Original subtitles

After the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans...

...and the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 A.D.,

a group of Jewish zealots led by Eleazar ben Yair...

...flee to the mountain fortress of Masada.

From there they conduct guerilla raids...

...on Roman occupied towns in the countryside,

threatening the Judean War victory the Romans have already proclaimed.

A truce is negotiated between Eleazar...

...and the General of the Roman Tenth Legion, Flavius Silva.

But the Roman Emperor Vespasian is forced to reject it...

...because of political pressures in the Roman Senate.

Meanwhile, through the treachery of two of Silva's officers,

the truce has already been violently broken by the Romans.

Learning of this, upon his return from Rome,

Silva marches the Tenth Legion to the foot of Masada...

...and lay a siege to the apparently impregnable fortress.

The ground you occupy is the property and territory...

...of the Emperor, Senate and people of Rome!

In their name I order you to depart from it!

The ground you occupy was given as promised...

...to the children of Israel by Almighty God.

I have warned you once.

You have sentenced yourself and your soldiers to death!

Formalities are over! Let's get to work!

Siege engineer Rubrius Gallus...

...orders a ramp built to nearly the summit of the mountain,

planning to break through the Masada walls with the aid...

...of a fifty foot assault tower that is being secretly constructed.

Now!

When Eleazar successfully attacks the Roman soldiers building the ramp...

...with a rain of catapulted stones,

Silva rounds up hundreds of Jewish slaves to finish the work.

The Roman political opportunist Falco arrives...

...and under the ostensible authority of the Roman Emperor Vespasian,

...temporarily displaces Silva as Legion Commander.

Obey him.

In an attempt to end the siege quickly,

Falco orders Jewish slaves to be catapulted...

...against the side of the mountain, until Eleazar surrenders the fortress.

Eleazar, a religious skeptic, rushes to the Masada synagogue...

...and implores God to stop the killing.

Tell me how to help them!

That is not Rome!

Silva, unable to stand Falco's barbarism,

forcibly resumes command, stops the savage catapulting...

...and puts Falco under arrest.

Enough!

We cannot keep doing this!

We're legionaries, we're not barbarians!

This, of course, pleases Sheva, Silva's Jewish mistress,

whose growing identification with the besieged Jews of Masada...

...had been creating an emotional war between her and the Roman General.

The cessation of the catapult slaughter,

as if in response to his prayers,

restores Eleazar's weakened faith, but he now faces the knowledge...

...that the final confrontation between the Jews and the Romans...

...may only be a matter of days ahead.

There, midnight.

Once again.

Don't forget what happened the last time.

It'll be all right.

Are you worried?

Today, I realized two things:

that I was tired of saying good-bye to you...

...and I was tired of worrying.

I will never do either one of them again.

Eleazar.

-If he does come up alone... -He will.

-...if a few of us were there ahead-- -No. No.

What could he be after?

Advice.

I don't see what harm the sword would do you, sir.

The point is it would do precious little good.

Remember, no guards posted here until first light.

I should be back long before then.

-If not? -If not...

...then you'll become the youngest man to command a Legion...

...in the history of Rome.

Think of that. It may make the time go faster.

-Still the bad leg? -Forever the bad leg.

I'm grateful that you came.

There's something you must understand about today.

I didn't order that business at the catapults.

There was a temporary change of command.

I should not have let that happen.

I resumed the command now...

...but it's a source of great personal humiliation to me.

Shame.

My shame.

Do you understand?

Yes.

-Nothing more? -Most important of all...

you must not believe that what happened today...

...was representative of Rome in action or in spirit.

I stress this because a temporary commander...

-...invoked the name of Vespasian-- -You look old, somehow.

-I'm trying to explain something! -You've done it very well.

It shouldn't have happened, you're ashamed.

It didn't represent you, it didn't represent Rome,

it didn't represent Vespasian.

You see, I've heard every word.

