Colonists from Megara in Greece founded the city sometime in the middle of the 7^th century B.C., and it was the westernmost Greek colony in Sicily. They soon came into conflict with the neighboring city of Segesta, inhabited by local Sicilians. Over the next several decades, Selinus was frequently at war with Segesta. Yet by the early 5^th century B.C., Selinus was prospering.

Carthage Invades Sicily

In 480 B.C., at the same time that the Persians were moving on Greece in the famous invasion that would end at Thermopylae and Salamis, the Carthaginians were moving against Sicily. Diodorus claims that this was a pre-made agreement between Persia and Carthage. They intended to fully dominate the Greeks in a joint effort. The general Hamilcar led 300,000 men over the Mediterranean to Sicily, and began conquering its cities. Interestingly enough, despite being a Greek colony, Selinus supported Carthage. They sent a message to Hamilcar informing him that their cavalry would arrive the next day.

However, unfortunately for Hamilcar, Gelon, ruler of Gela and Syracuse, who had brought 55,000 men against Carthage, intercepted the letter. Gelon cleverly sent his own cavalry into Hamilcar’s camp at sunrise, posing as the horsemen from Selinus. The Carthaginians welcomed them as friends, and they rode easily into the camp, killed Hamilcar, and set fire to the Carthaginian ships. They signaled Gelon, who marched his infantry into to join in battle. Leaderless and panicked, the soldiers of Carthage were easy prey. When the men from Selinus arrived, Carthage had already lost the battle, and failed in its bid to conquer Sicily.

The Siege of Silenus

Carthage eventually dropped its alliance with Selinus, and supported the city’s old rivals in Segesta. In the spring of 409 A.D., Carthage sent an army of at least 100,000 men to Sicily under the command of Hannibal Mago. The Selinuntians were dismayed by the overwhelming force, but resolved to fight to the end, and hoped for rescue from their allies. The entire population of Selinus contributed to its defense. Every young man in the city took up arms. The old men organized supplies, bringing weapons and ammunition, and encouragement to the men on the walls. The women and girls worked the mills and brought food to the defenders. Yet, the walls were weak. Selinus had not been often under threat, and as a result had not kept them in peak condition. Hannibal’s siege engines knocked down a substantial section within the first day.

The defenders expelled the initial attack through the bottleneck of the fallen wall, but the next day fell back under the onslaught.  The fighting moved into the city, and was far from over. The Selinuntians fought fiercely, for they were fighting for their lives. Both sides took heavy casualties, but Carthage could supply constant fresh troops, while the defenders of Selinus grew exhausted. Still, the battle raged for nine days. The men of Selinus built barricades, and the women threw stones and tiles from the rooftops. Eventually, they began to falter, and the Carthaginians pushed past the barricades. Some Selinuntians gathered in the marketplace, where they died fighting. Others defended individual houses to the end. The frustrated Carthaginians set fire to the homes, and slaughtered all those that ran out, mutilating their bodies. They only spared the women and children who had taken refuge in the temples.

Final Destruction

 “By nightfall the city had been sacked, and of the dwellings some had been burned and others razed to the ground, while the whole area was filled with blood and corpses. Sixteen thousand was the sum of the inhabitants who were found to have fallen, not counting the more than five thousand who had been taken captive.”

Hannibal destroyed the walls of Selinus, and left it abandoned, and yet it was not the final end of the city. A man named Hermocrates, exiled from Syracuse, rebuilt the walls and invited any surviving Selinuntians to return home. Using Silenus as a base, he fought the local Sicilians and the Carthaginians. He received much praise from the Greek colonies on the island, but eventually returned to Syracuse. The city worked to rebuild, and was successfully re-established. From the early 4^th century B.C. it was a tributary and subject of Carthage.

During the Second Punic War, Rome was more directly involved in Sicily. The hapless city of Selinus found itself at the center of military operations between Rome and Carthage. As Rome began to gain ground, Carthage resolved to defend as few cities as possible to concentrate their forces. They subsequently moved all the inhabitants of Selinus to Lilybaeum, and razed Selinus to the ground. The Selinuntians’ troubles were far from over, as the Romans proceeded to lay siege to Lilybaeum for the next ten years. Selinus was never rebuilt, though the Romans remembered its location. Both Pliny the Elder and Strabo mentioned the city. Strabo counted it among a list of extinct cities.

What to See Here:

Despite its destruction at the hands of the Carthaginians, there are excellent archaeological remains at Selinus. There are substantial remains of a number of religious structures. The best preserved is the one known as Temple E. Dating to around 455 B.C., this Doric structure is one of the most recent of the plethora of religious structures at Selinus. A stele recovered at the site indicated that this temple was originally dedicated to Hera. Fragments of the decorative assembly of the temple survive in the form of four metopes. These are all kept in the Museo Archeologico di Palermo. Also of note is the wealth of archaeological remains on the ancient acropolis.

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Author: written for Timetravelrome by Marian Vermeulen.

Sources: Diodorus, Library of History; Strabo, Geography; Pliny the Elder, Natural History; Pausanias, Description of Greece.

Header photo: Selinunte Panoramic View, by Rattiane, picture is in public domain.

