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}                                                        MASADA  MORNING\par}

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\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs18\kerning28 Various suicides
 \par}

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\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     Centurion
 Marcus was not a nervous man by nature, nor was he a coward. Neither trait was 
to be found in a man that had risen from a common legionnaire to command the scout
 troops for an entire legion. But he was uncomfortable this morning.  Something 
was not right and it bothered him. Nothing had gone right during the entire siege
. The damned Jews that had manned the mountaintop city had put up a much stronger
 defense than anyone had ever expected. True the ground was as close to perfect 
for the defenders as could be asked but even so the city should have fallen weeks
 ago. He had sent cohort after cohort out to try to find a way to attack the city
 but all had failed and some had not returned at all. Finally, it was decided to
 build a huge ramp up the side of the cliff in order to bring the full weight of
 the legion\u8217\'92s might into action. Last night at last the wall had been breached
. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     At first
 light, the troops were to attack but the lack of men defending the walls and the
 complete silence of the city had made the possibility of a trap all too real. As
 a result instead of a massive rush of men the city was entered first by a few careful
 scouts. Marcus followed closely behind the first of them. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28      Inside
 it was deathly still. With the exception of a few birds nothing living moved. The
 parapets were checked first, then any place that could hold large bodies of men
. Nothing. Finally, a house was searched. A call of Marcus. Inside was a family, 
all dead. The children and their mother were laid out in shrouds while the man\u8217
\'92s body was covering them. All had died by the blade. Closer examination showed
 he had killed his family and has washed, dressed, and covered then before killing
 himself. The house was clean and neat except for his blood. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     More 
houses were checked. Each one told the story of how its occupants had met their 
deaths. Some were much like the first. Others told different stories. In one four
 children were found, heads bashed in by a club, their naked bodies scattered throughout
 the house. Everything of value had been burned or despoiled. The father was swinging
 slowly from a beam. Hanged. Another was also despoiled but in that one the whole
 family was slowly twisting in the air. To see babes hanged, to realize parents 
would choose to kill and die rather than submit to Roman rule was something unexpected
. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     The explorations
 continued. Here was a young woman dressed in wedding finery with a knife sticking
 from between her small breasts. There two girls, just budding into womanhood, sitting
 quietly with a smaller boy. Throats slashed open. Another family. Mother, two daughters
, son, bodies neatly lay out with their heads sitting on cold chests. Their father
 and husband nearby with his sword running through his chest. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     Each 
house had it\u8217\'92s own tragedies.  An entire family laying in poses of agony
. Empty wine goblets on the floor. A vial of some poison that was not the easy death
 they thought it was nearby. Throats neatly cut, brutally slashed, wrapped with 
cords pulled tight. Bodies hanging from rafters, laid out neatly, washed, anointed
 with oils, covered with shrouds. Others just lay where death took them. Loving 
hearts pierced by knives, swords, of even arrows. All held by hands that once had
 caressed instead of killed. Babes, toddlers, boys and girls, those almost old enough
 to start their own lives, men and wives, elders. All dead. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     A special
 horror in one house. A couple making love. Surrounded by the things of newly weds
. Killed by a single sword thrust that pierced both their bodies as they joined 
in lovemaking for perhaps the first time. The tales were as varied as the people
 that make up a city.   Some had chosen to kill and die with as little fuss as possible
. Others just seemed to end it as quickly as they could. One house was neat and 
clean, the next had everything of value destroyed. Some bodies were cleaned and 
prepared for burial. Some were left as they died. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     Marcus
 was stunned as he walked from the city to report. He had spent his entire adult
 life as a legionnaire and has been part of countless battles and lesser fights. 
Never had he seen anything like this. Brutal sacks of cities, yes, rapes and looting
, yes. This was almost beyond his power to comprehend. A thousand people gone because
 they would choose to kill their children and themselves to deny the Romans their
 victory. Unbelievable. \par}

\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs24\kerning28     That 
the name of Masada would live for thousands of years as a symbol was something that
 Marcus could not dream of. The tale of an oppressed people that fought the good
 fight only to lose to overwhelming force, able to still deny victory by a sacrifice
 that still rings today. A story that has become a bright light to a people and 
a cautionary warning to oppressors everywhere.  MASADA. THE CITY ON A MOUNTAIN. 
}}