An ancient mountaintop fortress in southeast Israel on the southwest shore of the Dead Sea. In A.D. 73, after a two-year siege, members of the Zealot Jewish movement committed mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.