It was necessary to tell you these things face to face.

I should have expected this idiotic reception...

...but I forgot the preliminaries of our last meeting.

The meeting when the truce was made?

You've forgotten more than the preliminaries.

I was to explain that as well. Is it worth the effort?

Let me save you the problem.

You took the terms to Vespasian and he threw them back in your face.

It wasn't that way, the terms were acceptable to Vespasian.

Well, then, tell an ignorant man, what are we all doing here?

Listen to me!

The truce was broken by an act of a thief.

-It had nothing to do with our policy. -All right, then, what is the policy?

A demonstration of victory.

A Roman flag on top of this mountain.

The leadership brought to Rome alive.

You'd have to memorize a few pompous words...

and recite them in public, a pledge of loyalty,

that sort of thing.

You once said you trusted me.

Do you ever listen to yourself?

Rome approved the terms! But, somehow, they weren't accepted.

Rome didn't break the truce! But, somehow, it was broken.

Rome would never slaughter helpless men but,

somehow, this morning, helpless men were slaughtered!

And now you come to me in the name of Rome,

who's ashamed of itself,

and promises not to do it again if I will make a gesture.

And what is that gesture?

To surrender a fortress that has never been taken in 115 years.

Why? Because I trust you?

Damn you, you're a soldier as I am!

You know it's only a matter of time!

For all the water you can spill, and your maggots and windstorms,

and your sun, whatever monstruous arrogance is in you...

...there are lives you can save.

I understand you.

If the positions were reversed...

...I'd probably say what you said. We're much alike.

But debate can only go so far. If you won't trust me...

...trust this: we are five to your one.

No, we are not alike.

And five to one is not the whole truth.

It seems we have an ally of very great power.

What are you talking about? What ally?

The same one the Jews have had since the beginning.

With that ally we will defeat you.

You don't believe that any more than I believe in those goat's kidneys!

Jerahmeel the Essene has faith in two things:

that there is a God which lives...

...and that we must fight you to the end...

...in a war for the possession of this world.

About the first, I admit it used to be a puzzle.

But the war has always been clear enough...

...and I have always believed in that.

The odds are not five to one.

And the bazar is closed.

It's not hard to see what's happened.

A few hundred terrified people...

...have invented a cause to keep from going mad.

It changes everything but the truth.

When we've taken this mountain I will show the truth to you.

And you will beg my forgiveness.

Signal the outpost!

As soon as the guards are back report to me.

-Tonight, sir? -Tonight.

We will double the efforts and cut the time in half.

Yes, we'll work day and night, commencing immediately.

Six-hours work, two-hours sleep.

Take this horse. Summon the Chief Engineer.

Yes, sir.

Armor.

-Did he meet you? -He met me.

-What did he say? -Nothing worth repeating.

Can you bear a joke at this time of night?

He won't surrender because they're going to win.

They're going to win because it's the will of their god.

Yes. Eleazar the politician has been favored...

...with a religious conversion.

Oh, no...

When I made you into a secretary I ruined a good masseur.

Why is he waiting?

Why doesn't he just-- do it and get it over with?

They won't kill us, Albinus...

...unless the ramp isn't finished on time.

We've wasted so much time composing that letter.

Yes, well,

politics bows the goddess of fate like everything else in the world.

I'm not interested in your metaphysical observations!

There's only one course of action left for us both.

Pray...

...until our celebrated drunkard is successful.

Sir, it takes a bit to getting used to it.

Maybe you've had enough for one day.

If I leave this ramp before the next shift...

...you will cut my throat,

as I would do to you-- what's your name?

-Spinto, sir. -...as I would do to you, Spinto.

The reward will be a day and a night off.

So, let's not tempt each other.

Eighteen feet since the night watch, sir.

-How many dead? -I don't know, I was up there.

-None in my watch. -I mean, slaves.

Oh, four or five.

Five, sir.

The more we know about the way they fight...

