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's 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 Silva's Jewish mistress. O'Toole was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance. It was his first appearance in an American miniseries.
Masada was filmed on location at the site of the ancient fortress, in the Judean Desert, Israel. Remains of a ramp, created during the filming to simulate the ramp built by the Romans to take the fortress, can still be seen at the site.
As was the case with Shogun, an edited, feature film-length version of the miniseries was released to the home video market. The complete Masada mini-series made it to the video market on 4 VHS tapes in 2001.
A 2-disc DVD release entitled "Masada - The Complete Epic Mini-Series" was released on September 11, 2007.
Flavius Silva, commander in Roman Palestine, wants to reach a reasonable compromise with the Jewish Zealots and withdraw his legion. Events and personalities in Rome, however, lead to his besieging the fortress of Masada. There the engineering genius of the Romans must fight both the harsh climate and landscape, and the passion and ingenuity of Eleazar Ben Yair and his people. Written by Cleo
