Jewish slaves built Masada ramp?

[richsc]

I ran across this Guardian article and buried in it was the statement that Jewish slaves built the siege ramp at Masada. I have always heard that legionaries did it as engineers.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/se...yth-doubts

[D B Campbell]

I have always heard that legionaries did it as engineers.

Quite so. Josephus, Jewish War 7.306: "Silva ordered the army to throw up an embankment" (literally, "to bring earth for heaping up"). But it's the army, not the Jewish slaves (who are press-ganged into carrying the daily supplies).