...the easier it'll be to beat them.

The Roman soldiers go forward shoulder to shoulder...

...with their shields locked...

...a cohort...

...they're not going to bring the ramp up to the gates.

This means scaling ladders.

The great thing is patience.

I know, that's a strange word coming from me.

But you'll all want to do is push the ladder away...

...as soon as the first soldier sets foot on it.

The voice of God's adversary will whisper...

...in your delicate little ears the word 'Push'.

But you must say: "Behind me, Lucifer, son of the dawn,

I will not push until there are four soldiers climbing"-- four!...

...so the ladders are heavy when they fall...

...and likely to break and crush the soldiers below.

Sir, if we can catapult these, it'd be far superior to stones.

They go almost as far, do more damage...

-...and leave them with nothing. -How many do we have?

Two thousand, sir. Would you care for a demonstration?

No, thank you, I'm convinced. What about the tower?

Finished this morning, sir. We can raise it anytime.

Not until the day the ramp is finished!

-27 ft. since yesterday, sir. -I know.

If there's nothing else, I have a little time before my next shift.

-I would like to spend it sleeping. -Of course, sir.

May I just say, sir, that this demonstration of yours...

...has inspired every legionnaire in the camp.

You may say it, if you don't mind sounding like...

...the god of all fatuous idiots. Good morning.

Good morning, sir.

27 ft. since yesterday.

If I weren't afraid of a thunderbolt through the roof of this tent...

...I would say that it's almost over.

I can't remember these past days in any detail.

But I don't imagine I've been very scintillating company.

Fatigue is a curious thing.

Certain physical responses seem to be immune to it.

Sheva?

Even under the best conditions...

...I can't stretch my arm any further.

Shall I explain what it is they're doing?

If you want to.

No.

Ezra says we will lose.

There're too many of them and we'll all die.

-You believe him? -I have eyes, father.

And Ezra says out loud what you already think.

I don't know what I think.

I wish I were older, then I'd know.

Well, I'm older. Ezra is wrong.

Does what I say mean nothing to you?

You're my father.

You say you have eyes, then, look me in the face!

Eleazar!

You have ears too, so, why am I shouting?

They have the men, the machines.

They have our own people for burden animals.

These things, they have always had.

In our ancestor's time, Anthiochus the Syrian...

...had all these things when he came against us.

And you know what else?

Elephants.

Can you imagine? Elephants,

dipping their trunks in the Jordan river.

Where is Anthiochus and his elephants?

Here...

...where the Romans will be...

...when your grandchildren are playing in the streets again of Jerusalem,

or Beit She'an or Capernaum,

or whatever city you choose to live in,

because we have an ally,

and a judge and a protector...

...who has promised us this country...

...and He blows away Romans, and catapults and elephants...

...like a sleeping man blows away a feather.

And this is what you truly believe?

Not just what you tell the others?

I have never told the others this.

Move along!

You, get going! Move!

Faster. Faster!

I said faster!

-If not for hauling, then what? -For cover.

They've sunk them too deep into the ramp to do any good.

I still say the blocks are for a catapult up the center.

You say. And you say.

If the Romans could hear us now, would they laugh or cry?

Strategy, I'm so sick of it.

Jews...

...have they changed since the time of Moses? Why do they do it?

Why do they work for them that way?

There is nothing else they can do.

-Have some pity. -Have some pity? They're Jews!

We have no pity for you!

You're 500 to 50 on that ramp!

Fight! Fight! Fight!

You're the children of Israel!

Fight them!

-Fight back! -Fight!

-Fight! -You're the children of Israel!

Fight them! Fight them!

Fight! You're the children of Israel!

-Fight! -Fight!

You're the children of Israel! -Fight! Fight!

-Fight them! -Fight! Fight!

-Fight them! -Fight them! Fight them!

You're the children of Israel!

Fight!

The children of Israel!

Do you know what they've done?

