Alexander preparing for the siege of Tyre

After the Battle of Issus, Alexander was more determined than ever to take all the harbors of the eastern Mediterranean to outmaneuver the Persian maritime power. He marched to Marathus (modern Amrit) and from there onward to Byblos, who both surrendered. 

The next famous city on Alexander’s route was Sidon, whose inhabitants were only too happy to get rid of their Persian satrap, Straton. They welcomed the Macedonian king as their liberator. A new ruler had to be found, and Hephaistion was instructed to search for the appropriate candidate. King Abdalonymus was a respectable and honest man, and the people loved him. Out of gratitude for this appointment, Abdalonymus, at a later age, commissioned the famous Alexander sarcophagus that is now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.  

As Alexander marched further south, he reached powerful Phoenician Tyre. The city had prospered because of its trade in purple dye, which was highly valued throughout the ancient world. Already in the early 6^th century BC, this richness had attracted the attention of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. He laid siege to Tyre for 13 years without success. This simply illustrates the challenges Alexander was about to face.  

Tyre was of strategic importance, a massive fortress island surrounded by well-defended high walls separated from the mainland by a deep channel. It had two natural harbors, one on the north side facing Sidon and another one south looking towards Egypt. The Tyrians felt pretty secure since they enjoyed the protection of a substantial Persian fleet in both ports. 

Before reaching the city, Alexander was met by its envoys, stating that they would abide by any of his instructions. The Macedonian king gracefully thanked the representatives and expressed his wish to enter Tyre to sacrifice to Heracles, who was, in fact, their god Melqarth or Baal. Basically, the Tyrians accepted Alexander’s arrival but refused to admit him or his Macedonians inside their fortress on the island. 

Alexander needed to take Tyre to safeguard his back on his march further south to Egypt. The only way was to lay siege to the city – a tremendous and complicated task because he had disbanded most of his own fleet and the remaining ships were no match to the Persian forces. Clearly, the fortress could not be taken from the sea alone, and thus Alexander decided to build a causeway to connect the island to the mainland. It was a tedious and dangerous operation as the Tyrians had no intention to let this happen. 

Construction went underway and progressed steadily in the shallow waters near the coastline. Stones from the old city of Tyre were used for the foundation of the mole, and piles were driven into the mud to keep the stones in place (see: Alexander's Isthmus, Tyre, Lebanon). But as the Macedonians reached deeper water, matters changed dramatically. Progress slowed down because many more stones were needed to fill the depth while the Tyrian ships could now approach the causeway and attack the exposed workers. In response, Alexander built two towers mounted with artillery and faced them with hides to somehow protect his soldiers on the mole. The army could drive the enemy away from their precarious shelter with their own missiles. 

The Tyrians were not to be discouraged and decided to take a cattle-ship and stuff it with dry brushwood and straw. They added two masts to create a higher pile of inflammable material, including pitch and sulfur, to fan the fire. They also attached caldrons filled with liquids that could be poured onto the fire to increase its fury. To ensure these vessels would come as close as possible to the causeway, they added heavy ballast in the aft section to lift the bows to a maximum. Triremes pulled these burning vessels close to the Macedonia towers, and as they caught fire, the Tyrians withdrew immediately to save themselves. The fire was an absolute inferno. 

Although this attack meant a severe setback, it would not deter Alexander from executing his plan. Instead of repairing the substantial devastation, he started the works all over again. He built a broader mole at the shoreside with enough space for more towers and instructed his engineers to construct new engines.

  

Alexander, as always, saw the greater picture. He moved back to Sidon to gather as many ships as possible to annihilate the enemy navy since that was imperative to conquer Tyre. At this stage, the king was joined by two Persian satraps, who, after learning that Aradus and Byblos were in Macedonian hands, decided to side with Alexander. Sidon contributed with its own warships, bringing the total Phoenician ships to about eighty. After his victory at Issus and having taken Phoenicia, Alexander’s fleet was spontaneously joined by Rhodes with ten ships, three ships from Soli and Mallus, and ten more from Lycia. The king of Cyprus also decided to join his forces to Alexander’s and sailed to Sidon with some 120 ships. With so many of these previously Persian allies now fighting on Alexander’s side, the situation of the Macedonians suddenly looked much better. 

This most certainly was the turning point in the entire siege! 

Continued in Alexander besieging Tyre.

[Pictures from World History, Dan Diffendale (Melquart) and United States Military Academy, Dept of History (map)]

Alexander and Hephaistion side by side

Finding these two great men side by side at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is absolutely thrilling.

