When new recruits enter into military service in the Israeli Defence Forces they are encouraged to swear an oath in a ceremony on top of the Masada complex, urging the recruits to remember the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 73 A.D. A revolt that ended in a mass-suicide before the Romans managed to conquer the complex.

Now the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports the discovery and the first imaging of an ancient Roman stone tablet honoring Flavius Silva, the Roman general and governor of the Judean province at the time, for conquering the Masada complex and putting an end to the Jewish revolt.

The Jewish revolt started in the northern town of Caesarea in 66 A.D. after Hellenists had desecrated a local synagogue, but had its roots further back in time to the year 6 CE, when Judaea became a client kingdom of Rome. After a number of setbacks, the most notable being the defeat at the Battle of Beth Horon, the Roman emperor Nero appointed the general Vespasian to lead the Roman offensive against the rebels.


The general arrived with three legions, setting up his headquarters in the northern parts of Judea and before long managed to wipe out the Jewish forces in the Galilee region. He then moved his forces south and laid siege to the city of Jerusalem, but had to leave the command to his eldest son Titus when becoming the new Emperor of Rome. After the fall of Jerusalem the Jewish rebels withdrew to the hilltop of Masada in the Judean desert and continued their resistance until the Romans managed to breach their stronghold in 73 A.D.

The ancient stone tablet discovered was found by visiting Hungarian archaeologists in 2005, when touring the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Dr. Tibor Grull, one of the members of the Hungarian team, was excited to discover that on the stone tablet was written, in Latin, the name of Masada's destroyer.

When Grull asked officials of the Waqf, the Muslim trust for the Temple Mount, where the tablet came from, they explained it had been found in the large hole dug in the mount in 1999 when the entrance to Solomon's Stables was opened.

The five-line monumental inscription is 97 centimeters by 75 centimeters. The text itself is damaged, but the Latin word for "arch" is still recognizable making the scientists believe the inscription is undoubtedly the dedication carved into a victory arch.

According to Dr. Gabi Barkai of the Bar Ilan University the inscription memorializes Flavius Silva, the conqueror of Masada and governor of Judea from 73 to 80 CE. The missing section of the inscription apparently mentioned Roman military commanders Aspasianus and Titus. The inscription also mentions a previously unknown person named Atnagorus.

"This is the only evidence we have of a victory or memorial arch the Romans built on the Temple Mount after the destruction of the city and the Temple," Barkai notes.