During the siege of this city, which, with mounds of earth cast up,
and battering engines, and two hundred galleys by sea, was carried on for
seven months together, he dreamt that he saw Hercules upon the walls, reaching
out his hands, and calling to him. And many of the Tyrians in their sleep
fancied that Apollo told them he was displeased with their actions, and
was about to leave them and go over to Alexander. Upon which, as if the
god had been a deserting soldier, they seized him, so to say, in the act,
tied down the statue with ropes, and nailed it to the pedestal, reproaching
him that he was a favourer of Alexander. Another time Alexander dreamed
he saw a satyr mocking him at a distance, and when he endeavoured to catch
him, he still escaped from him, till at last with much perseverance, and
running about after him, he got him into his power. The soothsayers, making
two words of Satyrus, assured him that Tyre should be his own. The inhabitants
at this time show a spring of water, near which they say Alexander slept
when he fancied the satyr appeared to him.
While the body of the army lay before Tyre, he made an excursion against
the Arabians who inhabit the Mount Antilibanus, in which he hazarded his
life extremely to bring off his master Lysimachus, who would needs go along
with him, declaring he was neither older nor inferior in courage to Phoenix,
Achilles's guardian. For when, quitting their horses, they began to march
up the hills on foot, the rest of the soldiers outwent them a great deal,
so that night drawing on, and the enemy near, Alexander was fain to stay
behind so long, to encourage and help up the lagging and tired old man,
that before he was aware he was left behind, a great way from his soldiers,
with a slender attendance, and forced to pass an extremely cold night in
the dark, and in a very inconvenient place; till seeing a great many scattered
fires of the enemy at some distance, and trusting to his agility of body,
and as he was always wont by undergoing toils and labours himself to cheer
and support the Macedonians in any distress, he ran straight to one of
the nearest fires, and with his dagger despatching two of the barbarians
that sat by it, snatched up a lighted brand, and returned with it to his
own men. They immediately made a great fire, which so alarmed the enemy
that most of them fled, and those that assaulted them were soon routed
and thus they rested securely the remainder of the night. Thus Chares writes.
But to return to the siege, it had this issue. Alexander, that he might
refresh his army, harassed with many former encounters, had led only a
small party towards the walls, rather to keep the enemy busy than with
any prospect of much advantage. It happened at this time that Aristander,
the soothsayer, after he had sacrificed, upon view of the entrails, affirmed
confidently to those who stood by that the city should be certainly taken
that very month, upon which there was a laugh and some mockery among the
soldiers, as this was the last day of it. The king, seeing him in perplexity,
and always anxious to support the credit of the predictions, gave order
that they should not count it as the thirtieth, but as the twenty-third
of the month, and ordering the trumpets to sound, attacked the walls more
seriously than he at first intended. The sharpness of the assault so inflamed
the rest of his forces who were left in the camp, that they could not hold
from advancing to second it, which they performed with so much vigour that
the Tyrians retired, and the town was carried that very day. The next place
he sat down before was Gaza, one of the largest cities of Syria, when this
accident befell him. A large bird flying over him let a clod of earth fall
upon his shoulder, and then settling upon one of the battering engines,
was suddenly entangled and caught in the nets, composed of sinews, which
protected the ropes with which the machine was managed. This fell out exactly
according to Aristander's prediction, which was, that Alexander should
be wounded and the city reduced.