Eleazar ben Yair (died AD 73 or 74)

Leader of the Sicarii, the radical faction of the revolt that treated even Jews willing to come to terms with Rome as enemies. Josephus writes that he was a descendant of Judas the Galilean, who had once urged his people not to pay taxes to Rome. The Sicarii seized Masada, Herod’s fortress above the Dead Sea, and held it even after the fall of Jerusalem. When the governor Flavius Silva built a ramp and broke the wall, the defenders chose death rather than slavery. Josephus puts two great speeches in Eleazar’s mouth; scholars regard them as the historian’s own composition, since ancient authors wrote speeches for their heroes. Only two women and five children, hidden underground, survived. He appears in the Vespasian episode, in the chapter “The Fortress on the Rock”.