sea washed; and the Carthagenians, (a colony from Tyre) a mighty people, and sovereigns of the ocean, whose ambassadors were at that time in the city, offering to Hercules, according to ancient custom, an annual sacrifice, had engaged themselves to succour the Tyrians. 165. It was this made them so haughty; firmly determined not to surrender, they fix machines on the ramparts and on the towers, arm their young men, and build workhouses for the artificers, of whom there were great numbers in the city, so that every part resounded with the noise of warlike preparations. They likewise cast iron grapples to throw on the enemy's works, and tear them away; as also cramp irons, and such like instruments formed for the defence of cities. So many difficulties opposing such a hazardous design, and so many reasons should have made Alexander decline the siege. 166. It was impossible to come near this city in order to storm it, without making a bank, which would reach from the continent to the island; and an attempt of this kind would be attended with difficulties, that were seemingly insurmountable. The little arm of the sea, which separated the island from the continent, was exposed to the west wind, which often raised such dreadful storms there, that the waves would in an instant, sweep away all works. 167. Besides, as the city was surrounded on all sides by the sea, there was no fixing scaling ladders, nor throwing up batteries, but at a distance in the ships; and the wall which projected into the sea towards the lower part, prevented people from landing; not to mention that the military engines, which might have been put on board the galleys, could not do much execution, the waves were so very tumultuous. These obstacles, however, by no means retarded the enterprising resolutions of Alexander, but willing to gain a place, rather by treaty than by the sword, he sent heralds into the city, proposing a peace between the Tyrians and him. 1 168. The citizens, however, a tumultuous ungovernable body, instead of listening to his proposals, instead of endeavouring to avert his resentment, contrary to the law of nations, killed his heralds, and threw them from the top of the walls into the sea. i This outrage inflamed Alexander's passions to the highest degree, he resolved upon the city's destruction, and sat down before it with persevering resentment. His first endeavour was to form a pier jutting from the continent, and reaching to the city, which was built upon an island. From the foundations of an ancient city upon the shore, he dug stones and rubbish; from mount Libanus, that hung over the city, he cut down cedars that served for piles and thus he began his work without interruption. 169. But the farther they went from shore, the greater difficulties they met with, because the sea was deeper, and the workmen were much annoyed by the darts discharged from the top of the walls. The enemy also, who were masters at sea, coming in great boats, prevented the Macedonians from carrying on thei work with vigour. 170. At last, however, the pile appeared above water, a level of considerable breadth: then the besieged at last perceived their rashness; they saw with terror the vastness of the work which the sea had till then kept from their sight, and now began to attack the workmen with javelins, and wound them at a distance. It was therefore resolved that skins and sails should be spread to cover the workmen, and that two wooden towers should be raised at the head of the bank to prevent the approaches of the enemy. Yet these were burnt soon after by the besieged, together with all the wood-work composing the pile that could be touched by the fire. 171. Alexander, though he saw most of his designs defeated, and his works demolished, was not at all dejected upon that account. His soldiers endeavoured, with redoubled vigour, to repair the ruins of the bank; and made and planted new machines, with such prodigious speed as quite astonished the enemy. Alexander himself was present on all occasions, and superintended every part of the works. His presence and abilities advanced these still more than the multitude of hands employed in them. 172. The whole was near finished, and brought almost to the wall of the city, when there arose on a sudden an impetuous wind, which drove the waves with so much fury against the mole, that the cement and other things that barred it, gave way, and the water rushing through the stones, broke it in the middle. As soon as the great heap of stones which supported the earth was thrown down, the whole sunk at once as into an abyss. 173. Any warrior but Alexander would that instant have quite daid aside his enterprise ; and indeed he himself debated whether he should not raise the siege. But a superior power, who had foretold and sworn the ruin of Tyre, and whose orders this prince only executed, prompted him to continue the siege; and, dispelling all his fear and anxiety, inspired him with courage and confidence, and fired the breast of his whole army with the same sentiments. For now the soldiers, as if but that moment arrived before the city, forgetting all the toils they had undergone, began to raise a new mole, at which they worked incessantly. 174. In the mean time, Alexander being convinced that while the enemy remained masters at sea, the city could not be taken, with great diligence procured a fleet from various parts, and em barking himself, with some soldiers from among his guard, he set sail towards the Tyrian fleet, forming a line of battle. The Tyrians were at first determined to oppose him openly; but perceiving the superiority of his forces, they kept all the galleys in their harbour, to prevent the enemy from entering there. Àlexander, therefore, was contented to draw up his ships near the bank along the shore, where they rode in safety, and kept the enemy from annoying his workmen, who were employed upon the bank. 175. The besiegers, thus protected, went on with great vigour. The workmen threw into the sea whole trees, with all their branches on them; and laid great stones over these, on which they put other trees, and the latter they covered with clay, which served instead of mortar. Afterwards, heaping more trees and stones on these, the whole thus joined together, formed one entire body. This bank was made wider than the former one; in order that the towers that were built in the middle might be out of the reach of such arrows as should be shot from those ships, which might attempt to break down the edges of the bank. 176. Thus, after many delays, the patience of the workmen surmounting every obstacle, it was at last finished in its utmost perfection. The Macedonians placed military engines of all kinds on the bank, in order to shake the walls with batteringrams, and hurl on the besieged arrows, stones, and burning torches. Thus, by degrees, approaching to the foot of the wall, the Tyrians were attacked in close combat, and invested on all sides, both by sea and land. A general attack was now therefore thought necessary; and the king manning his galleys, which he had joined to each other, ordered them to approach the walls about midnight, and attack the city with resolution. 