"70 A.D., the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple." "The Jewish rebellion against the Roman occupation is declared over." "But Eleazar ben Yair and his family flee the city vowing that the Judean War is not ended." "Eleazar and his followers make their headquarters on top of the mountain fortress of Masada, where they begin to conduct raids on Roman occupied villages in the south of Palestine." "These guerrilla attacks threaten the alleged Roman victory." "The General of the Tenth Legion, Flavius Silva, arranges a meeting with Eleazar." "That's what we'll-- settle for." "I don't doubt it." "I think your people would settle for a great deal less." "Yes, but you're talking to me now." "You know what I say makes perfect sense." "Will you take the terms back with you?" "It does make perfect sense." "Returning to Rome, Silva's hopes to implement the truce in Judea are quickly dashed by the Emperor Vespasian." "Caesar, what do they want?" "A temple, their own governor." "These things they had once." "It's my belief that our strategy there has been a mistaken one." "What they wanted is what we should have done in the first place." "It's too late." "You can't grant concessions once you've proclaimed the victory." "What's left of the opposition must be stamped out, the entire leadership brought here in chains, and the Tenth Legion brought out within six months." "Silva is sent back to Judea, after securing the services of veteran Siege Commander Rubrius Gallus." "Silva is also informed that two of his officers are spies for the Emperor's political enemy." "And while Silva is still in Rome, these two men plot to hand over Jewish land to Roman soldiers, in exchange for their mustering-out pay." "Well, in dispatches, we can call it, uh reward for acts of bravery." "During the truce?" "Oh, the Jews will have broken the truce." "They will!" "Putting their treacherous plans into effect, the Romans forcibly appropriate the Jewish lands, killing whoemever they have to in the process." "Centurion!" "Not a Centurion, darling, I'm a Tribune." "I was born in Egypt." "I learned things in Egypt." "I could give you to them, afterwards." "You won't." "Among the refugees fleeing to Masada, were many of the Esennes, a highly religious Jewish sect." "Truce has been broken." "The Roman Commander has seized all the farmland of the Lower Jordan Valley." "How does it seem to you?" "We have Vespasian's answer." "Now let's give him ours." "Don't drink it." "What's wrong?" "Where are your cattle?" "I don't keep cattle." "I have some sheep." "Over there." "Go get them." "You can come with us if you want but if you stay, you'll be thirsty." "What have you done?" "We've made your well water fit for the Romans." "They take one beast from every herd, slaughter it then poison the water with the carcass and the entrails." "Still, it's localized." "There's nothing wrong with the water north of here." "Yes, but, for how long?" "We seem defenseless against their rage." "You saw the courier's report this morning." "It's more than 20 men lost so far." "I suggest we make some attempt to strike back." "And the men will need double rations of stream water." "Otherwise, in these con" "He's been given the Governor-Generalship." "And..." "Rubrius Gallus." "You know I had the feeling." "Twenty years!" "Not in twenty years I've seen rank stupidity to winkle this!" "I did what I thought was best at the time, of that I'm guilty." "A donkey's epitaph." "At times, an audacity is necessary." "Of the hundred parts to a good commander, audacity is one!" "The smallest and the least important." "But you surprised me!" "I thought you were brighter." "And what are your orders now, sir?" "That's a proper response." "I'd hoped we'd had the chance to contact our friend, the zealot before he knew the facts but the acting General has removed that possibility, along with the possibility of surprise and negotiation." "My command decision is made for me." "All elements of the Legion to move on Masada!" "Bringing his Jewish harem with him!" "As if he expected to live forever!" "Rather stylish." "Pretty thing." "It's an inspiring sight, isn't it?" "It's the best thing we'll have to look at for a long time." "I've been South before." "When do we finish with them?" "They cloud my thinking." "It's untidy." "I have something in mind." "Concentrate on Masada." "But if the actual propagation of children is superior to the method of adoption..." "But this is an assumption I'm not prepared to make" "We need four more men on the pulley rope." "Let us examine what Gershon of Damascus has to say in connection with the practice of celibacy" "On your feet!" "Don't bruise that animal..." "It's unblemished and consecrated!" "Bring him back." "Eleazar!" "Eleazar, out there." "Get the rest of those slings in place!" "We've sighted them!" "That's right, bring up the stones." "The sacks, too." "Hurry!" "Aaron." "I've