Siege of Tyre (332 BC)
| Siege of Tyre (332 BC) | |||||||||
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| Part of the Wars of Alexander the Great | |||||||||
 The Siege of Tyre, courtesy of The Department of History, United States Military Academy |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Macedon Greek allies |
Tyrians Achaemenid Empire |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Alexander the Great Hephaestion |
Azemilcus | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 400 killed | 8,000 killed or executed 30,000 civilians enslaved |
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The Siege of Tyre was orchestrated by Alexander the Great in 332 BC during his campaigns against the Persians. The Macedonian army was unable to capture the city, which was a strategic coastal base on the Mediterranean Sea, through conventional means because it was on an island and had walls right up to the sea. Alexander responded to this problem by first blockading and besieging Tyre for seven months, and then by building a causeway that allowed him to breach the fortifications.
It is said that Alexander was so enraged at the Tyrians' defense and the loss of his men that he destroyed half the city. According to Arrian, 8,000 Tyrian civilians were massacred after the city fell. Alexander granted pardon to all who had sought sanctuary (safety in the temple), including Azemilcus and his family, as well as many nobles. 30,000 residents and foreigners, mainly women and children, were sold into slavery.
Tyre, the largest and most important city-state of Phoenicia, was located both on the Mediterranean coast as well as a nearby island with two natural harbors on the landward side. The island lay about a kilometre from the coast in Alexander’s days, its high walls reaching 60 m (200 ft) above the sea on the east, landward facing, side of the island.
At the time of the siege, the city held approximately 40,000 people, though the women and children were evacuated to Carthage, an ancient Phoenician colony. The Carthaginians also promised to send a fleet to their mother city’s aid. As Alexander did not have much of a navy, he resolved to take the city and thus deny the Persians their last harbor in the region. After months of trying to capture Tyre the Persian fleet surrendered about 332 BC. This enabled Alexander to attack from all sides.
Alexander knew of a temple to Melqart, whom he identified with Heracles, within the new city walls and informed the inhabitants that they would be spared if he were allowed to make sacrifice in the temple (the old port had been abandoned and the Tyrians were now living on an offshore island a kilometre from the mainland). The defenders refused to allow this and suggested he use the temple in the mainland, saying that they would not let Persians or Macedonians within their new city. A second attempt at negotiation resulted in his representatives being killed and then thrown from the walls into the sea, and Alexander became enraged at the defiance and ordered the siege to commence.
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