THE SIEGE OF HALICARNASSUS (334BC)

y Alexander by now has disbanded his fleet in order to defeat the Persian fleet on land (taking all of the ports). y Halicarnassus was a major harbour with excellent natural defences. Its defence was led by Memnon and Orontobates. y On day one, Alexander took up a position on the Mylasa side of the town and there was a short skirmish. y Some days later, Alexander moved around to the Myndus side of the town, but rumours that Myndus was ready to come over to his side if he arrived there at night turned out to be untrue. y Sappers tried to undermine the walls and had some success, but failed to take Myndus. y Alexander moved back to Halicarnassus and got his men to fill in the moat (45ft wide X 23ft deep) in order to bring his siege engines and towers close in. y At night, the Halicarnassians tried to attack and burn the siege towers, 170 of them were killed. y A few days later, two men from Perdiccas battalion got drunk and bragging about how brave they were, set out to attack the town walls. They were soon backed up by others who saw them being attacked, there was a sharp struggle in which the town was nearly taken and the wall badly damaged. y The townsmen built an inner, crescent shaped wall straight away to repair the damage. y The defenders, on a much higher position, were at an advantage and managed to burn a siege tower. y A few days later, Alexander renewed his assault on the new wall while also defending the area at the Tripylon Gate where the Halicarnassians were counter-attacking. Fighting was fierce.

y At the Tripylon Gate, the retreating Halicarnassians met disaster when a bridge collapsed following which the gates were closed too soon and many defenders were caught outside. y Alexander called off the assault. Orontobates and Memnon decided to set fire to the town at night and withdrew with their own men to Salamakis. y Alexander ordered the men setting the fire to be killed and the townspeople to be saved. He razed the town to the ground and left a garrison there under Ptolemy.