The Sicarii were a group of Jewish assassins who were active throughout Judaea in the years leading up to and during the First Jewish–Roman War, which took place at the end of the Second Temple period. Often associated with the Zealots (although this relationship is uncertain), before attacking their targets at public gatherings, thereafter blending in with the crowds to escape undetected.
Other than the Roman-era Jewish historian Josephus, there are no sources for the history and activities of the Sicarii. According to Josephus's account, the Sicarii's victims may have included Jonathan the High Priest, who was assassinated inside of the Second Temple shortly after being designated as the High Priest of Israel; and more than 700 Jewish women and children at Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea.
To date, the Sicarii are one of the earliest known organized "cloak and dagger" assassination forces, predating the Order of Assassins and the ninjas (among other examples) by many centuries. Due to there only being a single source on the group, their true allegiances and motives remain subjects of discussion among historians. The group is not believed to have engaged in open conflict beyond Masada and possibly the Zealot Temple siege, when they executed any Jews advocating surrender to the Roman army.
In modern Israel, the legacy of the Sicarii was widely reviewed as part of the Masada myth, which asserts that the group was entirely dedicated to preserving Jewish national dignity during the Jewish–Roman wars. While it served as a means of promoting feelings of resilience and nationalist pride in ancient Jewish history, the narrative has been scrutinized for downplaying Josephus's description of the Sicarii's fanaticism and murders of numerous innocent Jews. However, the popularity of the Masada myth in Israeli society has waned since the late 20th century due to the Sicarii's extremist connotations, which inspired Jewish terrorist groups like the Sicarii of 1989–1990, who claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Palestinians and against Israelis who expressed support for the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
Etymology
In the Koine Greek of Josephus the term σικάριοι sikarioi was used. In Latin, Sicarii is the plural form of Sicarius "dagger-man", "sickle-man". 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 Portuguese.
The term Σικαρίων (Sikariōn) is used in Acts 21:38 of the New Testament as an accusation against Paul the Apostle, when a tribune asks if he is the Egyptian who led "4,000 men of the sicarii into the desert". It is translated as "terrorists" in the New International Version, "murderers" in the King James Bible and "assassins" in the American Standard Version. According to historian Steve Mason, this reference is problematic because it lacks a clear connection to anti-Roman sentiments and is "best explained as a mangled recollection of Josephus."
The derived Spanish term sicario is used in contemporary Latin America to describe a contract killer.
History
The Sicarii are known to history from only one source – Josephus. In a 2009 study The Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War, Professor Mark Brighton of Concordia University Irvine wrote that Josephus referred to the Sicarii directly fifteen times in eight separate contexts of The Jewish War:
- The Sicarii rise during the time of Felix (2.254)
The Zealots, Sicarii and other prominent rebels finally joined forces to attack and temporarily take Jerusalem from Rome in 66 AD, where they took control of the Temple in Jerusalem, executing anyone who tried to oppose their power. The local populace resisted their control and launched a series of sieges and raids to remove the rebel factions. The rebels eventually silenced the uprising and Jerusalem stayed in their hands for the duration of the war. The Romans returned to take back the city, counter-attacking and laying siege to starve the rebels inside. The rebels held out for some time, but the constant bickering and lack of leadership caused the groups to disintegrate. Modern historians typically reject this contention, mainly because Josephus in The War of the Jews (2:254–7) mentions the appearance of the Sicarii as a new phenomenon during the procuratorships of Felix (52–60 AD), having no apparent relation with the group called Sicarii by Romans at times of Quirinius. The 2nd century compendium of Jewish oral law, the Mishnah (Makhshirin 1:6), mentions the word sikrin (), perhaps related to Sicarii, and which is explained by the early rabbinic commentators as being related to the (= robbers), and to government personnel involved with implementing the laws of Sicaricon. Maimonides, in his Mishnah commentary (Makhshirin 1:6), explains the same word sikrin as meaning "people who harass and who are disposed to being violent."
Legacy
The Sicarii were the basis of the Masada myth in early Zionism. They also served as the namesake of several modern Jewish militant groups, both Zionist and anti-Zionist—most notably the Sicarii of 1989 and the Sikrikim.
In popular culture
In The Chosen, the first multi-season series about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, Simon the Zealot is called a "Zealot Sicarii" in episode 7 of Season 2 ("Reckoning").
See also
- Jewish military history § Jewish–Roman wars
- List of Jewish civil wars