The Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian — Book I, The Siege of Halicarnassus

Alexander now resolved to disband his fleet, partly from lack of money at the time, and partly because he saw that his own fleet was not a match in battle for that of the Persians. On this account he was unwilling to run the risk of losing even a part of his armament. Besides, he considered, that now he was occupying Asia with his land force, he would no longer be in need of a fleet; and that he would be able to break up that of the Persians, if he captured the maritime cities; since they would neither have any ports from which they could recruit their crews, nor any harbour in Asia to which they could bring their ships. Thus he explained the omen of the eagle to signify that he should get the mastery over the enemy’s ships by his land force. ^20.2After doing this, he set forth into Caria, because it was reported that a considerable force, both of foreigners and of Grecian auxiliaries, had collected in Halicarnassus. Having taken all the cities between Miletus and Halicarnassus as soon as he approached them, he encamped near the latter city, at a distance from it of about five stades, as if he expected a long siege. ^20.3For the natural position of the place made it strong; and wherever there seemed to be any deficiency in security, it had been entirely supplied long before by Memnon, who was there in person, having now been proclaimed by Darius governor of lower Asia and commander of the entire fleet. Many Grecian mercenary soldiers had been left in the city, as well as many Persian troops; the triremes also were moored in the harbour, so that the sailors might render him valuable aid in the operations. ^20.4On the first day of the siege, while Alexander was leading his men up to the wall in the direction of the gate leading towards Mylasa, the men in the city made a sortie, and a skirmish took place; but Alexander’s men making a rush upon them repulsed them with ease, and shut them up in the city. ^20.5A few days after this, the king took the shield-bearing guards, the Cavalry Companions, the infantry regiments of Amyntas, Perdiccas and Meleager, and in addition to these the archers and Agrianians, and went round to the part of the city which is in the direction of Myndus, both for the purpose of inspecting the wall, to see if it happened to be more easy to be assaulted there than elsewhere; and at the same time to see if he could get hold of Myndus by a sudden and secret attack. For he thought that if Myndus were his own, it would be no small help in the siege of Halicarnassus; moreover, an offer to surrender had been made by the Myndians if he would approach the town secretly, under the cover of night. ^20.6About midnight, therefore, he approached the wall, according to the plan agreed on; but as no sign of surrender was made by the men within, and though he had with him no military engines or ladders, inasmuch as he had not set out to besiege the town, but to receive it on surrender, he nevertheless led the Macedonian phalanx near and ordered them to undermine the wall. They threw down one of the towers, which, however, in its fall did not make a breach in the wall. ^20.7But the men in the city stoutly defending themselves, and at the same time many from Halicarnassus having already come to their aid by sea, made it impossible for Alexander to capture Myndus by surprise or sudden assault. Wherefore he returned without accomplishing any of the plans for which he had set out, and devoted himself once more to the siege of Halicarnassus.

^20.8In the first place he filled up with earth the ditch which the enemy had dug in front of the city, about thirty cubits wide and fifteen deep; so that it might be easy to bring forward the towers, from which he intended to discharge missiles against the defenders of the wall; and that he might bring up the other engines with which he was planning to batter the wall down. ^20.9He easily filled up the ditch, and the towers were then brought forward. But the men in Halicarnassus made a sally by night with the design of setting fire both to the towers and the other engines which had been brought up to the wall, or were nearly brought up to it. They were, however, easily repelled and shut up again within the walls by the Macedonians who were guarding the engines, and by others who were aroused by the noise of the struggle and who came to their aid. ^20.10Neoptolemus, the brother of Arrhabaeus, son of Amyntas, one of those who had deserted to Darius, was killed, with about 170 others of the enemy. Of Alexander’s soldiers sixteen were killed and 300 wounded; for the sally being made in the night, they were less able to guard themselves from being wounded.

^21.1A few days after this, two Macedonian hoplites of the brigade of Perdiccas, living in the same tent and being messmates, happened in the course of conversation each to be extolling himself and his own exploits. Hence a quarrel arose between them as to which of them was the braver, and, being somewhat inflamed with wine, they agreed to arm themselves, and of their own accord go and assault the wall facing the citadel, which for the most part was turned towards Mylasa. This they did rather to make a display of their own valour than to engage in a dangerous conflict with the enemy. ^21.2Some of the men in the city, however, perceiving that there were only two of them, and that they were approaching the wall inconsiderately, rushed out upon them; but they slew those who came near, and hurled darts at those who stood at a distance. At last, however, they were overmatched both by the number of their assailants and the disadvantage of their own position; for the enemy made the attack upon them, and threw darts at them from a higher level. ^21.3Meanwhile some other men from the brigade of Perdiccas, and others from Halicarnassus, rushed out against each other; and a sharp contest ensued near the wall. Those who had made the sally from the city were driven back, and again shut up within the gates by the Macedonians. The city also narrowly escaped capture; ^21.4for the walls at that time were not under strict guard, and two towers, with the whole intermediate space, having already fallen to the ground, would have offered an easy entrance within the wall to the army, if the whole of it had undertaken the task. The third tower, which had been thoroughly shaken, would likewise have been easily thrown down if it had been undermined; but the enemy easily succeeded in building inside a crescent-shaped brick wall to take the place of the one which had fallen. This they were able to do so quickly because of the multitude of hands at their disposal. ^21.5On the following day Alexander brought his engines up to this wall also; and the men in the city made another sally to set them on fire. A part of the wicker-work shed near the wall and a piece of one of the wooden towers were burnt, but the rest were protected by Philotas and Hellanicus, to whom the charge of them had been committed. But as soon as those who were making the sally saw Alexander, the men who had come out to render aid by holding torches threw them away, and the majority of them cast away their arms and fled within the walls of the city. ^21.6Then at first they had the advantage from the nature of their position, which was commanding on account of its height; for not only did they cast missiles right in front against the men who were guarding the engines, but also from the towers which alone had been left standing at each end of the battered-down wall, they were able to cast them against the sides, and almost against the backs, of those who were assaulting the wall which had just been built in place of the ruined one.

