“A victory? What have we won? We’ve won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea.” — General Lucis Flavis Silva (attributed in the 1981 TV miniseries Masada, based on the historical novel The Antigonists, by Ernest K. Gann)
Silva was speaking of the Roman final conquest of the Jewish Zealots’ redoubt Masada on a mountain above the Dead Sea in 75 A.D. The defenders, except for a few women were all dead when the surrounding wall was breached after a lengthy seige.
This quote, apocryphal though it probably is, may signal the result of Vladimir Putin’s conquest of Ukraine, assuming he succeeds. It appears he will win only a wasteland, and maybe a poisoned one at that.
The siege of Masada by the Roman army was described by Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus during the Jewish-Roman War. The siege occurred between 73 and 74 after the fall of Jerusalem, destruction of the Temple, and the subsequent diaspora.
Another quote, probably a paraphrase, that the Russians and our leaders should take note of: “Not sure how World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