been down to the supply bins." "Figs, taste it." "It's delicious." "It must be a hundred years old, from Herod's time." "It still amazes me." "I want those slings covered up with straw, also the kettles." "Why, to hide them from the birds?" "Done." "Look." "The first hyenas of spring." "Moabites, probably." "Cheap wine and friendly women for the soldiers." "They're bright." "They left the best camping sites for the Romans." "Good will is the most important feature of any business." "They're the only ones who make profit out of this." "Some time in my life, I wouldn't mind being like them." "Having no stake on how a battle comes out." "My friends, they're going to wait until morning to come the rest of the way in." "So we can see the dress parade and be terrified." "Romans... they love spectacle!" "5,000 men against 900, that is a spectacle." "Only this time, the end will be different." "They don't know that yet, but the sun will teach them." "They must camp down there where a lizzard cannot live in summer." "And summer is not far off." "They must pack in their water from as far north as Jericho." "We have water to spare." "They will set up their catapults and their scaling-ladders but the angle is too steep for the stones, and an old woman or a small child can push a ladder down." "Be proud!" "Sleep well tonight!" "Where they march is where we want them to be." "Impressive!" "Yes..." "Impossible!" "Exactly which is why I sent for you." "Nobody can do the impossible, that's what the word means." "I've seen you do it." "Well..." "We'll see." "No sign of activity." "Maybe they decided not to hold." "They're here." "Let's make it official." "Trumpets and cornets, to the front!" "Now!" "You know, we're all well within range here." "Not just comedown range." "What about our catapults?" "Difficult angle." "Any stone we shoot up there becomes a weapon for them." "We'd become their armorers." "What is it?" "Flavius Silva's come back." "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," "King of the Universe and Lord of mankind!" "Since time began, He has punished anyone who trespassed on his children's land." "I have warned you once and one warning is all that He allows." "You have sentenced yourself and your soldiers to death!" "Formalities are over!" "Let's get to work!" "Tenth New Orders!" "The Governor General has decreed that maximum military discipline will be maintained." "We are under the eyes of the enemy and we'll behave ourselves accordingly." "Full armor, including breast plate and helmet will be worn during all duty hours." "Water rations were limited to three canteens per day, drawn at sunrise, at noon and at sunset." "As regarding the body of water to the south of the camp... the surgeons advise that due to the unnaturally high salt content... it is fit neither for drinking nor for bathing." "Consequently, troops are to regard the area as out of bounds." "Any infractions of the above regulations will result in immediate and severe punishment, up to and including the death penalty." "May the Gods preserve our Emperor!" "Have you noticed?" "They're surrounding us." "I know." "There are three camps already set up on the other side." "They must think we want to get out of here." "Have you noticed?" "We have an audience." "The watch report said the children are playing." "Otherwise, it says there is no activity whatsoever." "About half a dozen males are guarding the watch tower, some in the fields, some tending animals, scarcely any adults to be seen most likely keeping to the shady areas." "Very sensible." "Have our watch do likewise for the rest of the day." "Dismissed." "Yes, sir." "General, what do you make of that report?" "Well, humm I'm not sure that I make anything of it, sir." "Hmmm." "Quite so?" "It's obvious we must have a closer reconnaisance." "We must test their defenses." "Err-- a closer reconnaisance?" "Under cover of darkness we must send a scouting patrol up that serpentine path on the east side of the mountain." "With your pardon, sir, I can't send men up there." "It would be nothing short of suicidal!" "I think what the Governor General has in mind is two officers." "Is this in the nature of an honorable exit?" "I've already explained the purpose of the patrol." "No." "I won't do it." "It's obvious, Vespasian knows." "There's nothing for him to know!" "The Senior Tribune is correct." "The Governor General makes it possible for your families to inherit." "You have the opportunity to avoid the humiliation and discomfort of death by strangulation." "I strongly advise that you take it." "You had a better than ordinary career." "This way you can leave a statue behind." "What exactly are you, Tribune?" "Sir, I'm the Imperial spy as opposed to the Senatorial spy." "Or I was." "The Emperor has decided to do away with the practice in this case." "He wants you to feel that you have his complete confidence." "That