Masada

Masada was an American television miniseries that aired on ABC in April 1981. Advertised by the network as an "ABC Novel for Television," it was a fictionalized account of the historical siege of the Masada citadel by legions of the Roman Empire in 73 A.D.. The TV series' script is based on the novel "The Antagonists" by Ernest Gann. The siege ended when the Roman armies were able to enter the fortress, only to discover the mass suicide by the Je... more

Masada was an American television miniseries that aired on ABC in April 1981. Advertised by the network as an "ABC Novel for Television," it was a fictionalized account of the historical siege of the Masada citadel by legions of the Roman Empire in 73 A.D.. The TV series' script is based on the novel "The Antagonists" by Ernest Gann. The siege ended when the Roman armies were able to enter the fortress, only to discover the mass suicide by the Jewish defenders when defeat became imminent. It was one of several historical miniseries produced in the early 1980s to capitalize upon the success of NBC's Shogun in 1980. The decision to make the miniseries was also influenced by the mass suicides at Jonestown, Guyana in 1978, since press coverage often mentioned the events at Masada as the most obviously historical counterpoint. The miniseries starred Peter O'Toole as Roman legion commander Lucius Flavius Silva, Peter Strauss as the Jewish commander Elazar ben Ya'ir, and Barbara Carrera as... less