They've insulted a nation known far and wide for its intelligence.

What are you saying now?

The notion that because one is a Jew, one is necessarily insane.

That is an insult.

You are pleased to defend the intelligence of my nation?

The most practical and sage people in the whole of Asia,

with some small exceptions.

But you once called us "silly children".

I didn't know what I was talking about.

I didn't know you, then.

Me?

You're everything that is best in your people.

You have wit, beauty and a brain.

You see the way the world is moving and you move with it.

Besides all I feel for you...

-...I admire you very much. -Oh, my God...

Oh, my God.

I know, the times are being terrible for you.

For me? What are you talking about?

It's been a wonderful time for me.

Food, wine! Comfort!

Shelter, companionship!

It's better than Alexandria and the best yet to come!

A massacre of the insane...

...and I have a sit in the Governor's pavilion.

You speak as if I haven't tried to avoid it--

I know you've been patient! You've been very reasonable.

What injustice that we should be so ungrateful!

Why do you say "we"?

-You have nothing to do with them. -I am here!

-You want to be here! -How do you know?

Have you ever asked?

And if you had asked and if I had said I'd rather be...

...tied to a bolt at the bottom of the Black Sea...

...what would it have changed?

Here I'd still be because it's what you want!

I want more than that.

Yes, you stupid, stupid man.

I know what you want.

What every slave owner wants.

To possess his property and to be loved for it...

...because he treats his property kindly!

That's rubbish! Rubbish!

His kind of rubbish platform rhetoric meaning nothing!

But is all I have.

He can fight.

You admire him. That's natural, so do I.

I hate him. I hate them all.

There's my celebrated wisdom!

If not for them I wouldn't be here!

And why blame me?

If not for you they wouldn't be here.

And I wouldn't have to watch them keep a promise to God...

-...that nobody should be forced to make. -They won't keep the promise.

They'll surrender. When the time comes, they'll surrender.

Yes, that's what I must pray for.

That when the times comes, they'll be no better than I am!

Maybe the worst thing you, Romans, have done...

...is force the rest of us to learn the truth about ourselves.

But then, you hate me, too.

A slave hates everyone who denies his freedom.

You said when the siege is over the prisoners will go free...

-...to return home. -You don't want to go home, Sheva.

You want exactly what I want, to come to Rome with me...

...and live with me as my wife.

You're sure?

You are so sure you've never troubled to ask me.

Yes.

And if I said no?

If I said no, would I have the choice?

You wouldn't say no.

The choice!

Your Excellency!

What now?

Your Excellency...

...I have the honor to report...

...that the ramp is ready.

Silva! Silva! Silva!

Silva! Silva! Silva!

Silva! Silva! Silva!

Hear, O, Israel.

In the twentieth chapter...

...of the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy,

the words of the Lord.

Ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies...

...let not your hearts faint,

fear not, and do not tremble...

For the Lord, your God, is he who goeth with you to fight...

...against your enemies, to save you.

Let the people say "Amen".

Amen.

Come now to your kettles, daughters of Sion!

Keep it moving, that's right!

Eleazar! Look! Eleazar!

There is a chance left now.

You must think of it before that thing starts moving up the ramp.

They'll be listening to the way you speak your next words.

When you talk, talk like Moses when this fight is over.

I can't think.

This wall will shatter when the ram reaches it.

If you had time...

...you could make it stronger.

No...

...no, not stronger.

Softer.

Listen to me!

Listen to me!

We must build an inner wall...

...that will absorb the blows of the ram and not shatter.

The swordsmen will strip the long beams...

...from the rooms of Herod's palace.

The archers, gather soft earth to put between the beams.

The kettles are useless! Women, keep out from the walls...

...and keep the children out of danger. Now!

Damn you.

That's enough, stop. Stop!

Drop the ropes.

Sent them all down here!

Move!

-Move along. -Pull it!

Push! Push!