will be a great comfort to me in the days to come." "Dismissed." "What sort of a staff have you gathered around you?" "!" "You'd better send him on that patrol, too!" "No." "That was quite enough for one day." "Unless you have something to tell me?" "What?" "Governor?" "About the girl..." "her name is Sheva." "Yes?" "Favor for a favor?" "Keep her." "I hadn't thought of it." "She is quite out of the ordinary." "If it weren't for the job on your hands I might almost envy you." "Long live--!" "It's not necessary!" "Where are they?" "I see them." "Should we let them come all the way up, take them alive?" "If he'd send them up this way, what kind of hostages could they be?" "Maybe he's testing our marksmanship." "This is no test." "Prove it." "Now." "He liked his comfort." "Send the armor to his family in Neapolis." "Give the clothes away." "There is one other item, sir." "I'm aware of that." "See what Quadratus left." "Yes, sir." "It's Sheva, isn't it?" "Correct." "You're being addressed by the Governor General!" "Thank you." "I know." "He wants you to stand up." "Do you?" "I spent too much time in this country to expect manners from a Jew of either sex." "Keep your seat." "In fact, I'll join you." "Now, as regards you, this is somewhat ticklish." "I don't want to be the slightest cause for trouble." "I can be out of here as soon as you give the order." "Yes, and you wouldn't last half the morning by yourself." "That would be murder." "Surely, you can spare three or four soldiers." "I could spare them, but you couldn't handle them." "And the ones who had to stay behind would be even less happy with their luck than they are now." "A woman like you is generally out of the reach of a private soldier." "And once they had a taste of the officer's privilege I'm afraid they'll just want more." "Truth is, I'm not sure I have the right to let you go." "In a sense, you're as much a part of the man's legacy as his helmet." "Then, I belong to his heirs." "Yes, and he made me one of his heirs." "You'll be kept here for the time being under guard and under my protection." "Then I can expect to be sent for?" "You can expect to be alive this time tomorrow and for that you should thank your God and your late protector." "Don't bother to get up." "May I?" "There's only one way to do this." "Go on." "We have to build an assault ramp up against this western side." "With what material?" "We can't wait for shipments." "You see the ridge over there?" "We have to bring a large part of that over here and up against that." "Can we do it in the time we have?" "With luck." "But it's a terrifying amount of work." "You're terrified?" "Always, when luck is a factor!" "Send the priest to me!" "Now!" "This animal offered for sacrifice was born when the moon was in the most favorable of the sixteen zones into which the etruscan fathers divided the sky." "Its liver had no suspect spots." "There's is no foreign matter present." "All omens are favorable for the campaign you're about to begin for the greater glory of Rome and the Emperor who leads the destiny of the Empire!" "What are they doing now?" "Making sure none of their gods is unhappy." "The goat god must be unhappy." "Romans don't worship animals, they pray to gods made in their own image." "A very convenient host of them." "Unlike your people, they have only one." ""..." "The fool saith in his heart, there is no God."" "If it came to Solomon's notice, ...think how many must've been saying it." "That was a thousand years ago, where they all fools?" "We're not a rare species." "And you think I'm one of them?" "I remember my husband almost throwing a man out of his house when he suggested that God might be only a convenience of the priests." "And that was not so long ago." "Well, not so long ago I had a brother." "We had a temple." "Not so long ago, there weren't Romans throwing children into fires." "When the temple was destroyed we all wondered why God would allow such a thing." "But wondering isn't the same as doubting." "Miriam, I saw it fall." "I saw the veil ripped away from the inner chamber, so they could drag the slaughtered pigs over the altar." "If there is a God, maybe He's already gone over to the Romans." "I love you." "And I know you still believe." "Today, we begin the final task of the Tenth Legion in Judea!" "With these stones, we pave the road home!" "Number three!" "Stop!" "Four!" "Stop!" "I think I begin to see what they're trying to do." "Keeping busy." "Romans always build when they don't know what else to do with themselves." "I know what they're up to, the idiots." "What?" "They think they can breach our walls if they get their catapults to a higher level." "Well, could they?" "Only if we let them." "Keep moving, keep moving!" "They're taking it quietly, aren't they?" "Exactly how long do we have to wait?" "Another week." "I like to watch them work, don't you?" "Well done!" "I'm going to