Flavius Silva
Roman governor of Judaea who besieged and took Masada, which Josephus calls the last stronghold of the Jewish revolt. Inscriptions he set up at Urbs Salvia in Italy record his career, including his consulship.
Josephus says that Flavius Silva succeeded Bassus as governor of Judaea and gathered his forces against Masada (Josephus, Jewish War 7.252). He walled the rock round, built a ramp against its western side, broke the wall with a ram and burned the defenders’ second wall (Josephus, Jewish War 7.275–279, 304–319). After the fortress fell he left a garrison in it and went back to Caesarea (Josephus, Jewish War 7.407); see the fall of Masada.
Two copies of an inscription from Urbs Salvia in Italy give the career of a Silva Nonius Bassus who is taken to be the same man. The surviving text calls him consul and pontifex, has the words “of the province of Judaea”, and says that he was enrolled among the patricians, commanded the legion XXI Rapax and was patron of the colony. His first names and the title of his post in Judaea are restored by the editors (Urbs Salvia inscriptions of Flavius Silva AE 1969/70, 183a–b).
In the timeline
- AD 73 or 74, estimated dateThe Fall of Masada
Three or four years after Jerusalem fell, the Roman governor Flavius Silva besieges Masada, a rock fortress by the Dead Sea still held by rebels. Josephus says that the defenders killed their families and themselves, 960 dead in all, the night before the Romans entered.
Primary sources
The Jewish War
- Josephus, Jewish War 7.252lexundria.com
- Josephus, Jewish War 7.275–279, 304–319lexundria.com
- Josephus, Jewish War 7.407lexundria.com