This documentary seems to give good points to doubt the Masada story.
Are there any talmudic or later sources regarding this and if yes, what are they?
Related.
Masada - heroic martyrdom or immoral murder/suicide?
This documentary seems to give good points to doubt the Masada story.
Are there any talmudic or later sources regarding this and if yes, what are they?
Related.
Masada - heroic martyrdom or immoral murder/suicide?
Prof. Shmuel Safrai (according to Prof. David Flusser in "Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Era", pg. 116) and Rabbi Shmuel Klein (in The Land of Judea, pg. 101) both thought that the following midrash referred to Metzada:
"אספה עלימו רעות - אמר הקב"ה הריני כונסן לתוך מצודה ומביא עליהם כל הפורענות כולם כאחת."
"I will join evils upon them": I will gather them into a fortress and bring upon them all of the evils at once." (Sifrei Devarim 32:23, Finkelstein edition)
Rabbi Klein explained that it's obvious that מצודה here must be understood as "fortress", in the way that it appears in Tanach, and not "net", in the way that it usually appears in Tannaic and Amoraic literature. While he doesn't explain why it's "obvious", I assume that he's referring to the manner in which the idea is presented in the midrash, which in context sounds as though the people are being gathered into a certain place and not an object, but that's just my guess.
I don't know what Safrai thought about the evidence against the story of Metzada, but it's entirely possible that he would have said that the sages heard of the myth from Josephus or another source, and wrote the midrash based on the myth, whether it happened or not.