send a detail out to those vagrants and buy you some wine!" "Now!" "If we continue at this pace..." "I'm going to" "Now!" "Get away!" "Don't try to return their fire!" "Get this catapult back!" "Now!" "Keep moving!" "Keep moving!" "Get the wounded back!" "Help the wounded!" "I was about to ask how you are, but there's no need." "Obviously, you enjoy it." "As you would if it were the other way around!" "You're honest." "You're also wrong!" "I should have anticipated it." "Aw, rubbish!" "No!" "He knows how to wait." "That's his genius." "To make us think all they had was manure." "Why so soon?" "Why not destroy four or five weeks work, two months?" "You're overanxious, perhaps?" "You're not all that sure of your people you had to give them a tiny victory?" "Enjoy it." "All officers to me." "14 dead, a few horses, 10 mules." "The pens held for the most part." "One of the larger water stations was demolished." "A detail has set out for Ein-Gedi for more." "I want a permanent observation post on the high ridge." "Three shifts a day." "If we are surprised again, all three shifts..." "...will answer for it." "Yes, sir." "The camp will be rebuilt immediately!" "You now know the range." "Keep the frontline well out of it." "Dismissed." "And, I'll try and think of an alternative plan by morning." "There is no alternative." "Well, I doubt if they run out of rocks very soon." "I want two squadrons of cavalry with 4 days provisions mounted and ready to leave in one hour." "You'll have them, sir." "May I ask--?" "Path-forging expedition, we'll call it." "You will command it." "Find the Chief-Armorer and have him report to me." "The Chief-Armorer, sir, is dead." "Then there is a new Chief-Armorer whether he knows it or not!" "There is a way, it's not complicated and it'll get your ramp built." "Is the need so obvious you can see it in my face?" "Idiots...!" "They set the tent ropes too tight." "What stars are those?" "That constellation is called Keymah, I think." "Why?" "Does it make a difference?" "Not to me, but I told her you knew everything." "You see?" "You're Simon's oldest daughter, right?" "Next to the youngest, Koutura." "I have three older sisters and a brother." "I used to know everything." "That's where we should be." "And why aren't we?" "Because we're lazy, wicked man." "A bad example for this child." "And that one." "So my father tells me." "Take the young lady back to her mother and join us in there." "You're serious?" "Yes, I'm serious." "You, too." "Go get the others." "I think they would like it if we acted like Jews." "You don't have to apologize for praying." "Only to you." "I would ask God about Flavius Silva if I could truly believe again in a God that would answer me." "I would ask Him what's he's going to do next, so I could do something first, just for a change." "You've done exactly the right thing every time." "And to do that, is to do Godspeeding." "I know He's there." "And he knows He's there." "You have other things to think about." "But it would be very comforting if I also knew He was there." "That's a certainty." "That's a reasonable assumption." "I've made you angry again." "No, not angry." "Confused." "Frustrated." "All right, yes, angry." "You want me to lie to you?" "I want you to help me to understand you." "To understand this." "I've never kept anything from you." "But I thought you were fighting-- we were all fighting because we wouldn't accept any master before God." "But if you don't really believe in God then, what difference does it make?" "Why must we live up here like-- animals on a tree?" "Why do you keep at it?" "Well, I suppose somebody has to carry on the family business." "That's no answer." "All right, then." "Whether or not I truly believe in God..." "I do believe one thing:" "No man should be another man's slave." "Behave yourselves." "Will Eleazar ben Yair and the others lead us in a psalm of thanksgiving?" "O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, because his mercy endure us forever." "I called upon the Lord in distress." "The Lord answered me and set me in a high place." "All nations compassed me about, but, in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them." "They compass me about like bees." "They are quenched by the fire of the thorns." "In the name of the Lord, I will destroy them." "They compassed me about, Jah, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them." "O Israel trust thou in the Lord," "He is their help and their shield." "The Lord is on my side, I will not fear." "What can man do unto me?" "Keep moving!" "Get them on their feet!" "Keep moving!" "Keep them moving!" "Get those Jews in the line!" "Move along!" "Move along!" "Slave labor is always a chancy business." "I had to get a canal dug in Livonia once and I mishandled the bloody thing." "I lost 500 men in a week before I could resolve the problem." "Believe it or not, it's a question of