The Anabasis of Alexander/Book I/Chapter XXII

by Arrian

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CHAPTER XXII.

Siege of Halicarnassus.

A 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. The 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. For some of them were slain fighting hand-to-hand with the Macedonians, others were killed near the ruins of the wall,^[1] 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. The second party, which sallied forth by the triple gate, was met by Ptolemy,^[2] one of the royal body-guards, who had with him the regiments of Addaeus and Timander and some of the light-armed troops. These 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. A 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. The 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.^[3]

1. This use of ἀμφί with the Dative, is poetical. The Attic writers use περί with the Accusative. Cf. ii. 3, 8; iii. 30, 1.
2. There were at least four generals in Alexander's army of this name. The one here mentioned was probably not the famous son of Lagus.
3. Diodorus (xvii. 25-27) gives a very different account of the last struggle of the besieged in Halicarnassus. When the leaders saw that they must eventually succumb, they made a last desperate effort to destroy Alexander's military engines. Ephialtes, the eminent Athenian exile, headed the sally, which vfas effected by troops simultaneously issuing from all the gates at daybreak. The advanced guard of the Macedonians, consisting of young troops, vrere put to rout; but the veterans of Philip restored the battle under a man named Atharrias. Ephialtes was slain, and his men driven back into the city.