The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
were conveying the engines of war up to the wall, to approach the
city, because a great quantity of stones hurled forward into the sea
prevented their near assault. These stones Alexander determined to drag
out of the sea; but this was a work accomplished with great difficulty,
since it was performed from ships and not from the firm earth;
especially as the Tyrians, covering their ships with mail, brought them
alongside the anchors of the triremes, and cutting the cables of the
anchors underneath, made anchoring impossible for the enemy’s ships.
But Alexander covered many thirty-oared vessels with mail in the same
way, and placed them athwart in front of the anchors, so that the
assault of the ships was repelled by them. But, notwithstanding this,
divers under the sea secretly cut their cables. The Macedonians then
used chains to their anchors instead of cables, and let them down so
that the divers could do no more harm. Then, fastening slip-knots to
the stones, they dragged them out of the sea from the mole; and having
raised them aloft with cranes, they discharged them into deep water,
where they were no longer likely to do injury by being hurled forward.
The ships now easily approached the part of the wall where it had been
made clear of the stones which had been hurled forward. The Tyrians
being now reduced to great straits on all sides, resolved to make an
attack on the Cyprian ships, which were moored opposite the harbour
turned towards Sidon. For a long time they spread sails across the
mouth of the harbour, in order that the filling of the triremes might
not be discernible; and about the middle of the day, when the sailors
were scattered in quest of necessaries, and when Alexander usually
retired from the fleet to his tent on the other side of the city, they
filled three quinqueremes, an equal number of quadriremes and seven
triremes with the most expert complement of rowers possible, and with
the best-armed men adapted for fighting from the decks, together with
the men most daring in naval contests. At first they rowed out slowly
and quietly in single file, moving forward the handles of their oars
without any signal from the men who give the time to the rowers[324];
but when they were already tacking against the Cyprians, and were near
enough to be seen, then indeed with a loud shout and encouragement to
each other, and at the same time with impetuous rowing, they commenced
the attack.
CHAPTER XXII.
SIEGE OF TYRE.—NAVAL DEFEAT OF THE TYRIANS.
It happened on that day that Alexander went away to his tent, but
after a short time returned to his ships, not tarrying according to
his usual custom. The Tyrians fell all of a sudden upon the ships
lying at their moorings, finding some entirely empty and others being
filled with difficulty from the men who happened to be present at
the very time of the noise and attack. At the first onset they at
once sank the quinquereme of the king Pnytagoras, that of Androcles
the Amathusian[325] and that of Pasicrates the Curian;[326] and they
shattered the other ships by pushing them ashore. But when Alexander
perceived the sailing out of the Tyrian triremes, he ordered most of
the ships under his command to be manned and to take position at the
mouth of the harbour, so that the rest of the Tyrian ships might not
sail out. He then took the quinqueremes which he had and about five
of the triremes, which were manned by him in haste before the rest
were ready, and sailed round the city against the Tyrians who had
sailed out of the harbour. The men on the wall, perceiving the enemy’s
attack and observing that Alexander himself was in the fleet, began
to shout to those in their own ships, urging them to return; but as
their shouts were not audible, on account of the noise of those who
were engaged in the action, they exhorted them to retreat by various
kinds of signals. At last after a long time, perceiving the impending
attack of Alexander’s fleet, they tacked about and began to flee into
the harbour; and a few of their ships succeeded in escaping, but
Alexander’s vessels assaulted the greater number, and rendered some
of them unfit for sailing; and a quinquereme and a quadrireme were
captured at the very mouth of the harbour. But the slaughter of the
marines was not great; for when they perceived that their ships were
in possession of the enemy, they swam off without difficulty into the
harbour. As the Tyrians could no longer derive any aid from their
ships, the Macedonians now brought up their military engines to the
wall itself. Those which were brought near the city along the mole,
did no damage worth mentioning on account of the strength of the wall
there. Others brought up some of the ships conveying military engines
opposite the part of the city turned towards Sidon. But when even there
they met with no success, Alexander passed round to the wall projecting
towards the south wind and towards Egypt, and tested the strength
of the works everywhere. Here first a large piece of the wall was
thoroughly shaken, and a part of it was even broken and thrown down.
Then indeed for a short time he tried to make an assault to the extent
of throwing a bridge upon the part of the wall where a breach had been
made. But the Tyrians without much difficulty beat the Macedonians back.
CHAPTER XXIII.
SIEGE OF TYRE.
The third day after this, having waited for a calm sea, after
encouraging the leaders of the regiments for the action, he led the
ships containing the military engines up to the city. In the first
place he shook down a large piece of the wall; and when the breach
appeared to be sufficiently wide, he ordered the vessels conveying the
military engines to retire, and brought up two others, which carried
his bridges, which he intended to throw upon the breach in the wall.