morale." "Now, the situation here is trickier than usual because these 2,000 are not born slaves." "They're soft, city types." "A few farmers, here and there, but flabby, for the most part." "Now, a man like that you can work for 8 hours without food and about 6 without water, but the next day he's useless." "Useless!" "Too tired to eat when you get around to feeding him." "So, what's the answer?" "You feed and water him on the job." "No more than he needs, but remember, he's at his best when there's a reward in sight." "Now, the largest effective work force we can use at any one time, is about 200." "Once the walls are finished and we can concentrate on the filling in process, we'll be able to use a hundred or so more, probably in four-hour shifts." "That means that, for most of the time, a lot of them will do nothing but sit around." "So, they'll need covering from the sun." "Finally, whipping." "Now, we must expect to lose about 5 men a day from whipping." "More than that we can't afford to lose." "And we have got to make the guards understand that over-whipping is worst than no whipping because, if the death rate goes too high we won't have enough men left when the time comes that we need them all," "the time when the equipment has to be hauled up that ramp." "But, we can keep the death rate down by rotating the guards more often." "The shortest way to put it is this:" "treat them decently and they'll do very nicely." "What have you got there?" "What does it look like?" "Does he want her?" "No, he just wanted to say he was sorry for not thinking about it sooner." "Looks good." "Everything in here looks good." "Out!" "Compliments of the Governor General." "Do you remember her?" "Do-you-remember-her?" "I miss her very much." "I didn't drink this way, not even in the field when I could count on coming back to her." "And I cannot keep drinking this way now." "My dear love," "I wish to leave you this side of death while we both breathe and sense the life of the other, while even our thoughts are in harmony although you are far away." "You and I have shared everything, but most especially, loneliness." "But I want this death of mine to take loneliness with me and leave love behind." "In fact, this is my last request." "One who is dying, begs you to live not in memory but in flesh." "Find joy and comfort, that would be my memorial." "My reward will be if you always pronounce the name Livia with affection." "Your Excellency." "Oh yes." "I did send for you because I've come to a decision about your status here." "Yes." "I will do you the courtesy of not being coy." "The situation has thrown us together." "I'm a man who does not thrive on solitude." "So, we're going to be spending a certain amount of time together." "I've already explained it would be impractical to let you go just now." "To be honest," "I'm not sure I would if I could." "Those are the conditions in a nutshell." "I hope I can make it reasonably pleasant for you." "Is all that clear?" "Seems clear enough." "If it was only that I wanted there're more than 20 whores in those striped tents!" "Then I misunderstood, forgive me." "Exactly what do you want?" "A certain civility." "A human exchange." "You're an Alexandrian, unless I'm mistaken." "I thought you would understand that sort of thing." "Alexandria is where I was born." "I'm a Jew." "That's all too obvious." "What is it about you, people?" "You never fail to make me feel like a disapproving dowager." "You're all I used to hate about silly children!" "I apologize for all of us." "What now?" "Now, you may oblige me by getting dressed." "I don't mean to downgrade your beauty." "Will you take some wine?" "Thank you, I won't." "No doubt you don't trust it." "You sent for me so that we might have some polite conversation?" "Don't patronize me!" "You are the commander." "So I am, that's why I did send for you." "But how could you know that?" "I'm sorry." "From time to time, it would be helpful if I felt there was someone I could talk to freely." "That's important." "You could speak freely." "I'd be grateful for that." "Well, not all at once." "You'll have to come to trust me a little." "Just a sip?" "May I speak freely?" "It's ghastly." "Well, I suppose it's not a drink for women." "And that's you and my late wife." "She wasn't fond of it, either." "The sculptor never saw her, except in death." "But he captured the softness." "You're voice is not unlike hers." "As for the rest, Livia would admit it you're more beautiful." "Yeah, I'm an unhappy widower." "That is rare, I believe." "What was the cause?" "Here." "It began as a huskiness in the way she spoke and then when she was sure, she decided to take her own life." "She put it rather prettily in the letter she sent me." ""I have arranged to take a vessel to Caprice."" ""I specify the journey must be made at night."" ""I want to look down at the stars reflected in the sea..."" ""...and