THE SIEGE OF GAZA ACCORDING TO ARRIAN
Gaza is only twenty furlongs distant from the seashore, and exceeding difficult of access, because of the depth of the sand, and the neighbouring sea, which is, everywhere, shallow. The city itself is large and populous, seated on a high hill, and surrounded with a strong wall. It is also the last inhabited place which travellers meet with in their way from Phœnicia to Egypt, and borders upon a vast desert. Alexander, immediately after his arrival there, encamped over against that part of the wall which seemed most subject to an assault, and ordered his engines to be brought thither; and notwithstanding the opinion of some of his engineers, that the wall was not possible to be taken by force, by reason of the height of the bulwarks, he thought fit to declare his sentiments to the contrary; and that the more difficult the attempt was, the more necessary it was to be undertaken; for that the very suddenness and briskness of their assault would strike their enemies with no small terror. He added that, if he were unable to reduce the city, it would abundantly redound to his dishonour, when the news should be carried to Greece, as well as to Darius.
He therefore ordered a rampart to be run round it, of such a height that the engines placed thereupon might be upon a level with the top of the wall, which rampart he then built over against the south part of the wall, because it seemed, there, the least difficult to be assaulted. And when the work was now brought to its full height, the Macedonian engines were immediately placed thereon. About this time, as Alexander was sacrificing, with a crown of gold upon his head, according to the custom of Greece, and just entering upon the office, a certain bird of prey hovered over the altar and let fall a stone from his claws upon his head. Alexander immediately sent to consult Aristander, the soothsayer, what this prodigy could portend. He returned answer: “Thou shalt indeed take the city, O King; but beware of danger from thence, on the day it is taken.” He, hearing this, retired out of the reach of their darts to the engines on the rampart.
But when Alexander saw the Arabians make a furious sally out of the city, and set fire to the engines, and, having the advantage of the higher station, gall the Macedonians below and beat them from the rampart which they had built—then, either forgetful of the divine warning, or moved with the danger of his soldiers, he called his targeteers together and hasted to succour the Macedonians where they were most exposed, and by his presence kept them from betaking themselves to flight and abandoning the rampart: but while he was thus pushing forward, an arrow from an engine pierced his shield and breastplate and wounded him in the shoulder; which, when he perceived, and thereby knew that Aristander’s prediction was true, he rejoiced, because, by the same prediction, he was to take the city.
In the meantime other engines, which had been used at the siege of Tyre, arriving by sea, he ordered the rampart to be run quite round the city, two stadia in breadth, and 250 feet in height. The engines then being prepared, and planted thereupon, the wall was vehemently shaken, and the miners in many places, working privately underneath the foundations thereof and conveying the rubbish away, it fell down. The besiegers then plying the citizens with their darts, beat them out of their towers; yet thrice they sustained the Macedonian shocks, with the loss of abundance, slain and wounded. But at the fourth attack, when Alexander had called his men thither, he so levelled the wall, which had been undermined in some places, and widened the breaches made by the engines in others, that it seemed then a matter of no difficulty to the Macedonians to fix their ladders to the ruins thereof and storm the city. As soon as the ladders were fixed there arose a great emulation among the besiegers who should first mount the breach. This honour was gained by Neoptolemus of the race of the Æcidæ, one of his friends; and after him, other captains and others still entered with their forces; and when many of the Macedonians were now within the walls, they forced open the gates, one after another, and gave entrance to the whole army. The citizens, notwithstanding they saw the place thus taken by storm, were resolved to fight to the last; and gathering together in a body, every one lost his life where he stood, after a brave resistance. Alexander sold the wives and children for slaves; and a colony being drawn thither from the neighbourhood, the city was afterwards made use of as a garrison.[b]
The following incidents, not mentioned by Arrian, are characteristic enough to be quoted from Quintus Curtius, IV. 6. The treatment of Batis, who was in command at Gaza, if correctly reported,—which, however, is by no means certain,—is one of those spasms of barbarity which now and then marred a career otherwise full of dignity.[a]