^22.1A few days after this, when Alexander again brought his military engines up to the inner brick wall, and was himself superintending the work, a sortie in mass was made from the city, some advancing by the breach in the wall, where Alexander himself was posted, others by the triple gate, where the Macedonians did not at all expect them. ^22.2The first party cast torches and other combustibles at the engines, in order to set them on fire and to defy the engineers excessively. But when the men around Alexander attacked them vigorously, hurling great stones with the engines from the towers, and launching darts at them, they were easily put to rout and fled into the city; and as a great number of them had sallied forth and great audacity had been exhibited in the fight, no small slaughter of them took place. ^22.3For some of them were slain fighting hand-to-hand with the Macedonians, others were killed near the ruins of the wall, because the breach was too narrow for such a multitude to pass through, and the fragments of the wall made it difficult for them to scale it. ^22.4The second party, which sallied forth by the triple gate, was met by Ptolemy, one of the royal body-guards, who had with him the regiments of Addaeus and Timander and some of the light-armed troops. ^22.5These soldiers by themselves easily put the men of the city to rout; but as the latter in their retreat were fleeing over a narrow bridge which had been made over the ditch, they had the misfortune to break it down by the weight of their multitude. Many of them fell into the ditch, some of whom were trampled to death by their own comrades, and others were killed by the Macedonian weapons from above. ^22.6A very great slaughter was also made at the very gates, because they were shut before the proper time in a state of panic. For the enemy, being afraid that the Macedonians, who were close upon the fugitives, would rush in with them, shut many of their friends out, who were slain by the Macedonians near the very walls. ^22.7The city narrowly escaped capture; indeed it would have been taken, had not Alexander called back his army, to see if some friendly sign of surrender would be made by the Halicarnassians; for he was still desirous of saving their city. Of the men in the city about one thousand were slain; and of Alexander’s men about forty, among whom were Ptolemy, one of the king’s body-guards, Clearchus, a captain of the archers, Addaeus, who had the command of a thousand infantry, and other Macedonians of no mean position.

^23.1Then Orontobates and Memnon, the commanders of the Persians, met and decided from the state of affairs that they could not hold out long against the siege, seeing that part of the wall had already fallen down and part had been battered and weakened, and that many of their soldiers had either perished in the sorties or been wounded and disabled. ^23.2Taking these things into consideration, about the second watch of the night they set fire to the wooden tower which they had themselves built to resist the enemy’s military engines, and to the magazines in which their weapons were stored. ^23.3They also cast fire into the houses near the wall; and others were burned by the flames, which were carried with great fury from the magazines and the tower by the wind bearing in that direction. ^23.4Some of the enemy then withdrew to the stronghold in the island (called Arconnesus), and others to another fortress called Salmacis. When this was reported to Alexander by some deserters from the incendiaries, and he himself could see the raging fire, though the occurrence took place about midnight, yet he led out the Macedonians and slew those who were still engaged in setting fire to the city. But he issued orders to preserve all the Halicarnassians who should be taken in their houses. As soon as the daylight appeared he could discern the strongholds which the Persians and the Grecian mercenaries had occupied; ^23.5but he decided not to besiege them, considering that he would meet with no small delay beleaguering them, from the nature of their position, and moreover thinking that they would be of little importance to him now that he had captured the whole city.

^23.6Wherefore, burying the dead in the night, he ordered the men who had been placed in charge of the military engines to convey them to Tralles. He himself marched into Phrygia, after razing the city to the ground, and leaving 3,000 Grecian infantry and 200 cavalry as a guard both of this place and of the rest of Caria, under the command of Ptolemy. ^23.7He appointed Ada to act as his viceroy of the whole of Caria. This queen was daughter of Hecatomnus and wife of Hidrieus, who, though he was her brother, lived with her in wedlock, according to the custom of the Carians. When Hidrieus was dying, he confided the administration of affairs to her, for it had been a custom in Asia, ever since the time of Semiramis, even for women to rule men. But Pixodarus expelled her from the rule, and seized the administration of affairs himself. ^23.8On the death of Pixodarus, his son-in-law Orontobates was sent by the king of the Persians to rule over the Carians. Ada retained Alinda alone, the strongest place in Caria; and when Alexander invaded Caria she went to meet him, offering to surrender Alinda to him, and adopting him as her son. Alexander confided Alinda to her, and did not think the title of son unworthy of his acceptance; moreover, when he had captured Halicarnassus and become master of the rest of Caria, he granted her the privilege of ruling over the whole country.