ABSTRACT
During the first century AD, the Roman Empire controlled the province of Judea. A series of incapable and corrupt Roman governors created a significant degree of resentment and unrest that erupted in 66 AD in what is now known as the Jewish "Great Revolt". The Masada mythical narrative is a direct remnant of that period. No real understanding of some of the basic elements of modern Jewish Israeli culture, certainly issues of national and personal identity, can be attained without understanding this tragic and heroic period. The Masada mythical narrative began to develop among the Jewish population of British-mandate Palestine in the early decades of the twentieth century, but accumulated momentum in the 1920s and had crystallized by the early 1940s. The transformation of the doomed revolt and mass suicide on top of Masada to a modern national myth of heroism was complete by the 1960s.
