The Sicarii - Origins of The First Ancient Assassins

The Sicarii waiting to strike at their victim (Image by Angel Garcia, published on inkyillustration.com)
https://stock.adobe.com/za/images/Ancient-Arabian-Dagger/208813255

The Sicarii (Modern Hebrew: סיקריים siqariyim) were a splinter group of the Jewish Zealots who, in the decades preceding Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE, strongly opposed the Roman occupation of Judea and attempted to expel them and their sympathizers from the area. The Sicarii are regarded as one of the earliest known organized assassination units of cloak and daggers, predating the Islamic Hashishin and Japanese ninja by centuries.

The Sicarii targeted the ruling Jewish elite, which collaborated with the Romans. Since nobody knew who was their next target, fear and anxiety spread among the elite. Their most notable victim was High Priest Jonathan.




The Sicarii stabbing their victim (Image:Pinterest/@Yvonne)

In Latin, Sicarii is the plural form of Sicarius “dagger-man”, “dagger-wielder”. Sica, possibly from Proto-Albanian *tsikā (whence Albanian thika, “knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to sharpen”) possibly via Illyrian. In later Latin usage, “sicarius” was also the standard term for a murderer (see, e.g., the Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficiis), and to this day “sicario” is a salaried assassin in Spanish and a commissioned murderer in Italian and in Portuguese.



Ercole de Roberti Destruction of Jerusalem Fighting. ART Collection / Alamy Stock Photo.

The Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE The fighting between the Romans and Jews in the 1st century CE brought about some of the most important events in Jewish history. The Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE resulted in the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, a disaster that would eventually prove both permanent and catastrophic since it was never rebuilt. The fighting also permanently altered the diaspora of Judaism in the ancient world, but because the First Jewish War was indecisive in breaking the power of the Jewish revolt permanently, it was also inconclusive and led to further, inevitable revolts that broke Judean identity completely in the 2nd century CE. The siege of Jerusalem was a classic case of two opposing and incompatible worldviews. It was not the first time the Romans had conquered the capital of the kingdom, nor was it the first time Jerusalem had been sacked by a foreign power.

The Jewish refusal to tolerate the Cult of the Emperor in their main place of worship was a direct challenge to Roman political power, while the Roman refusal to recognize Jewish monotheism was a direct challenge to Jewish theology. The clash of ideologies would result in many casualties. Josephus, a primary source for the revolt, would calculate the death toll at over 1,000,000.

AdobeStock_263930475

It would be impossible to overstate the importance of the First Jewish War on Judaism and the Jewish people. Despite the massive destruction of the cult centers of Judaism (including the permanent destruction of the Second Temple and its priestly caste), Judaism continued as a religion, but the uprising’s leaders were all killed, and many Jewish survivors were scattered abroad as they fled or were sold into slavery. Of the besiegers, Titus was granted a triumphal arch in Rome that survives to this day. He succeeded his father Vespasian upon the latter's death in 79 CE, but Titus died of illness only two years later.


The Brutal End of the Line for Rome's Enemies in Ancient Judea & Surroundings
(Josephus, Of the War 5.11.1.)

https://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/crucifixi%C3%B3n#/media/Archivo:Fedor_Bronnikov_002.jpg
Fedor Andreevich Bronnikov (1827-1902). The damned box. Place of execution in ancient Rome. The crucified slaves. the year 1878. Oil on canvas. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Titus's banks were advanced a great way, notwithstanding his soldiers had been very much distressed from the wall. He then sent a party of horsemen, and ordered they should lay ambushes for those that went out into the valleys to gather food. Some of these were indeed fighting men, who were not contented with what they got by rapine; but the greater part of them were poor people, who were deterred from deserting by the concern they were under for their own relations; for they could not hope to escape away, together with their wives and children, without the knowledge of the seditious; nor could they think of leaving these relations to be slain by the robbers on their account; nay, the severity of the famine made them bold in thus going out; so nothing remained but that, when they were concealed from the robbers, they should be taken by the enemy; and when they were going to be taken, they were forced to defend themselves for fear of being punished; as after they had fought, they thought it too late to make any supplications for mercy; so they were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more: yet it did not appear to be safe for him to let those that were taken by force go their way, and to set a guard over so many he saw would be to make such as great deal them useless to him. The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.

This theme will be the Subject of our next post....

Read more about the Sicarri's History:

https://www.amazon.com/Sicarii-History-Ancient-Jewish-Assassins/dp/B096YDX2R3


References, bibliography & further reading:

The New Complete Works of Josephus Paperback – May 21, 1999 by William Whiston. https://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Works-Josephus/dp/082542948X
https://www.amazon.com/Sicarii-History-Ancient-Jewish-Assassins/dp/B096YDX2R3
Smallwood, E.M. (2001). The Jews Under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian : a Study in Political Relations. Biblical Studies and Religious Studies. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-0-391-04155-4. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
Goodman, Martin (2008). Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations. New York City: Vintage Books. p. 407. ISBN 978-0375726132. Paul Christian Who were the Sicarii?, Meridian Magazine, June 7, 2004 Pichtel, John, Terrorism and WMDs: Awareness and Response, CRC Press (April 25, 2011) p.3-4. ISBN 978-1439851753 Ross, Jeffrey Ian, Religion and Violence: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present, Routledge (January 15, 2011), Chapter: Sicarii. ISBN 978-0765620484 Orel, Vladimir (1998). Albanian etymological dictionary. Brill. pp. 477–478. ISBN 9004110240. Havers, Wilhelm (1984). Die Sprache. A. Sexl. p. 84. "Definition of sicarius (noun, LNS, sīcārius) - Numen - The Latin Lexicon - An Online Latin Dictionary". Retrieved 30 September 2014. "sicario, ria". Real Academia Española. "sicàrio". Treccani.it. "sicário". Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa. Smallwood 2001, pp. 281f. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XX 9. Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome; Cunliffe, Barry. The Holy Land. Oxford Archaeological Guides (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 378–381. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV 7-2. Ancient battle divides Israel as Masada 'myth' unravels; Was the siege really so heroic, asks Patrick Cockburn in Jerusalem, The Independent, 30 March 1997 Levick, Barbara (1999). Vespasian. London: Routledge, pp. 116–119. ISBN 0-415-16618-7 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II 8-11, Book II 13-7, Book II 14-4, Book II 14-5. "Judas Iscariot web", Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 30 September 2014 Bastiaan van Iersel, Mark: A Reader-Response Commentary, Continuum International (1998), p. 167. "Zealots and Sicarii". Archived from the original on 2014-11-18. Retrieved 30 September 2014. Rabbi Hai Gaon's Commentary on Seder Taharot, cited in Babylonian Talmud (Niddah Tractate), s.v. Mishnah Makhshirin 1:6; also in The Geonic Commentary on Seder Taharot - Attributed to Rabbi Hai Gaon, vol. 2, Berlin 1924, s.v. סיקריקין. Yosef Qafih (ed.) Mishnah with Maimonides' Commentary (vol. 3), Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1967, s.v. Makhshirin 1:6 (p. 393) [Hebrew].