Following the defeat of Kaleb and Radai the Ethiopian army required an interval for reorganisation and the absorption of contingents supplied by Muslim vassals. It was now the turn of Gweshan and Gideon to face the crusaders. Once again, an excuse for the attack was found by accusing Gweshan of planning a raid in Woggera province (between Semien and Gondar, where many Falashas live today), of burning a village and taking prisoners. Whether the charge was true or false (and given the discrepancy in their relative strengths it seems unlikely to be true) the pretext was sufficient to enable the king to besiege the Falasha stronghold. The defenders on their ambas fought bravely and not without some success. They tried to block the advance by rolling rocks and boulders on to the enemy below but it was an uneven struggle with the Falashas outnumbered and lacking in firearms to match the invaders. Finally, their water supply was cut off and they were forced to surrender. Many were disarmed and ruthlessly massacred on the orders of the king's general. Gweshan and a few followers held out on their amba. But finally it was scaled at night and the town set on fire. Recognising that all was lost, Gweshan and his companions, together with Gideon's wives and sister, threw themselves over the precipice. Their bodies were decapitated and the heads presented to the king.

Gideon, too, recognising that further resistance was useless, chose suicide rather than captivity. In a remarkable passage, which suggests that he was conversant with the works of Josephus, the Falasha leader exhorted his picked soldiers to remember the words of their forefathers when Titus, the Roman general, wanted to take them prisoner saying: 'It is better to die honourably than to live in shame. (2) Like the heroes of Masada in 73 AD or the martyrs of York(3) in 1190 they fell to and cut each others' throats with their swords and spears.

Thus the war in the Semien mountains came to an end and one more dramatic chapter was written in the history of the Jews, but one which, to this day, carries no memorial and whose heroes and martyrs remain unsung.

According to Bruce the Falashas lost 4, 000 dead in their last battle when Gweshan died. From the mountain fortresses the

(1)ibid., p. 66.
(2)cf Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, vol. 7, ch. 5.
(3)For an account of this episode see Abrahams, The Legacy of Israel, p. xix.