Prepare for tower adjustment!

Pull!

Stop right there!

Now, pull!

Pull!

-Harder! -Pull!

Keep the rope on your shoulder!

Pull! Pull!

Quickly with the rope!

Quickly! Through the block.

You too, take here.

The chocks, quickly!

Archers! Archers!

Get those bows up!

Now!

Now!

Now!

The wall is finished!

Archers to the rooftops!

The rest of you gather at the bridge!

Now...

...surrender now.

Ready?

Stop!

Sir, they built another wall inside the first.

The ram will do nothing against it.

-Can the tower be brought any closer? -No, sir.

Not enough support underneath. The angle would change.

The angle would change. No doubt.

We haven't been supplied with a wonder worker...

...to raise Rubrius Gallus from the dead. I'm open to suggestions.

Send the cohorts up through the tower.

The top level is higher than the wall.

The front of the assault would be too narrow.

The Jews would be taking them on, only 4 or 5 at a time.

Another snake path. We must have a bridge!

-If we can't knock it down-- -I have thought of that, sir.

The wind around this mountain is as fickle as a whore.

If we set fire to the wall and get an easterly wind,

or even a south-easterly wind, we could lose the tower.

Suppose we slacken the ropes and let the tower down a few feet?

The tower is only designed to go in one direction, sir.

Our tackles aren't ringed for descent.

The slightest overload on the way down, one slip...

Eleazar! They set fire to the wall!

The kettles!

Use the water from the kettles!

Back! Get back! We're open targets!

Eleazar, pray, pray now for a change in the wind.

No.

As Joshua commanded the sun to stand still!

The sun stood still on that day because God wanted it to.

You think He waited for Joshua to ask Him?

We put ourselves in his keeping.

What was fit for human beings to do, we've done.

The rest is for Him to decide.

Remember who built it?

The iron plates won't melt before the wind changes again.

And they can't build another wall in the same place.

The fire will keep them away.

Sound the rig horn.

Pass the word.

We'll take it in the morning.

-First day is ours! -And I'm hungry!

Again, it's been as you've said.

I need to think something through now.

Ezra.

I believe the wind will shift again.

So do I.

When it does, come and tell me.

Sir, there's no point in staying here all night.

Who's the most trustworthy man amongst the Tribunes...

-...excluding yourself? -Avianus, sir,

even including myself.

Send him over.

Sheva?

-Have they surrendered? -No.

But the wind will change.

It will take all night for the wall to burn.

I don't want to hear.

If you had this freedom you say you want,

where would you go? Alexandria?

-I don't want to talk, either. -Neither do I, but it's necessary.

Answer.

To Alexandria?

I wasn't sorry to leave it,

I wouldn't be happy to go back.

I don't know where I'd go.

Why is this necessary?

Because I'm giving you your freedom.

The choice you wanted, it's yours.

Here are the facts, so you can make an intelligent decision.

As far as I'm concerned, this siege has nothing to do with you and me.

I have very strong feelings.

I love you.

And it's the last time I will say that...

...or anything else about my state of mind.

Are you laughing at me?

No...

It just all seems like the first time I came to this tent.

"Those are the conditions in a nutshell".

You're worse than a mirror.

Here's what I've done:

Tribune Avianus and other picked man have been stationed...

...outside the tent you used when you first arrived here.

They've horses,

a purse containing 2,000 denarii...

...and a safe-conduct signed and sealed by me.

They've orders to take you to Caesaria...

...and to see you safely on any ship you choose to take,

if that, in fact, is what you wish.

You'll spend the night in that tent,

or the part of the night you need to make up your mind,

starting now.

You'd be happy with me.

Do you love me?

Yes, of course.

Then the choice shouldn't be too hard to make.

Your safe-conduct.

It's genuine.

Yes.

An extraordinary man, isn't he?

Reuben.

Try and imagine this sight:

a village, after supper.

