Adonis Diaries

The Two-Horned King (fiction. Chapter. 3)

Alexander The Great completely destroyed the proud city of Tyr after seven months of siege.  He hatefully hanged 8,000 of its inhabitants and sold the rest as slaves.

This victory was obtained by a fluke of incredible circumstances, coming together, to vanquish the Queen City of commerce:  not only the State of Carthage refrained to rescue its mother city-state but Alexander witnessed the miracle he wished for. More than 300 war ships flocked in from the neighboring islands (Cyprus and Arwad) and other port cities within a week, a bounty that Alexander did not expect, and at just the time he was about to lift the siege.

Tyre was attacked from the sea where the walls of this sea city were the least fortified.

Alexander moved on to destroy the fortified city of Ashkelon in current Gaza before entering Egypt.  The city of Ashkelon prided itself as the first exporter of incense and myrrh and Alexander emptied its stores and shipped the products to his mother so that she won’t have to worry anymore about any scarcity of what was essential to honoring her Gods.

Alexander was crowned King of Kings by the High Priest of Egypt and he started the construction of his new city called Alexandra on the seashore.

The Persian king Artax was ready to face off with Alexander but he was reluctant to advance to Egypt: he recognized that the populations of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt were already hostile to the Persian long rule and they have pledged allegiance to Alexander.

Thus, he settled to find an excellent gimmick to draw Alexander out of Egypt.  Artax sent a letter to Alexander agreeing to negotiate and to hand over the already conquered land by his army.

Artax expressly angered Alexander by stating that Alexander had no choice but to accept the proposal unless he is willing to pursue the Monarch throughout the world; an impossible mission!