I often wonder why there are so few images of Hephaistion, but one should consider that none of the men in Alexander's entourage were ever depicted while the king was still alive. We do have pictures – mainly coins – showing the members of his bodyguards (somatophylakes), but only when they became king in their own realm after Alexander's death, simply because it was a king's privilege to be portrayed.

The most obvious example is, beyond doubt, Ptolemy, who started ruling over Egypt immediately after Alexander's death. Lysimachos had to wait a little longer in the ensuing battle of the Diadochi to be recognized as king of Thrace and represented as such on his coinage. The same applies obviously to Seleucos and Antigonus Monophthalmus. Yet none of the king's Bodyguards, like Aristonous, Peithon, Leonnatus, Peucestas, or even Perdiccas, have ever been carved in stone. Hence, we don't know what they looked like.

This being said, I should not be ungrateful for the few images we have of Hephaistion, i.e., the head (probably reworked in antiquity) now at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California, and the smaller-than-life-size marble statue at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, where he is standing next to Alexander.

Alexander looks rather shabby, but in my eyes, Hephaistion is exactly how he is supposed to be. However, I struggle with the label at the museum, which states, "Marble statue of Hephaistion. Possibly a group erected in Alexandria honoring Hephaistion, 1st century BC". Why would Alexander show up next to an honorific statue of Hephaistion? And how come Alexandria is (still) honoring Hephaistion in the first century BC when the Ptolemaic dynasty is reaching its end with the famous Queen Cleopatra fighting for Egypt's survival? When Hephaistion died in 324 BC, Alexander would have loved to see him deified by the Egyptian priests, who tactfully promoted him to hero instead. So, a cult in honor of Hephaistion is not surprising, but I find the time frame and this kind of association with Alexander rather disturbing.

When I wrote my "Ode to Alexander and Hephaistion," I forgot to mention this group of statues. Shame on me! But then I also omitted to mention both men's portraits on the famous Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon, now at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul.

This sarcophagus, in fact, deserves a closer look, of course. First, it does not belong to Alexander the Great but was probably made for King Abdalonymus of Sidon, who was put on the throne by Alexander (with the help of Hephaistion) after conquering the city in 332 BC. It has been dated between 325 and 311 BC and was discovered in 1887 at the Royal Necropolis of Sidon, i.e., when Phoenicia was still part of the Ottoman Empire.

One of the long sides of the sarcophagus definitely shows Alexander fighting a Persian, probably King Darius (but this is not certain), at the Battle of Issus that occurred only a few months earlier, and where the Persians were defeated by the Greeks. The other long side represents two hunting scenes, those of a lion and a deer, in which both Greeks and Persians participated. The sarcophagus's short sides show a panther hunt and a battle scene.

Alexander is the only figure identified with certainty since he wears Heracles' headdress and the Amon ram's horn. Hephaistion is probably depicted in the hunting scene where he attacks a lion together with a Persian. Most unfortunately, the other personages cannot be tied to a name, although Perdiccas and Abdalonymus have been suggested. It is a great historical document that sadly has yet to be entirely deciphered.

Although these high reliefs appear very Greek, the craftsmen were masters in the Eastern art of decoration. This is based on the use of eagles in the upper row of the acroteria, who carried the souls of the dead to heaven according to ancient Syrian beliefs. The heads of women added at the bottom refer to the worship of the mother goddess, as known from prehistoric times in Mesopotamia. The acroteria above the pediments on the sides represent Persian griffons. Also, a lion is lying on each corner of the sarcophagus, symbolizing protection. These meager beasts look more like dogs and seem to be of Ionian origin.

The attentive eye will notice subtle traces of paint all over this marble sarcophagus. Colors range from purple, blue, and red to violet and yellow, and it is thought that the figures themselves were slightly varnished. Thanks to the intensive work carried out by Vinzenz Brinkman over the past 25 years (see: Ancient Greece in full Technicolor), we can now have a very vivid image of what this sarcophagus must have looked like at the time of its completion.

This being said, we owe a great deal to the owner of this masterpiece. King Abdalonymus is displaying immense gratitude towards both Alexander and Hephaistion since he would never have ruled over his city without them. When the people of Sidon heard of Alexander's victory over Darius at Issus, they decided to depose their ruling king, Straton II, a friend of Darius, and open the city gates to Alexander, whose task was to appoint a new king. He instructed Hephaistion to find the appropriate candidate. He discovered this distant relative of the dynasty of Sidon, living in the countryside. Abdalonymus, whose name means "servant of the gods" in Persian, clearly took his task seriously. What an honorable tribute he paid here to both Alexander and Hephaistion!

[Picture from Wikipedia]