Every living soul gathered at one end of the street...

...to listen to a girl singing.

This happened every night.

-It did no such thing. -And each one...

...with its own favorite. "Miriam, sing the song of Ruth".

"Miriam, please don't go to bed yet. You haven't sung Hannah's lullaby."

And one night,

after Miriam had finished the prayer of Isaac at his father tomb,

and the neighbors sat in silence, near to weeping,

a voice from the edge of the crowd said:

"Miriam, do you know the one about the tax collector's widow?"

It was the first time I ever set eyes on him.

And I thought he'd be stoned to death.

I knew what I was doing. Your father loved it.

Yes, he was no better than you when it came to things like that.

Eleazar...

The west wind, stronger than before.

I want to talk to our people, just... 'our' people.

Five years at my orders.

And here we are.

We were the very first to stand against them.

And now it seems we're the last to stand against them.

I've led you because I can outhink you all.

Except you.

And I'd outfight you all.

Except you, you Galilean monstruosity.

What is possible, now?

Aaron?

There are more beams, we could rebuild the wall.

And they?

They'll burn it again.

Seth? What is possible?

We could try a breakout down the snake path,

the mountain between us and the main body of the Legion.

And go where? And drink what?

They'd catch us soon enough.

The old ones,

the women, the children, first.

Then, the strongest.

So, Goliath of Gath, what is possible?

To stand here and fight them when they come.

Possible.

But when enough of them come, some of us will die.

Most of us, won't.

The ones left alive...

...will watch the Roman eagles planted at the summit...

...and be part of the glory of Rome.

Imperium Romanum.

We will become ornaments to be won at a triumph.

What about Silva? You trusted him once.

Flavius Silva is a Roman. He's not Rome.

What do you say?

I say the least of us,

the worst thief, the bloodiest killer,

the lowest man on this mountain is too good for what they'd do,

what they did in Jerusalem to our women, our children.

I say...

...I say we shouldn't insult our own flesh...

...by letting them touch it while we live.

To put each other out of their reach,

that is what is possible.

Yes.

Yes!

Yes, for us in here, we are a certain kind.

What about the others outside?

It must be told in a different way.

A gentle way, I know.

And we must help them, too.

First, let me hear from anyone who thinks there's another answer.

Each man write his name on one of these.

Have you and that girl made love yet?

-Why pick a time like this to--? -Have you?

Yes.

Good.

Two more and we have our ten.

Where is Joshua, son of Aaron?

-I have another favor to ask you. -Ask.

I want you to tell us a secret of your trade.

Butchers are commended by the rabbis to kill animals...

-...according to the law. True? -True.

-And that means...? -To kill without giving pain.

In a loud voice, so that everybody can hear you.

Tell me how you can kill without pain.

It's no secret.

People are just so squeamish. They never bother to look.

If the knife is sharp,

pass it once across the jugular and the carotid.

Like that.

I prayed to God for wisdom tonight...

...and the wind changed for a little while.

And by the time it changed again...

...I had what I take to be an answer.

I'll share it with you...

...the way we've shared everything else.

In the past few days, there's been a lot of talk about...

...the war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness.

Maybe, thinking of ourselves as the sons of light...

...we've been guilty of pride.

It may be that we are no more than one battalion of that army...

...as the Legion is a small part of the army of darkness.

And this...

...may be just one skirmish in that war.

The army of light cannot help us now,

but they can watch...

...and they can learn from what we do.

Tomorrow morning, the Romans will reach us.

When they reached our people behind the temple walls at Jerusalem....

...they had made promises,

certain ways of treating those who surrendered.

They promised them life, as they now promise us.

But in the end, they didn't do what they promised, did they?

Those who surrendered were treated no differently than those who held out.

They came to know slavery...

...and the pain and the horror of it.

The sight of their children suffering before their eyes.

Arms and legs cut off living bodies.

Men fed to wild beasts.

