Battles & Wars › Greece, Rome & Han › Conquests of Alexander the Great
Siege of Tyre (332 BC)
January – July 332 BC· Battle· Middle East & Africa
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Alexander the Great took the island city of Tyre after a seven-month siege, partly by building a causeway out to it.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Tyre, the leading Phoenician port, stood on an island about 800 m (half a mile) offshore, with walls Arrian puts at 45 m (150 ft) high. It refused to admit Alexander. His engineers built a causeway toward it while Tyrian fire ships and archers attacked the work. After the Phoenician and Cypriot fleets switched to his side, ships carrying rams and catapults breached the south wall in July. Arrian reports about 8,000 Tyrians killed and 30,000 sold into slavery.
Why it matters
It cut Persia's navy off from its home ports and secured the coast behind Alexander, letting him take Egypt and then march into the Persian heartland.
How we know
Arrian, Diodorus, Curtius and Plutarch, all written centuries later from lost eyewitness accounts. Geologists have shown that sand built up along Alexander's causeway, turning the island into a permanent peninsula.
Still debated
Casualty and slave figures come from ancient writers and may be inflated; exactly how the causeway was built, and along what line, is still studied.
Connections (5)
▸Battle of Issus was followed by Siege of Tyre (332 BC)Well documented
The connection
After beating Darius III at Issus in November 333 BC, Alexander chose not to chase him east. Instead he marched down the coast to take Persia's naval bases. Most Phoenician cities surrendered, but Tyre refused him entry to its main temple, and he spent January to July 332 BC taking it.
When and how
From Issus in southeastern Turkey south along the Syrian and Lebanese coast, winter 333–332 BC; Alexander against Darius III, then Tyre.
How we know
Arrian and other ancient historians give the sequence, and Arrian reports Alexander arguing that Persia's fleet had to be neutralized before he marched inland.
Debates and open questions
Whether Alexander planned the coastal campaign from the start or improvised it after Issus, and how real Persia's naval threat to Greece then was, are debated.
▸Siege of Tyre (332 BC) was the hardest siege of Conquests of Alexander the GreatWell documented
The connection
Tyre took about seven months, Alexander's longest siege, and needed a causeway, siege towers and a borrowed fleet. Its fall gave him the Levant coast, ended Persian sea power, and opened the way to Egypt, which surrendered without a fight later that year.
When and how
Tyre, in modern Lebanon, 332 BC; Alexander and his engineers, among them the siege specialist Diades, against the city's defenders.
How we know
Every major ancient account of Alexander gives the siege long treatment, and the geology of Tyre's silted causeway confirms the scale of the work.
Debates and open questions
Some historians rank the siege of Gaza or the guerrilla war in Central Asia as equally hard; the ranking depends on whether you count time, losses or engineering.
▸Siege of Tyre (332 BC) showed siege engineering later used in Castles and siege warfareMostly agreed
The connection
Tyre combined most of the ancient siege toolkit: causeways, wheeled towers, rams, catapults and a sea blockade. Greek and Roman engineers wrote these methods into manuals that Byzantine and later commanders inherited. Medieval castle sieges used the same basic tools: ramps, towers, rams, mining and stone-throwing engines.
When and how
Tyre, 332 BC; the methods passed through Hellenistic and Roman practice to medieval sieges in Europe and the Middle East, about 950–1500.
How sure are we?
Ancient engineering texts, such as those of Philo of Byzantium and Vitruvius, describe the same machines. A line from Tyre itself is a broad pattern, not a documented chain.
Debates and open questions
How much medieval engineers drew on ancient manuals, rather than reinventing methods or learning from Byzantine and Islamic practice, is debated.
▸Siege of Tyre (332 BC) used ship-borne Catapult and ballista (torsion artillery)Well documented
The connection
Alexander's engineers mounted catapults and bolt-throwers on towers at the end of the causeway and later on ships lashed together, to clear defenders from Tyre's walls. The Tyrians answered with their own engines, fire ships and divers who cut the attackers' anchor cables. It is one of the earliest recorded uses of artillery at sea.
When and how
Tyre, spring and summer 332 BC; Alexander's engineers, probably including the siege specialist Diades, against Tyrian defenders.
How we know
Arrian, Diodorus and Curtius all describe engines on towers and ships at Tyre, and Diodorus describes Tyrian counter-engines.
Debates and open questions
Whether these were true torsion machines or older bow-type engines is debated, since torsion artillery was then only a few decades old.
▸Battering ram and siege tower was mounted on ships in the Siege of Tyre (332 BC)Well documented
The connection
Tyre's walls rose straight from the water, so Alexander's engineers fixed rams on ships, some lashed together in pairs, and battered the walls from the sea. After testing several sections, they opened a breach in the south wall, and assault troops crossed on gangways from the ships to storm the city.
When and how
Tyre, July 332 BC; the breach came on the city's southern side, facing Egypt.
How we know
Arrian and Curtius describe the ship-mounted rams and the final assault in detail.
Debates and open questions
How the ship-borne rams were braced and swung is not described exactly, and modern reconstructions differ.