Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

262 MEMNON.The king then marched along the coast toHalicarnassus,taking, one by one — usually by surrender — the cities fromMiletus down, and leaving a garrison in each. It had becomedoubly important to secureevery town upon his route.Only by such a land blockade could he drive the Persian fleetfrom the ^gean. This conception of Alexander's, of forcingthe enemy's fleet from the sea by occupying all the coasttowns, was as noteworthy as the execution was excellent. Itwas, on an enormous scale, what he had done at Miletus on alimited one.The towns relied for subsistence upon the interior; the fleet could do them no harm except by interferingwith their commerce ; and the king felt that he could bestrestore their trade at sea by starving out the Persian fleet.The longer its naval operations were kept vip in the ^gean,the longer the trade of these towns would droop ; the soonerhe drove the fleet to other waters, the better for his friends.Halicarnassus was the last great Persian stronghold on the^gean. Here had collected a large force of Persians andGreek auxiliaries, under Memnon, who, after the defeat atthe Granicus, unable to save Ephesus and Miletus, had retiredhither, by a circuit, with some fragments of his army,accompanied by Ephialtes, an Athenian exile, and Orontobates.The place was very strong by nature, and Memnon,who had now been appointed governor of Lower Asia andchief admiral of Darius, — for if he could not save whatremained, no one else could do so, — having sent his wifeand children to the Persian court as voluntary hostages forhis truth and fidelity, had added all that art could supply.The mighty walls and a newly-made ditch, exceeding wideand deep, encompassed it upon three sides. On the other,the south side, was the sea. It contained three citadels, —the Acropolis, on the heights of its north side ; the Salmakis,on the southwest corner near the sea, on the neck of the cape