The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
and three other squadrons in addition, and set out for Miletus. At
his first assault he captured that which was called the outer city;
for the garrison had evacuated it. There he encamped and resolved to
blockade the inner city; for Hegesistratus, to whom the king Darius
had entrusted the command of the garrison in Miletus, kept on sending
letters before this to Alexander, offering to surrender Miletus to
him. But then, having regained his courage from the fact that the
Persian fleet was not far off, he made up his mind to preserve the
city for Darius. But Nicanor, the commander of the Grecian fleet,
anticipated the Persians by sailing into the port of Miletus three days
before they approached; and with 160 ships he anchored at the island
of Lade, which lies near Miletus.[154] The Persian ships arriving
too late, and the admirals discovering that Nicanor had occupied
the anchorage at Lade before them, they took moorings near Mount
Mycale.[155] Alexander had forestalled them in seizing the island, not
only by mooring his ships near it, but also by transporting into it the
Thracians and about 4,000 of the other auxiliary troops. The ships of
the foreigners were about 400 in number.
Notwithstanding the superiority of the Persian fleet, Parmenio advised
Alexander to fight a sea-battle, expecting that the Greeks would be
victorious with their fleet both for other reasons and especially
because an omen from the deity made him confident of the result; for
an eagle had been seen sitting upon the shore, opposite the sterns of
Alexander’s ships.[156] He also urged that if they won the battle, they
would reap a great advantage from it in regard to their main object
in the war; and if they were beaten, their defeat would not be of any
great moment; for even as it was, the Persians held the sovereignty of
the sea. He added that he was willing to go on board the fleet himself
and to share the danger. However, Alexander replied that Parmenio was
mistaken in his judgment, and did not explain the sign according to
probability. For it would be rash for him with a few ships to fight a
battle against a fleet far more numerous than his own, and with his
unpractised naval force to contend against the disciplined fleet of
the Cyprians and Phoenicians. Besides, he did not wish to deliver over
to the foreigners on so unstable an element the advantage which the
Macedonians derived from their skill and courage; and if they were
beaten in the sea-battle, their defeat would be no small hindrance to
their final success in the war, both for other reasons, and especially
because the Greeks, being animated with courage at the news of his
naval defeat, would attempt to effect a revolution. Taking all these
things into consideration, he declared that he did not think that it
was a suitable time for fighting a sea-battle; and for his part, he
expounded the divine omen in a different way. He admitted that the
eagle was in his favour; but as it was seen sitting on the land, it
seemed to him rather to be a sign that he should get the mastery over
the Persian fleet by defeating their army on land.
CHAPTER XIX.
SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MILETUS.
At this time Glaucippus, one of the most notable men in Miletus, was
sent out to Alexander by the people and the Grecian mercenaries, to
whom rather than to the citizens the town had been entrusted, to
tell him that the Milesians were willing to make their walls and
harbours[157] free to him and the Persians in common; and on these
terms to demand that he should raise the siege. But Alexander ordered
Glaucippus to depart without delay into the city, and tell the citizens
to prepare for a battle at daybreak. He then stationed his military
engines near the wall, and having in a short time partly broken and
partly shaken down a large piece of it, he led his army near, that the
men might enter wherever the wall had been thrown down or shaken. The
Persians from Mycale were following close[158] upon them and could
almost see their friends and allies being besieged. In the meantime,
Nicanor, observing from Lade Alexander’s commencement of the attack,
began to sail into the harbour of Miletus, rowing along the shore;
and mooring his triremes as close as possible together, with their
prows facing the enemy, across the narrowest part of the mouth of
the harbour, he shut off the Persian fleet from the port and made it
impossible for the Persians to give succour to the Milesians. Then
the Macedonians from all sides pressed close upon the citizens and
the Grecian mercenaries, who took to flight; some of them, casting
themselves into the sea, floated along upon their shields with the
hollow upwards to an unnamed islet which lies near the city; others
getting into their skiffs and hastening to get the start of the
Macedonian triremes, were captured by them at the mouth of the harbour.
But the majority of them were slain in the city itself. As soon as
Alexander had got possession of the city, he sailed against those who
had fled for refuge into the island; ordering the men to carry ladders
upon the prows of the triremes, with the intention of effecting a
landing along the cliffs of the island, as one would mount a wall. But
when he saw that the men on the island were resolved to run every risk,
he was moved with pity for them, because they appeared to him both
brave and loyal; wherefore he made a truce with them on the condition
that they would serve as his soldiers. These Grecian mercenaries were
about 300 in number. He likewise pardoned all the citizens of Miletus
who had escaped death in the capture of the city, and he granted them
their freedom.