177. The Tyrians now gave themselves over for lost; when on a sudden the sky was overspread with such thick clouds, as quite took away the faint glimmering of light which before darted through the gloom; the sea rose by insensible degrees, and the billows being swelled by the fury of the winds, increased to a dreadful storm; the vessels dashed one against the other with so much violence, that the cables, which before fastened them together, were either loosened or broke to pieces; the planks split, and making a horrible crash, carried off the soldiers with them; for the tempest was so furious, that it was not possible to manage or steer the galleys thus fastened together. At last, however, they brought them near the shore, but the greatest part were in a shattered condition. 178. This good fortune of the Tyrians was counterbalanced by an unexpected calamity; they had long expected succours from Carthage, a flourishing colony of their own, but they now received advice from thence that the Carthagenians were absolutely unable to give them any assistance; being overawed themselves by a powerful army of Syracusans, who were laying waste their country. The Tyrians, therefore, frustrated in their hopes, still retained the resolution of defending themselves to the last extremity; and accordingly sent off their women and children to Carthage, as being of no use in the defence of their city. 179. And now the engines playing, the city was warmly attacked on all sides, and as vigorously defended. The besieged taught and animated by imminent danger, and the extreme necessity to which they were reduced, invented daily new arts to defend themselves and repulse the enemy. They warded off all the darts discharged from the balistas against them, by the assistance of turning wheels, which either broke them to pieces or carried them another way. They deadened the violence of the stones that were hurled at them by setting up a kind of sails and curtains made of a soft substance, which easily gave way. 180. To annoy the ships which advanced against their wall, they fixed grappling irons and scythes to joists or beams; then straining their catapultas (an enormous kind of cross-bow) they laid those great pieces of timber upon them instead of arrows, and shot them off on a sudden at the enemy; these crushed some to pieces by their great weight; and the hooks or pensile scythes, with which they were armed, tore others to pieces, and did considerable damage to their ships. 181. They also had brazen shields which they drew red hot out of the fire; and, filling these with burning sand, hurled them in an instant from the top of the wall upon the enemy. There was nothing the Macedonians so much dreaded as this last invention, for the moment this burning sand got to the flesh through the crevices in the armour, it pierced to the very bone, and stuck so close that there was no pulling it off, so that the soldiers throwing down their arms, and tearing their clothes to pieces, were in this manner exposed, naked and defenceless, to the shot of the enemy. 182. It was now thought that Alexander, quite discouraged with his loss, was determined to relinquish the siege; but he resolved to make a last effort, with a great number of ships, which he manned with the flower of his army. Accordingly a second naval engagement was fought, in which the Tyrians, after fighting with intrepidity, were obliged to draw off their whole fleet towards the city. The king pursued their rear very close but was not able to enter the harbour, being repulsed by arrows shot from the wall; however, he either took or sunk a great number of their ships. 183. Both the attack and défence were now more vigorous than ever. The courage of the combatants increased with the danger; and each side, animated by the most powerful motives, fought like lions. Wherever the battering-rams had beat down any part of the wall, and the bridges were thrown out, instantly the Argyraspides mounted the breach with the utmost valour, being headed by Admetus, one of the bravest officers in the army, who was killed by the thrust of a spear as he was encouraging his soldiers. The presence of the king, and especially the example he set, fired his troops with unusual bravery. 184. He himself ascended one of the towers which was of a prodigious height, and there was exposed to the greatest dangers his courage had ever made him hazard; for being immediately known by his insignia, and the richness of his armour, he served as a mark for all the arrows of the enemy. On this occasion he performed wonders; killing with javelins several of those who defended the wall: then advancing nearer to them, he forced some with the sword, and others with the shield, either into the city or the sea; the tower where he fought almost touching the wall. 185. He soon ascended the wall, by the assistance of floating bridges: and followed by the principal officers, possessed himself of the two towers, and the space between them. The batteringrams had already made several breaches; the fleet had forced into the harbour;, and some of the Macedonians had possessed themselves of the towers which were abandoned. The Tyrians, seeing the enemy masters of their rampart, retired towards an open place, called Agenor, and there stood their ground: but Alexander marching up with his regiment of body-guards, killed part of them, and obliged the rest to fly. 186. At the same time Tyre being taken on that side which lay towards the harbour, the Macedonians ran up and down every part of the city, sparing no person who came in their way, being highly exasperated at the long resistance of the besieged, and the barbarities they had exercised towards some of their comrades, who had been taken in their return to Sidon, and thrown from the battlements, after their throats had been cut, in the sight of the whole army. 187. The Tyrians, thus reduced to the last extremity, shut themselves up in their houses, to avoid the sword of the conqueror; others rushed into the midst of the enemy, to sell their lives as dearly as they could; and some threw stones from the tops of their houses, to crush the sailors below; the old men waited at their doors, expecting every instant to be sacrificed, from the rage of the soldiers. In this general carnage, the Sidonian soldiers alone, that were in Alexander's army, seemed touched with pity for the fate of the wretched inhabitants; they gave protection to many of the Tyrians, whom they considered as countrymen, |