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

DREDGING. 335bridges from being {lropi)ed upon them, and enabled them todischarge missiles from their o^vn excellent artillery. Theyshot fire-tipped arrows against the vessels which approachedand cast fire-pots from their ballistas. The walls of Tyrewere one hundred and fifty feet high and correspondinglybroad, and were built with the utmost skill and care of squarehewn stone, laid in gypsum in a fashion of which the secretseems to have been lost. It was almost impossible for enginesto be got near enough to work at undermining thesewalls, not only on account ofthe missiles from the walls, butbecause the water at their base was filled with loose stones,purposely cast in there to impede such approach. Thesestones Alexander now proceeded to fish up and remove, awork requiring no little skill and patience. The vessels whichwere moored and set at this work were soon interfered withby triremes which the enemy clad in mail, and from which,with long-handled, sickle-shaped knives, they cut the stonedredges adrift.This manoeuvre Alexander met by mailingvessels in the same manner and placing them in front of thedredges, to prevent the cables of the latter from being cut.Then the Tyrians resorted to divers — this was the mart forsponges, and divers were many and expert — who cut thecables under water.Alexander nullified this scheme by usingchains. The stones were then laboriously seized with slipknots,taken out by cranes, carried away and thrown intodeep water.In this manner, one part of the wall previouslyselected was gradually made accessible to the engineers forundermining.The Tyrians had naturally hoped for aid from Carthage,which was its most flourishing colony, and whither they hadsent their families out of harm's way when Alexander's molehad become a threatening matter ;and they were no doubtgrievously disappointed at the unfilial conduct of this eldest