The foreigners used to start from Mycale every day and sail up to the
Grecian fleet, hoping to induce them to accept the challenge and come
forth to a battle; but during the night they used to moor their vessels
near Mycale, which was an inconvenient station, because they were under
the necessity of fetching water from the mouth of the river Maeander, a
great way off.[159] Alexander guarded the harbour of Miletus with his
ships, in order to prevent the foreigners from forcing an entrance;
and at the same time he sent Philotas to Mycale in command of the
cavalry and three regiments of infantry, with instructions to prevent
the men in the ships from landing. Accordingly, they, being through
the scarcity of fresh water and of the other necessaries of life as
good as besieged in their ships, sailed away to Samos; where furnishing
themselves with food, they sailed back again to Miletus. They then drew
up most of their ships in front of the harbour on the deep sea, with
the hope that they might in some way or other induce the Macedonians
to come out into the open sea. Five of their ships sailed into the
roadstead which lay between the island of Lade and the camp, expecting
to surprise Alexander’s ships while empty of their crews; for they had
ascertained that the sailors for the most part were dispersed from the
ships, some to gather fuel, others to collect provisions, and others
being arranged in foraging parties.[160] And indeed it happened that a
number of the sailors were absent; but as soon as Alexander observed
the five Persian ships sailing towards him, he manned ten ships with
the sailors who happened to be at hand, and sent them with all speed
against them with orders to attack prow to prow. No sooner did the men
in the five Persian ships see the Macedonians bearing up against them,
contrary to their expectation, than they immediately tacked about,
though far off, and fled to the rest of their fleet. However, the ship
of the Iassians,[161] not being a fast sailer, was captured in the
flight, men and all; but the other four succeeded in escaping to their
own triremes. After this the Persians sailed away from Miletus without
effecting anything.
CHAPTER XX.
SIEGE OF HALICARNASSUS.—ABORTIVE ATTACK ON MYNDUS.
Alexander now resolved to disband his fleet, partly from lack of
money at the time, and partly because he saw that his own fleet was
not a match in battle for that of the Persians. On this account he
was unwilling to run the risk of losing even a part of his armament.
Besides, he considered, that now he was occupying Asia with his
land force, he would no longer be in need of a fleet; and that he
would be able to break up that of the Persians, if he captured the
maritime cities; since they would neither have any ports from which
they could recruit their crews, nor any harbour in Asia to which they
could bring their ships. Thus he explained the omen of the eagle to
signify that he should get the mastery over the enemy’s ships by his
land force. After doing this, he set forth into Caria,[162] because
it was reported that a considerable force, both of foreigners and
of Grecian auxiliaries, had collected in Halicarnassus.[163] Having
taken all the cities between Miletus and Halicarnassus as soon as
he approached them, he encamped near the latter city, at a distance
from it of about five stades,[164] as if he expected a long siege.
For the natural position of the place made it strong; and wherever
there seemed to be any deficiency in security, it had been entirely
supplied long before by Memnon, who was there in person, having now
been proclaimed by Darius governor of lower Asia and commander of the
entire fleet. Many Grecian mercenary soldiers had been left in the
city, as well as many Persian troops; the triremes also were moored
in the harbour, so that the sailors might render him valuable aid in
the operations. On the first day of the siege, while Alexander was
leading his men up to the wall in the direction of the gate leading
towards Mylasa,[165] the men in the city made a sortie, and a skirmish
took place; but Alexander’s men making a rush upon them repulsed
them with ease, and shut them up in the city. A few days after this,
the king took the shield-bearing guards, the Cavalry Companions, the
infantry regiments of Amyntas, Perdiccas and Meleager, and in addition
to these the archers and Agrianians, and went round to the part of
the city which is in the direction of Myndus, both for the purpose
of inspecting the wall, to see if it happened to be more easy to be
assaulted there than elsewhere; and at the same time to see if he could
get hold of Myndus[166] by a sudden and secret attack. For he thought
that if Myndus were his own, it would be no small help in the siege of
Halicarnassus; moreover, an offer to surrender had been made by the
Myndians if he would approach the town secretly, under the cover of
night. About midnight, therefore, he approached the wall, according to
the plan agreed on; but as no sign of surrender was made by the men
within, and though he had with him no military engines or ladders,
inasmuch as he had not set out to besiege the town, but to receive
it on surrender, he nevertheless led the Macedonian phalanx near and
ordered them to undermine the wall. They threw down one of the towers,
which, however, in its fall did not make a breach in the wall. But the
men in the city stoutly defending themselves, and at the same time
many from Halicarnassus having already come to their aid by sea, made
it impossible for Alexander to capture Myndus by surprise or sudden
assault. Wherefore he returned without accomplishing any of the plans
for which he had set out, and devoted himself once more to the siege of
Halicarnassus.
In the first place he filled up with earth the ditch which the enemy
had dug in front of the city, about thirty cubits wide and fifteen
deep; so that it might be easy to bring forward the towers, from which
he intended to discharge missiles against the defenders of the wall;
and that he might bring up the other engines with which he was planning