The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (14 page)

I must mention in this connexion that there is in Tyre the most ancient temple of Heracles known to man. This is not the Argive Heracles, Alcmena’s son; for Heracles
was worshipped in Tyre many generations before Cadmus came from Phoenicia to Thebes and became the father of Semele, who bore Dionysus to Zeus.
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Dionysus would seem to be in the third generation from Cadmus, through Polydorus and Labdacus, while the Argive Heracles was probably in the line of Oedipus, son of Laius. The Egyptians also worship a Heracles, but not the Heracles of Tyre or Greece; according to Herodotus he is regarded by the Egyptians as one of the Twelve Gods. Similarly, the Athenians worship a Dionysus who was the son of Zeus and Kore – and it is to him, not to the Theban Dionysus, that the
lacchus
hymn is sung during the celebration of the Mysteries. I think that the Heracles who is honoured at Tartessus by the Iberians (where are the so-called Pillars of Heracles) is the Tyrian Heracles, because Tartessus is of Phoenician origin and Heracles’ temple there and the ritual of sacrifice performed in it are both in the Phoenician tradition. Moreover, according to the chronicler Hecataeus, Geryones, whose oxen the Argive Heracles was sent by Eurystheus to fetch to Mycenae, had no connexion with Iberia; nor was Heracles sent to some island or other called Erytheia beyond the Straits. It is much more likely that Geryones was a mainland prince somewhere in the region of Ambracia and Amphilochia, and that Heracles’ task – and no small one either – was to steal the oxen from there. I know for myself that this region still, today, contains excellent pasture and produces cattle of high quality, and it is likely enough that Eurystheus was not unaware of the reputation of these mainland cattle and of the name of the prince who ruled in those parts; but he would surely not have known the name of the Iberian king right away there in the remotest
corner of Europe, or have had any idea whether or not there were good cattle in that distant land. Indeed, to make such an improbable story hang together, one would have to make a myth of it and drag in the goddess Hera, and say that it was she who told Heracles the secret through the mouth of Eurystheus.

It was, then, to this Tyrian Heracles that Alexander expressed a wish to offer sacrifice, and the envoys reported his request to the people of the town. In general, they were willing enough to accede to Alexander’s wishes, but there was one thing which they firmly refused to do – and that was to admit any Persian or Macedonian within the walls of the town. This, they felt, was not only the most dignified attitude at the present juncture, but would also be the most likely to ensure their future safety, as the outcome of the war was not yet by any means assured.
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The decision was duly reported to Alexander, who was very angry; he dismissed the envoys and at once called a meeting of his Companions and other officers of all ranks and addressed them in the following words.

‘Friends and fellow soldiers, I do not see how we can safely advance upon Egypt, so long as Persia controls the sea; and to pursue Darius with the neutral city of Tyre in our rear and Egypt and Cyprus still in enemy hands would be a serious risk, especially in view of the situation in Greece. With our army on the track of Darius, far inland in the direction of Babylon, the Persians might well regain control of the coast, and thus be enabled with more power behind them to transfer the war to Greece, where Sparta is already openly hostile to us, and Athens, at the moment,
is but an unwilling ally; fear, not friendliness, keeping her on our side. But with Tyre destroyed, all Phoenicia would be ours, and the Phoenician fleet, which both in numbers and quality is the predominant element in the sea-power of Persia, would very likely come over to us. The Phoenician seamen, ships’ crews or fighting men, once their towns are in our hands, will hardly endure to face the perils of service at sea for the sake of others. The next step will be Cyprus: it will either join us without trouble on our part, or be easily taken by assault; then, with the accession of Cyprus and the united fleets of Macedon and Phoenicia, our supremacy at sea would be guaranteed, and the expedition to Egypt would thus be a simple matter, and finally, with Egypt in our hands we shall have no further cause for uneasiness about Greece: we shall be able to march on Babylon with security at home, with enhanced prestige, and with Persia excluded not only from the sea, but from the whole continent up to the Euphrates.’

