Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/303

 JIARUCA. Mmfarekyn (MiecpipKel/j., Cedren, vol. ii. pp. 419, .'501, ed. Bekker; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. pp. 78, yo, 1087, vol. xi. pp. 67, foil.) [E. B. J.] MARU'CA. [SoGDiANA.] MARVINGI {Mapoviyyoi), a German tribe on tlie east of Mons Abnoba, between the Suevi and (he Danube. (Ptol. ii. 11. § 22.) The town of Bergium (the modern Bamberg) was probably the capital of the Marvingi. (Ptol. ii. 1 1 . § 29.) [L.S.] MARUNDAE {UapoSvSai, Ptol. vii. 2. § 14), a people who lived in India extra Gangem, along the left bank of the Ganges, and adjoining the Gangaridae [Gangaridae]. They are probably the same as those whom Pliny calls Molindae (vi. 19. s. 22), and may perhaps be considered the same as the native Indian Varendri, [V.] MARUS, a tributary of the Danube, into which it flows from the north. Between it and the Cusus a band of exiled Marcomannians received settlements from the Romans under Tiberius. (Tac. Ann. ii. 63; Plin. E.N. iv. 25.) It is generally believed that this river is the same as the March in Moravia; but it is more probably identical with the Marosch, which the ancients generally call Marisus. [Ma- KISUS.] [L. S.] JIARU'SIUM, a town which the Jerusalem Itinerary fixes at 13 M. P. from Clodiana, and 14 M. P. from the river Apsus, on the road to Apol- loiiia. Colonel Leake's map identifies it with Lusjna. [E. B. J.] MARU'VIUM. [Marruvium.] MASADA (Maa-dSa), a very strong fortress of Palestine, mentioned by Strabo and Pliny, but much more fully described by Josephus. Strabo mentions it in connection with the phaenoinena of the Dead Sea, saying that there are indications of volcanic action in the rugged burnt rocks about Moasada (MoacraSa). Pliny describes it as situated on a rock not far from the lake Asphaltis. (Strab. xvi. p. 764; Plin. V. 17.) The description of Josephus, in whose histories it plays a conspicuous part, is as follows : — A lofty rock of considerable extent, sur- rounded on all sides by precipitous valleys of fright- ful depth, afforded difficult access only in two parts; one on the east, towards the lake Asphaltis, by a zigzag path, scarcely practicable and extremely dangerous, called " the Serpent," from its sinuosi- ties; the other more easy, towards the vrest, on which side the isolated rock was more nearly ap- proached by the hills. The summit of the rock was not pointed, but a plane of 7 stadia in cir- cumference, surrounded by a wall of white stone, 12 cubits high and 8 cubits thick, fortified with 37 towers of 50 cubits in height. The wall was joined within by large buildings connected with the towers, designed for barracks and magazines for the enormous stores and munitions of war which were laid up in this fortress. The remainder of the area, not occupied by buildings, was arable, the soil being richer and more genial than that of the plain below; and a further provision was thus made for the garrison in case of a failure of supplies from without. The rain-water was preserved in large cisterns excavated in the solid rock. A palace on a grand scale occupied the north-west ascent, on a lower level than the fortress, but con- nected with it by covered passages cut in the rock. This was adorned within with porticoes and baths, supported by monolithic columns; the walls and floor were covered with tessekitud work. At the distance of 1000 cubits from the fortress a massive MASADA. 287 tower guarded the western approach at its narrowest and most difficult point, and thus completed the artificial defences of this most remarkable site, which nature had rendered almost impregnable. Jonathan, the high-priest, had been the first to occupy this rock as a fortress, but it was much strengthened and enlarged by Herod the Great, who designed it as a refuge for himself, both against his own dis- aftected subjects, and particularly against the more dreaded designs of Cleopatra, who was constantly importuning Antony to put her in possession of the kingdom of Judaea by removing Herod out of the way. It was in this fortress that the unfortunate Mariamne and other members of Herod's family were left for security, under his brother Joseph and a small garrison, when he veas driven from Jerusalem by Antigonus and his Parthian allies. The fortress was besieged by the Parthians, and Joseph was ou the point of surrendering for want of water, when a thnely shower filled the cisterns and enabled the garrison to hold out until it was relieved by Herod on his return from his successful mission to Rome: It next figures in the history of the Jewish revolt, having been occupied first by Manahem, son of Judas the Galilean, a ringleader of the sicarii, who took it by treachery, and put the Roman garrison to the sword; and afterwards by EJeazar and his partisans, a rival faction of the same murderous fanatics, by whom it was held for some time after Jerusalem itself had fallen; and here it was that the last scene of that awful tragedy was enacted under circumstances singularly characteristic of the spirit of indomitable obstinacy and endurance that had actuated the Jewish zealots throughout the whole series of their trials and sufferings. It was the only stronghold that still held out when Flavius Silva succeeded Bassus as prefect in Judaea (a. d. 73). The first act of the general was to surround the fortress with a wall, to prevent the escape of the garrison. Having distributed sentries along this line of circumvallation, he pitched his own camp on the west, where the rock was most nearly approached by the mountains, and was therefore more open to assault ; for the difliiculty of procuring provisions and water for his soldiers did not allow him to attempt a protracted blockade, which the enormous stores of provisions and water still found there by Eleazar would have enabled the garrison better to endure. Behind the tower which guarded the ascent was a prominent rock of considerable size and height, though 300 cubits lower than the wall of the fortress, called the White Cliff. On this a bank of 200 cubits' height was raised, which formed a base for a platform (/Stj/xo) of solid masonry, 50 cubits in width and height, on which was placed a tower similar iu construction to those invented and employed in sieges by Vespasian and Titus, covered with plates of iron, which reached an additional 60 cubits, so as to dominate the wail of the castle, which was quickly cleared of its defenders by the showers of missiles discharged from the scorpions and balistae. The outer wall soon yielded to the ram, when an inner wall was discovered to have been coristructed by the garrison — a framework of timber filled with soil, which became more solid and compact by the concussions of the ram. This, however, was speedily fired. The assault was fixed for the morrow, when the garrison prevented the swords of the Romans by one of the most cold-blooded and atrocious massacres on record. At the instigation of Eleazar, they first slew every man his wife and ciiildren; then having