Zealot extremists; uncompromising fighters against Rome at the end of the Second Temple era. The name Sicarii was derived from the Latin word sica, a short curved dagger kept hidden in their clothing, with which they furtively stabbed those opposed to them. Hence, the accepted translation "dagger-men." They did not confine their attacks on the Romans, but also assassinated Jews who accepted or were inclined to compromise with Roman rule in Eretz Israel. These collaborators (in the eyes of the Sicarii) were mostly respected and wealthy town dwellers, against whom the Sicarii mounted a campaign of terror. The Sicarii favored a radical social revolution as a way of wiping out the acute economic contradictions then prevailing in the land, thinking that thereby they could establish a just social order based on the Torah of Moses. The name Sicarii appears in the writings of Josephus and in the New Testament where it is used in a distinctly pejorative sense. In the Mishnah and the Gemara (see Talmud) they are referred to as "Zealots" or "terrorists." Their leaders were Abba Sikra, Menahem ben Yair, Eleazar ben Jair, and Simeon Bar Giora.
In the Mishnah and the Gemara, the term sikarikon is applied to thugs or seizers of property from their owners (especially fields). This name was not only applied to the confiscator, considered to be no more than a robber, but also to anyone who received the confiscated property. In the course of time, sikarikon became legal terminology for anyone who seized property by force while its owner was under threat.