join them."" "I try no to look at the stars anymore." "It must be very painful." "You see, what I could always count on with her was that when we came together it was much her desire as mine." "Sometimes even more so and I became used to that and it spoiled the other for me." "Would you like me to go?" "She wrote that letter three years ago." "You haven't answered my question." "No..." "They have to be killed, so why are we bothering to discuss it?" "No!" "It is impossible!" "No, it's not impossible, rabbi." "That I can demonstrate immediately." "No!" "Have you looked?" "!" "In three days, only three days!" "What choice do we have?" "They're going to die, anyway." "So, it makes no difference who kills them, uh?" "Just as it makes no difference who kills you." "It makes no difference to me." "Why should it?" "Before this war you were a murderer." "A thief, a spoiler of women!" "Eleazar, you'd better say something!" "We kill no more Jews." "Then what do we do?" "Come with me." "To begin with, we empty the dirt out of this pond." "What's he talking about?" "Truly, I don't know." "We will fight them now with the two weapons we have." "Our brains and that sun." "By order of His Excellency from sundown today, the water ration will be reduced to one half its present amount!" "That must be done in order to keep the prisoners alive so that they can be used to complete the task we have been asigned." "May the Gods preserve the Emperor!" "Take that up!" "That's right, keep moving!" "I didn't see you take that off." "So put it back on." "I can't breathe with it on." "I can." "If I can, you can." "I'm not a freak and you are!" "I didn't hear that." "Put it on!" "Well, can you hear this?" "There's only one detail that calls for no armor!" "And you've just thrown it!" "Everyone!" "You're relieved." "Swimming!" "They're swimming up there!" "In sweat, you mean, like us?" "No." "Stop the work and you'll hear them." "Stop work!" "Everybody!" "Get them back to work." "Get back to work!" "All you, back to work!" "Back to work!" "Back to work!" "It was an arranged marriage." "Part of an agreement between my father and those who owned the threshing floor." "In spite of that, when we came to Jericho and he met us at the gate, I liked him." "I liked him all of that first day." "All through the wedding, all through the feast." "What went wrong?" "The Jews of Alexandria don't take certain things as seriously as the Jews of Judea." "Such as what?" "Such as virginity." "I had loved a man before, I thought." "This Mathias couldn't forgive it." "He wanted to whip me!" "What stopped him?" "I told him I'd kill him one night in his sleep if he did." "Not right away," "I might wait maybe a year." "Maybe two years." "He believed it." "Was he right to believe it?" "No." "Go to sleep, Your Excellency." "This young animal of an unblemished white was chosen from others because it bleated when a flock of birds crossed the sky at sunrise." "The organs are sound." "There is no foreign matter..." "... no foreign matter..." "All omens continue favorable..." "...phhhhhh for this campaign for the greater glory of Rome and the Emperor!" "Burning." "They're always burning something!" "My father says they burn the heart, liver and kidneys of a goat so that their god of war can smell the smoke." "What kind of god likes burning goat's liver?" "That's the way they tell fortunes." "When will you be slaughtering next?" "Tomorrow, a very fat ram." "I have a small favor to ask you." "Behind the tower, the battering ram." "That means two sets of pulleys." "400 Jews pulling the tower, another 100 pulling the ram." "Then the ram is hoisted up here into the tower." "Oh, excuse me" " Sorry" "It's all right, it's all right." "Come in." "How will you build the tower?" "Well, we'll raise it on blocks, leave room for the axes underneath." "No." "...I want you to build it lying on its side." "I don't want this tower raised until the day the ramp is ready." "Build it behind the ridge." "Any step we can take to keep infomation from him..." "...is worth taking." "Sure." "Nothing much he could do about it, even if he knew!" "Well, we won't give him that chance." "The schedule?" "We're keeping to it." "It goes well, then?" "Yes, yes here, it goes very well." "What does that mean?" "Keeping that woman it makes for envy." "In this conditions, you could have a mutiny on your hands." "We've been through a lot together and I thought you should know my mind." "I do." "I wish I didn't." "Even so" "Even so I don't wish to discuss it again." "Anything I can get you here?" "I wouldn't refuse a light snowfall." "I can't breathe!" "Decurion!" "Surgeon!" "Come." "Put him there." "Just crouches and says he can't breathe." "Did he get his water ration this morning?" "Well, he" "Yeah, yes, he got it." "And he lost it playing dice, didn't he?" "Didn't you, you imbecile?" "When you see the men dicing for water