essays in honor of Yigael Yadin, 33, 1982, 385-405.The story remains suspect.This account of the siege of Masada was allegedly related to Josephus by two women who survived the suicide by hiding inside a cistern along with five children, and repeated Elazar ben Yair's exhortations to his followers, prior to the mass suicide, verbatim to the Romans.lt:Masada