- General Cornelius Flavius Silva: [about to attack the mountain fortress of Masada] Impressive.
- Rubrius Gallus: Impossible.
- General Cornelius Flavius Silva: Exactly, which is why I sent for you.
- Rubrius Gallus: Nobody can do the impossible. That's what the word means.
- General Cornelius Flavius Silva: I've seen you do it.
- General Cornelius Flavius Silva: It's Sheva, isn't it?
- Sheva: Correct.
- Decurion: You are being addressed by the Governor General.
- Sheva: Thankyou, I know.
- General Cornelius Flavius Silva: He wants you to stand up.
- Sheva: Do you?
- General Cornelius Flavius Silva: I've spent too much time in this country to expect manners from a Jew of either sex. Keep your seat, in fact I'll join you.
- Eleazar ben Yair: My friends, they're going to wait until morning to come the rest of the way in. That is so we can see their dress parade and be terrified. The Romans, they love spectacle. 5,000 men against 900. That is a spectacle. Only this time the end will be different. They don't know that yet but the sun will teach them. They must camp down there where a lizard cannot live in summer, and summer is not far off. They must pack in their water from as far north as Jericho. We have water to spare. They will set up their catapults, their scaling ladders but the angle is too steep for the stones and an old woman or a small child can push a ladder down. Be proud, sleep well tonight. Where they march is where we want them to be.
- General Cornelius Flavius Silva: The ground you occupy is the property and territory of the Emperor, Senate and people of Rome. In their name I order you to depart from it.
- Eleazar ben Yair: The ground you occupy was given as promised to the children of Israel by almighty God, king of the universe and lord of mankind. Since time began he has punished anyone who trespassed on his children's land. I have warned you once and one warning is all that he allows. You have sentenced yourself and your soldiers to death.
- Eleazar ben Yair: We have heard how Caligula made a Senator of his favorite horse and we see that Rome has not changed. Has not Vespasian unchained his pet monkey and made him Governor General of Judea? Friends of the Tenth Legion, will you truly sacrifice your lives because a monkey wants to scamper up this mountain on a pile of your rotting corpses?