Alexander had no difficulty in persuading his officers that the attempt upon Tyre must be made. He himself had further encouragement by a sign from heaven, for that very night he dreamed that as he was approaching the walls of the town Heracles greeted him and invited him to enter. The dream was interpreted by Aristander as signifying that Tyre would be taken, but with much labour, because labour was characteristic of all that Heracles had himself accomplished.

However – dreams or no dreams – it was obvious enough that the siege of Tyre would be a tremendous undertaking. The town was an island, and surrounded by strong and lofty walls, and, as things then were, with Persia in command of the sea and the Tyrian fleet still strong, any attack by sea would have been unlikely to
succeed. In spite of all difficulties, however, Alexander’s decision to attack it was accepted.

His plan was to construct a mole across the stretch of shallow water between the shore and the town.
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In-shore there are patches of mud with little water over them, the deepest part of the channel, about three fathoms, being close to the town. There was an abundant supply of stones, which they used for the foundation of the mole, and plenty of timber, which they packed down on top. It was an easy matter to drive piles into the mud which itself acted as binding material to keep the stones in place. The men worked with as good a will as their commander, for Alexander was always on the spot giving precise instructions as to how to proceed, with many a word of encouragement and special rewards for conspicuously good work.

Little difficulty was encountered in constructing the inshore portion of the mole, because the water was shallow and there was no opposition; but as they got out into the deeper water near the town, and within range of missiles from the lofty walls, their troubles began. The men were in working dress and not equipped for battle, and the Tyrians used their superiority at sea to make constant raids on various points along the mole, thus rendering the continuation of the work impossible. To counter these raids, the Macedonians built two towers on the mole (which was now of considerable length) and mounted artillery on them; they faced the towers with skins and hides to prevent damage from incendiary missiles and, at the same time, to afford some protection against arrows for the men working on them, hoping,
also, that the Tyrian crews who attempted to harass the men on the mole might be attacked by missiles from the towers and driven off without difficulty.

The Tyrians, however, soon had their answer: they filled a cattle-boat with dry brushwood and various sorts of timber which would burn well, set up twin masts in her bows, and, as far as they could, raised her bulwarks all round in order to make her hold as much inflammable material as possible, including pitch, sulphur, and anything else which would burn fiercely. Across the twin masts they rigged a yard double the usual length, and slung from it cauldrons full of any material which could be poured or flung on the fire to increase its fury, and, finally, heavily ballasted the vessel aft in order to lift her bows as high as possible. Then, having waited for a fair wind, they passed hawsers to a number of triremes and towed her stern-first to the mole. Near the two towers they started the fire, and the crews of the triremes pulled with all their might until they flung the blazing cattle-boat on the edge of the mole. Before she struck the men in her leapt overboard and swam to safety.

The towers were soon caught in a furious blaze; the yards burned through and collapsed, pouring into the fire the contents of the cauldrons which had been designed to increase its intensity. The triremes lay-to near the mole, their crews shooting continually at the towers so that no one could get near them with anything to extinguish the flames. Then, once the towers were well alight, the Tyrians in the town came swarming out, leapt into boats which they ran upon the mole at various points, and soon succeeded in wrecking the palisade built to protect it, and in setting fire to all the war-engines which had so far escaped the blazing cattle-boat.

The result of all this was that Alexander gave orders
for work to start again on the mole from the in-shore end; it was to be made broader, to give space for more towers, and the engineers were to set about the construction of fresh engines. In the meantime he himself with his Guards and Agrianes moved off for Sidon, in order to assemble there all the warships he possessed; for clearly, so long as the Tyrians were masters of the sea, the siege of Tyre would be no easy matter.

Meanwhile Gerostratus and Enylus, upon receiving a report that Aradus and Byblus were in Alexander’s hands, left the fleet which was under Autophradates’ command and sailed with their own contingents to join Alexander; the Sidonian warships accompanied them, so that Alexander received a reinforcement of about eighty Phoenician vessels. About the same time he was joined by the patrol ship from Rhodes and nine other vessels, three from Soli and Mallus, ten from Lycia, and a fifty-oared galley from Macedon under the command of Proteas, son of Andronicus. Shortly afterwards the alarming news of Darius’ defeat at Issus, added to the fact that all Phoenicia was in Alexander’s hands, induced the Cypriot kings to sail for Sidon with their fleet of some 120 ships.
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Alexander was aware that it was by necessity rather than choice that all of them had used their naval strength in support of Persia, and was quite willing, in consequence, to overlook the past.