The shield-bearing guards occupied one of these vessels, which he had
put under the command of Admetus; and the other was occupied by the
regiment of Coenus, called the foot Companions. Alexander himself, with
the shield-bearing guards, intended to scale the wall where it might be
practicable. He ordered some of his triremes to sail against both of
the harbours, to see if by any means they could force an entrance when
the Tyrians had turned themselves to oppose him. He also ordered those
of his triremes which contained the missiles to be hurled from engines,
or which were carrying archers upon deck, to sail right round the wall
and to put in where it was practicable, and to take up position within
shooting range, until it became impossible to put in, so that the
Tyrians, being shot at from all quarters, might become distracted, and
not know whither to turn in their distress. When Alexander’s ships drew
close to the city and the bridges were thrown from them upon the wall,
the shield-bearing guards mounted valiantly along these upon the wall;
for their captain, Admetus, proved himself brave on that occasion,
and Alexander accompanied them, both as a courageous participant in
the action itself, and as a witness of brilliant and dangerous feats
of valour performed by others. The first part of the wall that was
captured was where Alexander had posted himself; the Tyrians being
easily beaten back from it, as soon as the Macedonians found firm
footing, and at the same time a way of entrance not abrupt on every
side. Admetus was the first to mount the wall; but while cheering on
his men to mount, he was struck with a spear and died on the spot.
After him, Alexander with the Companions got possession of the
wall[327]; and when some of the towers and the parts of the wall
between them were in his hands, he advanced through the battlements to
the royal palace, because the descent into the city that way seemed the
easiest.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CAPTURE OF TYRE.
To return to the fleet, the Phoenicians posted opposite the harbour
looking towards Egypt, facing which they happened to be moored, forcing
their way and bursting the bars asunder, shattered the ships in the
harbour, attacking some of them in deep water and driving others
ashore. The Cyprians also sailed into the other harbour looking towards
Sidon, which had no bar across it, and made a speedy capture of the
city on that side. The main body of the Tyrians deserted the wall when
they saw it in the enemy’s possession; and rallying opposite what was
called the chapel of Agenor,[328] they there turned round to resist the
Macedonians. Against these Alexander advanced with his shield-bearing
guards, destroyed the men who fought there, and pursued those who fled.
Great was the slaughter also made both by those who were now occupying
the city from the harbour and by the regiment of Coenus, which had also
entered it. For the Macedonians were now for the most part advancing
full of rage, being angry both at the length of the siege and also
because the Tyrians, having captured some of their men sailing from
Sidon, had conveyed them to the top of their wall, so that the deed
might be visible from the camp, and after slaughtering them, had cast
their bodies into the sea. About 8,000 of the Tyrians were killed; and
of the Macedonians, besides Admetus, who had proved himself a valiant
man, being the first to scale the wall, twenty of the shield-bearing
guards were killed in the assault on that occasion. In the whole siege
about 400 Macedonians were slain. Alexander gave an amnesty to all
those who fled for refuge into the temple of Heracles; among them
being most of the Tyrian magistrates, including the king Azemilcus, as
well as certain envoys from the Carthaginians, who had come to their
mother-city to attend the sacrifice in honour of Heracles, according
to an ancient custom.[329] The rest of the prisoners were reduced
to slavery; all the Tyrians and mercenary troops, to the number of
about 30,000, who had been captured, being sold.[330] Alexander then
offered sacrifice to Heracles, and conducted a procession in honour
of that deity with all his soldiers fully armed. The ships also took
part in this religious procession in honour of Heracles. He moreover
held a gymnastic contest in the temple, and celebrated a torch race.
The military engine, also, with which the wall had been battered down,
was brought into the temple and dedicated as a thank-offering; and the
Tyrian ship sacred to Heracles, which had been captured in the naval
attack, was likewise dedicated to the god. An inscription was placed
on it, either composed by Alexander himself or by some one else; but
as it is not worthy of recollection, I have not deemed it worth while
to describe it. Thus then was Tyre captured in the month Hecatombaion,
when Anicetus was archon at Athens.[331]
CHAPTER XXV.
THE OFFERS OF DARIUS REJECTED.—BATIS, GOVERNOR OF GAZA, REFUSES TO
SUBMIT.
While Alexander was still occupied by the siege of Tyre, ambassadors
came to him from Darius, announcing that he would give him ten thousand
talents[332] in exchange for his mother, wife, and children; that all
the territory west of the river Euphrates, as far as the Grecian Sea,
should be Alexander’s; and proposing that he should marry the daughter
of Darius, and become his friend and ally.[333] When these proposals
were announced in a conference of the Companions, Parmenio is said to
have told Alexander, that if he were Alexander he should be delighted
to put an end to the war on these terms, and incur no further hazard of
success. Alexander is said to have replied, So would he also do, if he
were Parmenio, but as he was Alexander he replied to Darius as he did.
For he said that he was neither in want of money from Darius, nor would
he receive a part of his territory instead of the whole; for that all
his money and territory were his; and that if he wished to marry the