Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/59

 Cfi.vr. I.]

THE SIEGE OF TYP.E.

'Zo

B.C. 332.

The riiu.iiic:iiri

I*

making his first campaigns against the Persians, the inhabitants of Tyre had taken part with the hitter, and by their maritime superiority, kept the coast of Macedonia and Greece in pei'petual ahirm. Alexander, incensed, tm'ned back from his Persian conquests, and after subduing several of the adjoining cities, laid siege to Tyi'e. To a mind capable of being repelled by ordinary obstacles, tlie difficulty of the task would have been a sufficient dissuasive from attempt- ing it. To him it was only an additional incentive, because, if he succeeded, liis fame would be the greater. It also appears from a speech which Arrian puts into his mouth,' that he was actuated as much by policy as by revenge. While the Tyrians remained inde- pendent and maintained a hostile attitude, he could not ventm-e with safety to prosecute the am- bitious schemes which he had begun in the East, and was also contemplating in Egypt. Hope- less, therefore, as it might have seemed for a land army to at- tempt the captiu-e of a great mari- time city strongly fortified by art, and rendered still stronger by its natural position on an island, and the possession of a powerful fleet commanding all the approaches to it, he at once commenced opera- tions by constructing a mound, which, after the greatest difficulties had been surmounted, connected the island with the mainland, and formed a highway for the passage of his troops. The result was that, in about seven months. Tyre lay in ruins It might have risen from them acrain, for the lucrative trade which it Fail of Tyre, monopolized would soon have made wealth to flow in upon it, and furnished the means of repairing its disaster. The fatal blow which extinguished its greatness was not struck till Alexander, after a successful campaign in Egypt, laid the foundation of Alexandi'ia. The site was so happily chosen that the new city soon

A. Northern Harbour. B. Southern Harbour.

C. Northern (or Sidonian) Roadstead.

D. Southern (or Eg.viitian) Roadstead.

E. Isthmus formed by Alexander the Great.

a a. Line of Ancient Canal, connecting the Northern and Southern Harbours.

pliy.-,ical features of the locality have undergone a re- markable change. What was once an island is now a peninsula. Other chan^'es have taken place; and there is reason to believe that the island had at one time a larger extent than now appears. In fact, the encroachment of the sea is established by the ap- pearance of walls, which are now coverea by a con- VoL. T.

siderable depth of water, but are supposed to have been originally built on the western shore.

Of the present condition of Tyre it is unnecessary to say more than that it is little better than a fishing village, composed of wretched hovels huddled together in narrow, crooked, and filthy streets.

' Arrian's Anabasis Alcxandri, b. ii. c. 17.