They
now made up an enormous fire, which terrified some of the enemy so
much that they retreated, while others who had intended to attack
them, halted and forbore to do so, thus enabling them to pass the
night in safety.
XXV. The siege of Tyre came to an end in the following manner. The
greater part of Alexander's troops were resting from their labours,
but in order to occupy the attention of the enemy, he led a few men up
to the city walls, while Aristander, the soothsayer, offered
sacrifice. When he saw the victims, he boldly informed all who were
present that during the current month, Tyre would be taken. All who
heard him laughed him to scorn, as that day was the last of the month,
but Alexander seeing him at his wits' end, being always eager to
support the credit of prophecies, gave orders that that day should
not be reckoned as the thirtieth of the month, but as the
twenty-third. After this he bade the trumpets sound, and assaulted the
walls much more vigorously than he had originally intended. The attack
succeeded, and as the rest of the army would no longer stay behind in
the camp, but rushed to take their share in the assault, the Tyrians
were overpowered, and their city taken on that very day.
Afterwards, while Alexander was besieging Gaza, the largest city in
Syria, a clod of earth was dropped upon his shoulder by a bird, which
afterwards alighted upon one of the military engines, and became
entangled in the network of ropes by which it was worked.
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