The Zealots had made a courageous stand, holding off General Silva and his elite Roman legion for more than a year. Jerusalem had already fallen months ago, and the mesa named Masada, along the west coast of the Dead Sea, was the site of the last pocket of Jewish resistance.

Come morning, that, too, would change. The wooden walls were burning, and within the day's first light the Roman battering ram would begin again and make its final assault upon the weakened walls and gates.

The leader of the 960 men, women and children who held the mesa was Eleazar ben Ya'ir. During the evening he gathered the men of the garrison together, sharing the hopelessness of the morning's coming battle. The defeat was sure, and with it would come the slavery of the strong, the murder of the children and the …