REVIEW BY MARC DeSANTIS
Alexander the Great of Macedonia is one of the best-known figures of ancient history. Comparatively large amounts of written material concerning his short but extraordinarily eventful life have survived from ancient times. This is a boon to modern historians, but it can also prove challenging, because these accounts do not always agree with one another. Reconciling them is no easy task.
A solid modern history of Alexander will have to carefully assess such conflicting sources. David A Guenther has provided one such work in The Siege of Tyre: Alexander the Great and the gateway to empire. The subject is Alexander’s famous 332 BC siege of the Phoenician port city of Tyre, in what is now Lebanon. Guenther balances the accounts of the ancient historians who chronicled Alexander’s campaigns with those of modern historians when offering his own judgements on contentious points.
Having defeated the Great King of Persia, Darius III, at the Battle of Issus in November 333 BC, Alexander was confronted by a dilemma. Should he press deeper into Asia, seeking to meet Darius in another battle that could decide the fate of the Persian Empire? Or should he instead drive southward, leaving the king for later, and attempt to take the Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean that provided Persia with the bulk of its warships?
