Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/127

 SIEGE OF HALIKARNASSUS. 95 death of Idrieus, his widow Ada was expelled from Halikarnas- sus and other parts of Karia by her surviving brother Pixoda- rus ; though she still preserved some strong towns, which proved a welcome addition to the conquests of Alexander. Pixodarus, on the contrary, who had given his daughter in marriage to a leading Persian named Orontobates, warmly espoused the Persian cause, and made Halikarnassus a capital pomt of resistance against the invader.^ But it was not by him alone that this city was defended. The Persian fleet had repaired thither from Miletus ; Memnon, now mvested by Darius with supreme command on the Asiatic coast and the ^gean, was there in person. There was not only Oron- tobates with many other Asiatics, but also a large garrison of mercenary Greeks, commanded by Ephialtes, a brave Athenian exile. The city, strong both by nature and by art, with a sur- rounding ditch forty-five feet broad and twenty-two feet deep,2 had been still farther strengthened under the prolonged superin- tendence of Memnon ; * lastly, there were two citadels, a fortified harbor, with its entrance fronting the south, abundant magazines of arms, and good provision of defensive engines. The siege of Halikarnassus was the most arduous enterprise which Alexander had yet undertaken. Instead of attacking it by land and sea at once, as at Miletus, he could make his approaches only from the land, while the defenders were powerfully aided from seaward by the Persian ships with their numerous crews. His first efforts, directed against the gate on the north or north- east of the city, which led towards Mylasa, were interrupted by frequent sallies and discharges from the engines on the walls. After a few days thus spent without much avail, he j^assed with a large section of his army to the western side of the town, to- wards the outlying portion of the projecting tongue of land, on which Halikarnassus and Myndus (the latter farther westward) were situated. While making demonstrations on this side of Hali- karnassus, he at the same time attempted a night-attack on Myn- ' Arrian, i. 23, 11, 12 ; Diodor. xvii. 24 ; Strabo, xiv. p. 657. » Arrian, i. 20, 13. ^ Arrian, i. 20, 5. ^I'linavra ravra Me/ivuv ts aiTOf naiKov ^k ira^li'M iraptcKevuKei, etc.