spirit and activity than
ever. And, to do the Tyrians justice, it must be acknowledged that they
employed a number of methods of defence which, considering the rude
state of the art of war at that early period, were really astonishing.
They warded off the darts discharged from the ballisters against them,
by the assistance of turning wheels, which either broke them to pieces
or carried them another way. They deadened the violence of the stones
that were hurled at them, by setting up sails and curtains made of a
soft substance which easily gave way.

To annoy the ships which advanced against their walls, they fixed
grappling irons and scythes to joists or beams; then, straining their
catapultas--an enormous kind of crossbow--they laid those great pieces
of timber upon them instead of arrows, and shot them off on a sudden at
the enemy. These crushed some of their ships by their great weight, and,
by means of the hooks or hanging scythes, tore others to pieces. They
also had brazen shields, which they drew red-hot out of the fire; and
filling these with burning sand, hurled them in an instant from the top
of the wall upon the enemy.

There was nothing the Macedonians dreaded so much as this fatal
instrument; for the moment the burning sand got to the flesh through the
crevices of the armor, it penetrated to the very bone, and stuck so
close that there was no pulling it off; so that the soldiers, throwing
down their arms, and tearing their clothes to pieces, were in this
manner exposed, naked and defenceless, to the shot of the enemy.

Alexander, finding the resources and even the courage of the Tyrians
increased in proportion as the siege continued, resolved to make a last
effort, and attack them at once both by sea and land, in order, if
possible, to overwhelm them with the multiplicity of dangers to which
they would be thus exposed. With this view, having manned his galleys
with some of the bravest of his troops, he commanded them to advance
against the enemy's fleet, while he himself took his post at the head of
his men on the mole.

And now the attack began on all sides with irresistible and unremitting
fury. Wherever the battering-rams had beat down any part of the wall,
and the bridges were thrown out, instantly the argyraspides mounted the
breach with the utmost valor, being led on by Admetus, one of the
bravest officers in the army, who was killed by the thrust of a spear as
he was encouraging his soldiers.