Alexander the Great

The book deals with the naval battles between the Persian fleet andAlexander the Great and his Macedonians in the Aegean and the EasternMediterranean between 334-331 BC. It covers the siege of Tyre and inaddition the failed efforts by the Persians and King Agis III of Sparta tocreate turmoil at the rear of Alexander's army. This very important aspectof Alexander's campaign to the East did not receive as yet the coverage itdeserves mainly because of the limited personal involvement of...
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The book deals with the naval battles between the Persian fleet andAlexander the Great and his Macedonians in the Aegean and the EasternMediterranean between 334-331 BC. It covers the siege of Tyre and inaddition the failed efforts by the Persians and King Agis III of Sparta tocreate turmoil at the rear of Alexander's army. This very important aspectof Alexander's campaign to the East did not receive as yet the coverage itdeserves mainly because of the limited personal involvement of Alexanderhimself. Nevertheless should the Persians being successful and cutAlexander's resupply routes from Greece possibly the outcome of hissuccessful campaign could have been different. The Persian fleet comprisedof the naval power of the Cypriot and Phoenicia Kingdoms thus in the book adetailed account is given on the state of the Phoenician but especially ofthe Cypriot political and naval power which was under the Persians for twohundred years. Alexander and his Macedonians did not have a comparablenavy neither they trusted the Greeks especially the Athenians to face thesuperior Cypriot and Phoenician fleet. He therefore followed a brilliantstrategy to blockade the enemy's navy from the land by depriving them safeaccess to the shores and port cities of Asia Minor. This was a riskystrategy which succeeded only after Alexander defeated the Persians twiceat Granicus and Issos. The Cypriots and Phoenicians realizing that theyoung King was getting the better of Darius and his army was winning thebattle on land they decided to abandon the Persians and joined Alexanderin the siege of Tyre on the shores of Phoenicia . The siege of Tyre tookeight months until the city was put under the control of the Macedoniansand its fighters killed or sold as slaves. Alexander the Great had anactive participation in the siege and the ancient sources gave aconsiderable and detailed coverage of the battle. The last blow to thePersian naval supremacy in the Mediterranean was the defeat of Agis III inhis effort to turn Crete into a Persian naval base. This way the Persianthreat in the rear of the Macedonian army had vanished and Greece'ssecurity was secured.The book is written to highlight the Cypriot involvement in Alexander'scampaign and its epilogue is an attempt to define their position in hisempire from scant historical sources. The book is based on extendedbibliography and numerous academic papers written on the subject. The mainhistorical sources used are Alexander's historians mainly Arrian,Diodorous, Plutarch and Quintus Curtius Rufus. The book contains a usefulappendix on the history and the art of war at sea in ancient times.