Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/167

 SIEGE OF TYRE. 135 over their city to the chances of a Macedonian soldiery, they re- solved to brave the hazards of a siege. The pride of Alexander, impatient of opposition even to liis most extreme demands, prompted him to take a step politically unprofitable, in order to make display of his power, by degrading and crushing, with or without a siege, one of the most ancient, spirited, wealthy and in- telligent communities of the ancient world. Tyre vas situated on an islet nearly half a mile from the main- land ;i the channel between the two being shallow towards the land, but reaching a depth of eighteen feet in the part adjoining the city. The islet was completely surrounded by prodigious walls, the loftiest portion of which, on the side fronting the main- land, reached a height not less than 1.50 feet, with corresponding solidity and base.^ Besides these external fortifications, there was a brave and numerous population within, aided by a good Btock of arms, machines, ships, provisions, and other things essen- tial to defence. It was not without reason, therefore, that the Tyrians, when driven to their last resource, entertained hopes of holding out even against the formidable arm of Alexander ; and against Alexander as he then stood, they might have held out success- fully ; for he had as yet no fleet, and they could defy any attack made simply from land. The question turned upon the Pheni- cian and Cyprian ships, which were for the most part (the Tyr- ian among them) in the ^gean under the Persian admiral. Alexander — master as he was of Aradus, Byblus, Sidon, and all the Phenician cities except Tyre — calculated that the seamen belonging to these cities would follow their countrymen at home and bring away their ships to join him. He hoped also, as the victorious potentate, to draw to himself the willing adhesion pretensions of the Tyrians as greater than the fact warrants. They did not refuse the imperium of Alexander, though they declined compliance with one extreme demand. Ptolemy I. (son of Lagus) afterwards made himself master of Jerusalem, by entering the town on the Sabbath, under pretence of offering sacrifice (Josephus, Antiq. Jud. xii. 1). ' Curtius, iv. 2, 7, 8. The site of Tyre at the present day presents nothing in the least conformable to the description of Alexander's time.
 * Arrian, ii. 18, 3 : ii. 21, 4 ; ii. 22, 8.