Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History / The Achaemenid Siege of Tyre: Alexander's Unyielding Foe
Transcript
- Lucas: So in previous episodes we've talked a lot about the Persians and their sieges — Cyrus taking Babylon, Cambyses in Egypt, Xerxes and the Hellespont. But there's one siege that really stands out in the way it reshaped the eastern Mediterranean, and it didn't involve Persians as the attackers at all. Luna: You mean when Alexander the Great besieged Tyre? Lucas: Exactly. Tyre was this heavily fortified island city off the coast of modern Lebanon, and it was the most powerful city-state in Phoenicia. By 332 BCE, Alexander had already crushed Darius III at Issus and was sweeping south along the coast. He needed to secure the Phoenician ports to prevent the Persian fleet from harassing his supply lines. Most cities surrendered — Sidon, Byblos, Aradus — but Tyre refused. Luna: Why would Tyre risk angering Alexander? They must have known what he was capable of. Lucas: They had a few things going for them. First, they were on an island about half a mile from the mainland, with walls that rose 150 feet straight from the sea. Second, they had a powerful navy — Tyrian triremes were among the best. And third, they apparently believed Alexander wouldn't waste time on a siege that could take months when he had a Persian empire to conquer. They thought they could wait him out. Luna: But they underestimated him. Lucas: Massively. Alexander began by building a causeway from the mainland to the island. He used rubble from the old mainland city of Tyre, which he had destroyed when they refused. His engineers drove wooden piles into the seabed and piled stones and earth on top. It was an incredible engineering feat — but the Tyrians fought back hard. They launched fire ships against the causeway, they sent divers to cut anchor cables, and they rained arrows and catapult stones from the walls. Luna: A fire ship would have been devastating against a wooden causeway. Lucas: It was. The Tyrians filled an old transport ship with dry branches, pitch, and sulfur, set it ablaze, and drove it into the causeway. The fire spread, and many of Alexander's siege towers on the causeway were destroyed. Alexander had to start over. But he didn't give up — he just broadened the causeway and brought in more ships from the surrendered Phoenician cities. Lucas: By the summer of 332 BCE, Alexander had assembled a fleet of about 200 ships — mostly from Phoenician and Cypriot allies. With those ships, he blockaded Tyre's harbors and prevented them from receiving supplies. Then he began bombarding the walls with catapults mounted on ships and on the causeway. Luna: So he turned a land siege into a combined naval and land operation. That's brilliant. Lucas: Exactly. After seven months, Alexander finally breached the walls. He led an assault with his elite hypaspists, and the fighting was savage. According to Arrian, 8,000 Tyrians were killed, and Alexander crucified 2,000 more along the shore. The survivors — some 30,000 — were sold into slavery. Tyre was utterly destroyed, and it never regained its former power. Luna: That's brutal. But strategically it made sense — he couldn't leave a hostile port behind him. Lucas: Right. And the siege had massive consequences. First, it removed the last significant Persian naval base in the eastern Mediterranean. Second, the destruction of Tyre allowed Alexander to march into Egypt without interference, where he founded Alexandria. Third, it showed the Persian satraps and cities that resistance was futile — after Tyre, most cities surrendered without a fight. Luna: It's interesting — the Persians themselves didn't really help Tyre, did they? They sent some supplies but no major fleet. Lucas: That's right. The Persian king Darius III was busy regrouping after Issus, and his fleet had largely been dismantled. The Phoenician contingents that had served under the Persians actually defected to Alexander during the siege. So Tyre was essentially fighting alone — a single city-state against the Macedonian war machine. Their king, Azemilcus, was captured but apparently spared by Alexander. Luna: I've always wondered — was there any way Tyre could have actually won? Lucas: Probably not in the long run. If they had held out longer, maybe they could have forced Alexander into a costly stalemate, but his resources were vast. Some scholars argue that Tyre's resistance actually helped Alexander's reputation — it showed he would never back down from a challenge. The siege became a template for later Hellenistic siegecraft. But it also cost him time — he spent seven months there when he could have been pursuing Darius. Luna: This is the kind of story that makes you realize how much of history turns on a single stubborn decision. Lucas: Absolutely. And speaking of decisions that keep history going — it occurs to me that this podcast itself is only possible because of listeners who support it. We keep this show ad-free and independent, and a couple of dollars a month from people who enjoy it genuinely makes that possible. If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you can help keep that going at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. And we're grateful for everyone who chips in. Lucas: So back to Tyre — one final note. The causeway Alexander built is still there. Over the centuries, sand and silt accumulated around it, turning Tyre from an island into a peninsula. If you visit modern Tyre in Lebanon, you can walk out on what was once that causeway. The city itself is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, with Roman ruins built on top of the Phoenician levels. Luna: So Alexander literally changed the geography. That's a lasting legacy. Lucas: Yeah. The siege of Tyre is one of those events where you can still see the physical mark of history on the landscape. And it's a reminder of how much hinged on this one city's refusal to submit.