While the war-engines were still under construction and the fleet was being put into order for active service, Alexander with some squadrons of cavalry, the Guards, the Agrianes, and the archers made an expedition to Mount Antilibanus in Arabia.
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Within ten days he made himself
master, either by force or agreement, of the country in that neighbourhood, and returned to Sidon, where he found that Cleander, son of Polemocrates, had arrived from the Poloponnose with about 4,000 Greek mercenary troops.

Once the fleet was fully mobilized, he embarked an adequate number of fighting men for the task in hand – on the assumption, that is, that in the coming engagement close fighting would be the order of the day rather than naval tactics. The fleet then sailed for Tyre in close order, with Alexander himself on the right wing to seaward, supported by the Cypriot kings and all the Phoenicians with the exception of Pnytagoras,
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who, with Craterus, was in command of the left.

It had been the intention of the Tyrians to offer battle if Alexander attacked by sea; now, however, the situation was very different: here was a much more powerful fleet than they had expected in their ignorance of the fact that all the ships of Cyprus and Phoenicia had joined Alexander; the fleet had lain-to at sea a little way off the town as a challenge to battle, and now, when the challenge was not answered, it was coming on again in close order and at full speed. In these circumstances, therefore, the Tyrians decided not to risk an engagement; instead, they blocked their harbour entrances with as many ships as there was room for, and kept guard there to prevent the enemy fleet from coming to anchor in any of them.

On the refusal of the Tyrians to accept his challenge, Alexander continued his course towards the town. He did not intend to force an entry into the harbour on the Sidon side of the island, because the entrance was narrow and
blocked by a number of warships lying bows-on to an approaching enemy; in spite of this, however, the Phoenicians rammed head-on the three outermost vessels and sank them, their crews swimming to safety on the friendly shore. After this incident the fleet brought up in-shore, not far from the mole, where there seemed to be shelter.

Next day Alexander gave orders for the blockade of the town: the Cyprian contingent under its commander Andromachus was to take station off the northern harbour (facing Sidon), and the Phoenicians off the southern harbour on the other side of the mole, where his own quarters were.

By this time Alexander had assembled a considerable body of workmen from Cyprus and various parts of Phoenicia, and many war-engines had been constructed; some were mounted on the mole, others on the transport vessels which he had brought from Sidon, others, again, on the slower-sailing triremes. When all was ready, they were ordered forward into action – not those on the mole only, but also those from the ships which were lying off the walls of the town at various points and already beginning the assault.

On the battlements overlooking the mole the Tyrians erected wooden towers for defensive action, and every threat from Alexander’s artillery, wherever it might be, they met with missile weapons, using fire-arrows against the ships with such effect that their crews were afraid to approach within range. The walls of the town opposite the mole were about 150 feet high and proportionately thick, strongly built of large stone blocks cemented together. There was a further reason why it was difficult for the Macedonian transports and triremes to work in close to the town with their artillery, and this was the fact that blocks of stone in large numbers had been thrown into the
water, and obstructed their advance. Alexander determined to remove them, but the task proved a difficult one, not only because the men had only the unsteady ships’ decks to work from, but also because the Tyrians in certain specially-armoured vessels kept driving athwart the bows of the Macedonian triremes and cutting the anchor cables, so that it was impossible for them to remain in their station. Alexander, in reply, filled a number of thirty-oared galleys with similar defensive armour and moored them broadside-on ahead of the triremes’ anchor ropes, to repel the Tyrian attacks; but the Tyrians, not to be outdone, sent down divers to cut the cables as before. Then the Macedonians substituted chain for rope – and against that, at any rate, the divers were useless. Finally, from the mole, they managed to pass ropes round the blocks of stone and to haul them out, after which they lifted them with cranes and dropped them again into deep water, where they were not likely to cause any further obstruction. Once the water by the wall was clear of obstacles, the ships could lie there, close in, without much difficulty.