Women brutally violated.

I saw this.

You saw this.

We have seen these atrocities committed by the very Romans...

...who are now at our gates.

This is what we too must expect.

This is the life they promise us.

We long ago resolved never to be servants...

...to the Romans...

...nor to any other than to God Himself,

who is the only true and just Lord of mankind.

And whether you have come to Masada...

...to fight the Roman or to escape him...

...you have lived a life of freedom...

...up to this moment.

Now, there is only one way...

...to stand before God and say...

..."I am free..."

..."I have always been free".

And that, is to make an end...

...and to make it ourselves.

Oh, we live in fear of the pain of death...

...but we were born to die. All of us.

And there can be death without pain.

There can be death as the only choice...

...a free man can make.

When you do it, you'll say to the Roman...

...that in whatever space is given to you...

...you will be your own master...

...after God.

This is how I want them to find me.

I don't say you're wrong.

I say you're asking a great deal of some of these people.

In the palace we drew lots.

It's no secret, there are men among the zealots...

...who know more about killing than any man should.

But ten of us are ready to help any of you who need it.

The choice is yours.

I've made mine.

You can choose to fight them in the morning.

They'll kill you. Or enslave you.

You can choose to hide from them.

They'll find you.

Or you can choose to take their victory from them...

...and they will remember you.

Was it He who put it in your mind?

I don't know.

I'm going to pray, then come back.

It was the second time I ever set eyes on you.

A week before that night, I saw you...

...in the timber yard.

You were arguing with Nimrod over the price of the house.

It might have been better for you if he'd never sold it to me.

No.

There's plenty of time.

You've all seen him, their leader.

You know his voice.

I want him alive, remember!

Do your best!

First maniple, on the tower!

First maniple, on the bridge!

Come on, move! Move!

Second maniple, on the bridge!

Move! Move!

No sounds of any fighting.

None at all.

Don't bother, sir. I've just been that way.

Four rooms full of them.

Sir, shall I order the cohorts to stand down?

Should you what?

The cohorts, sir.

Do what you think best.

Sir?

Do what you think best and leave me alone.

She called me a stupid man.

She was angry, of course, she didn't mean it.

I wish she could have seen this...

...for this is stupidity in truth...

...isn't it?

I made the novices' mistake, I overestimated you.

Exactly... yes, exactly.

I waited too long before putting a proposition.

I should have climbed up here before we build the ramp.

What in the name of common sense does a thing like this prove?

You thought I was a liar?

What did you tell them?

They'd be tortured?

Well...

...no wonder...

You felt you were cornered?

I overestimated you. A leader must know...

...not only who his enemy is, but who his friend.

His friend...

I would never have let this happen to you.

You did this yourself.

You blame Rome for it.

I should have put the proposition sooner.

You'd be alive now.

You'd be half-way to Rome, now.

And Sheva.

The three of us half-way home, because nothing had changed.

It was temporary, a gesture was needed...

...but nothing had changed and I would have proved it to you.

With us, you had the chance to build something good here.

Without us, this is how you always end...

...killing one another, killing yourselves!

No foresight, no sense of reality, no...!

I should have put the proposition sooner.

An error in tactics on my part...

...but it doesn't prove that the system is wrong. In fact,

it proves just the opposite.

...just the opposite...

Nobody is listening anymore...

...not even Vespasian's monkey.

In the name of the Senate and the People of Rome...

...to them, the victory!

The victory?

We have won a rock in the middle of a wasteland...

...on the shore of a poisoned sea.

Today, on the summit of Masada, and according to tradition,

...these young trainees are being sworn in the Armored Division...

...of the Israeli Army.

The soldiers conclude their ceremony with the burning of a sign...

...whose inscription merges past and present.

"Masada shall not fall again".

The promise Eleazar made to his people...

...nearly 2,000 years ago, is being kept.

They are remembered.

Subtitles: Lady80s :)