rations I want you to stop them from now on!" "Chew on this." "Eat it all!" "Wash it down." "What are you staring at?" "I'm starting to get the same kind of pains and I" "The next ration is at noon." "Have you lost your sense of smell, Eleazar?" "Don't speak ill of your profession." "Your water here, it looks still." "I just filled these baths this morning." "It's noon." "They're drawing their ration down below." "Don't you think it's time to empty them?" "Ah." "Amos!" "Get back!" "Stay back!" "All you back to work!" "All of you, get back!" "Back to work!" "Friends of the Tenth Legion!" "Good afternoon!" "It seemed to us you didn't have enough water down there!" "It is the custom of our country to share what we have with strangers." "And yet, I shouldn't call you strangers." "In the past few weeks, we've gotten to feel that we know you very well." "In the nights, when a full belly makes it difficult to sleep, we worry about you." "Sometimes the children have bad dreams." "My son dreams that one day, he will look over these ramparts and see 5,000 skeletons in armor." "Load them up." "Load those catapults up!" "He knows..." "Move!" "...a thousand years ago there were two cities, near the Dead Sea." "They were called Sodome and Gomorra." "You would have felt right at home in either of them." "But it was decreed that they should be punished for their evil and perversion." "So, there came a storm of stinging dust to warn the righteous to flee and a withering fire from heaven which consumed the two cities." "That stinging dust and that fire return to this cursed land every year." "No doubt you have been enjoying the balmy spring weather of the region, but I'm sorry to say that the true summer is growing closer." "And nothing that stands where you stand will leave to see the autumn." "Now!" "Hurry, load!" "Move, move!" "Stop firing!" "I said, stop firing!" "Ahhh, the autumn." "Truly a time to be here, when the breezes are cool and the wadies run with fresh rain water." "But before those rains come, the death I speak of will visit all of you." "When the heat begins to press you'll have to dig holes in the earth to put your heads in so you can breath." "If you are a short man, your death will be a little easier since your heart will probably burst before the fluid begins to boil and explodes through your skin." "You have been ordered to die this death!" "Who would give such an order?" "When the great patriarch Noah had planted his vineyard...  ...the adversary of God whom we call Satan tricked him into sacrificing four animals and pouring their blood upon the earth of the vineyard." "These were a lamb, a lion, a pig and a monkey." "Ever since then, the drunkard has been this way." "The first sips of wine leave him as a lamb." "A little more and, he is a lion!" "A man of purpose who makes decisions and it's not to be challenged!" "But a drunkard never stops, as a lion." "He drinks again and becomes as a pig, squirming in the muck." "And at the end, he is a monkey, screaming and swinging from limb to limb, his empty head untroubled by the truth." "We have heard how Caligula made a Senator of his favorite horse." "And we see that Rome has not changed." "Has not Vespasian unchained his pet monkey and made him Governor General of Judea?" "Friends of the Tenth Legion!" "Will you truly sacrifice your lives because a monkey wants to scamper up this mountain on a pile of your rotting corpses?" "Back to work!" "Now!" "Get to work!" "Faster, faster!" "How long could they keep it up?" "Talking, you mean?" "I mean, the water." "Well, it rains every year, just as he said." "They can keep it up longer than we've got." "Put that down, I'm not amused!" "Sorry." "He's quite something, isn't he?" "He's a leader and he's doing the only thing he can." "That speech wasn't for Romans to hear, it was for Jews and they'll be the only ones fooled by it." "Still, the Romans heard it." "It changes nothing!" "Then, why does it upset you so?" "Because I despise waste!" "And every day we spend in this campaign is a day we might spend bringing peace and order to this country." "And because I know he knows that!" "And to feed his little boy's ambition he deliberately hides the truth..." "...from his own people." "The truth?" "What is the truth?" "That we cannot lose, Sheva." "And would you call this "winning"?" "The first thought that came to me out there was that I hoped Eleazar would be merciful and let you live after you surrendered." "I would miss you, I thought." "Every now and again, this woman forgets herself." "Every now and again, this woman fails to remember that she benefits from the mercy of a man who has the power to turn her over to 5,000 overheated animals whose attentions she surely would not outlive!" "Would she enjoy that prospect?" "No, she would not enjoy it." "But it wouldn't surprise her!" "Get out of here." "Vespasian's monkey..." "Subtitles:" "Lady80s :)"