The Sieges of Alexander the Great by Stephen English

Author:Stephen English [English, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844682805
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

These Tyrian vessels are of unknown type, but they must have been smaller and more manoeuvrable than triremes. They probably had some form of bladed weapon protruding from the sides of the vessel, or perhaps crewmen simply slashed through the ropes as they passed close by the moored ships. Either way, as long as the Macedonians were not securely moored in place, they could not raise the rocks from the ocean, and therefore could not approach the walls as they had been ordered. Alexander’s response to this is telling of his tactical thinking at this time: he fitted out a number of vessels and used them as a defensive screen against the Tyrian ships. This is exactly the tactic that he used to protect the workers on the mole, essentially the creation of a solid barrier. The Tyrians’ response was to send a number of divers to cut the cables; these men would then swim back to the relative safety of the fortress. Alexander then substituted chain for the rope, against which the divers were ineffective.132

In this incident, as with earlier ones on the mole, we see Alexander reacting to actions of the defenders. This is certainly not the proactive innovator that we would expect. What we may have here is something we see elsewhere: when Alexander is confronted with an entirely-new situation for the first time, the outcome is usually less successful than in subsequent encounters in similar circumstances. We can see, for example, the struggles initially in the Balkans, at Halicarnassus and the island of Tyre juxtaposed with the later stunning successes at Gaza and during the eastern sieges. Alexander shows himself to be a commander who does not always instantly make the correct decisions when faced with a situation he has never seen, but quickly learns and adapts.

With the ships now properly protected, they continued to clear the area all around the circuit of the fortress of the stone that had been dropping there. As this work progressed, the Tyrians were becoming ever more desperate and had to adopt a higher risk strategy thant they had been comfortable with early in the siege: they resolved to attack the Cypriot fleet stationed to the north of the mole, outside of the Sidonian harbour.

The defenders had observed a curious recurring pattern in the behaviour of the attackers: at noon every day the crews of the Cyrpiot fleet to the north of the mole landed on the mainland to prepare and eat their lunchtime meal, as well as to take some rest. When this happened, only a small number of vessels were left blockading the northern harbour. At the same time Alexander, who was invariably stationed with the Egyptian fleet to the south, would also go ashore to take a midday break. The pattern seemed to repeat itself day after day, and the Tyrians saw an opportunity to deliver a hammer blow to the attackers and to resume naval attacks upon the mole. This was a high-risk strategy as the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.