– Julius Caesar, Gallic Wars

Alesia is little known besides its famous identity as the site of one of Julius Caesar’s greatest sieges. Today, the MuséoParc Alésia offers Gallo-Roman ruins, reconstructions of Caesar’s fortifications, and a beautiful new museum on site. Yet back in the middle of the 1^st century B.C., Alesia was a major walled fort city. It served as the capital of the Mandubii tribe. Though Caesar had largely subdued Gaul, the local tribes were still eager to fight for their freedom. A brave warrior named Vercingetorix, Kin g of the Averni, staged the most successful rebellion. In 52 B.C., he faced one of Caesar’s ultimate innovations, the great circumvallation of Alesia.

Retreat to Alesia

Vercingetorix was under no illusions as to Caesar’s skill on the battlefield. For several months, he had been fighting a guerilla war against the Roman general. He even forced Caesar to withdraw from a siege of Gergovia, bolstering the spirits of the Gallic troops. However, their euphoria was short-lived. Soon after, the Gauls met with a heavy defeat in their first direct engagement with the Romans. Vercingetorix led his soldiers in a retreat to Alesia, continuing the scorched earth policy he had already instituted. They burned stored grain and farmland as they went, hoping to starve out the Romans and force their   retreat. Arriving in Alesia, Vercingetorix closed the gates and trusted in the city’s natural and man-made fortifications for protection.

Caesar and his Roman legions soon arrived and set up camp around Alesia. Aware of the strong defenses, Caesar turned Vercingetorix’s plan back upon him, deciding to starve out the city. To do this, he set his industrious soldiers to building a new wall around the walls of Alesia. This tactic, called a circumvallation, was entirely new. The wall they built was ten miles long with twenty-four towers. Though the Gauls attempted a sortie to interrupt construction, their cavalry was repulsed. Before being completely walled in, Vercingetorix sent his own cavalry out with a desperate plea for reinforcements from the other Gallic tribes.

Digging in for Siege

To prepare for the arrival of the relief force, Caesar planned further fortifications. Behind their wall, his men dug three trenches of six meters deep, the third one filled with river water. Behind the trenches was a small fortification to protect his defending soldiers, with sharpened stakes facing the attackers. Yet that was still not the end of the defensive works built by the tenacious Romans. They dug eight rows of disguised pits, and sunk fire-hardened stakes as thick as a man’s thigh into the bottom. All around these traps, they scattered iron hooks and cattle trops. Finally, Caesar instructed his men to build yet another wall, called a contravallation, around the entire system of fortifications. Essentially, he was preparing for a siege within a siege.

Within Alesia, the Gauls were struggling. Vercingetorix had brought 80,000 soldiers into the city of 10,000 inhabitants, and food was scarce. The king personally rationed the supplies, but as the days passed and no reinforcements appeared, the situation became desperate. In a council, one of the King’s advisors suggested cannibalism. Luckily, the council rejected his idea, but their eventual solution was little better. They sent the women, children, old, and the sick out of the city, hoping that Caesar would take them captive and feed them. Yet Caesar and his forces were just as short on food, and Caesar would not allow the citizens through his wall. Instead, the families of the Gallic soldiers were stuck between the city walls and Caesar’s walls, braving the elements. Those still safely within Alesia could only watch as their families slowly starved to death between the two lines.

End of Gallic Independence

Upon the arrival of the Gallic reinforcements, the fighting began in earnest. Caesar claims to have had around 70,000 men fighting 248,000 Gauls. Other ancient sources claim as many as 400,000 enemy soldiers, but modern scholars are skeptical. However, the Romans were outnumbered significantly, likely fighting close to two Gauls for every one Roman. Caesar’s many fortifications proved successful. Vercingetorix and the encircled Gauls struggled to fill in the ditches and pits in order to join the fight. Meanwhile, the Romans were able to concentrate on fighting only one side at a time. Caesar’s legions were eventually victorious, and the relief force fled. Vercingetorix offered that his men should either kill him or offer him alive to appease Caesar. They surrendered him to the Romans, who held him captive for almost six years. In 46 B.C., he was paraded in Caesar’s first triumph and then executed.

The location of Alesia was long debated, but is believed to be the Roman fort outside Alise-Sainte-Reine in France. Ancient sources long identified this site as Alesia, and a Gallic inscription in Latin characters also named the city. Excavations have revealed Roman fortifications from the Gallic Wars that are consistent with Caesar’s descriptions. Aerial photography reveals evidence of the systems of ditches dug by the Roman soldiers.  Perhaps the most exciting discovery was a sling shot inscribed with the name of one of Caesar’s commanders, Labienus. Though some dissenting voices still suggest alternate locations, most historians and archaeologists are now in agreement as to the identity of Alesia.

What to See Here:

The modern town of Alise-Sainte-Reine lies at the foot of the ancient hill fort. Thankfully so, as it has been possible to excavate and preserve much of the Roman town at the top. Roman remains which have survived include paved streets with evidence of the shops that would have lined them. There is also a forum, the lower sections of a theatre and basilica, and several houses with well-preserved basements. The Monument of Ucuetis (a minor Celtic god, archaeologists found his name on an inscription in the building) is associated with the city’s metalworkers. Whilst a reasonable amount of the building survived above ground, its best feature is a beautifully preserved underground chamber.

Not ancient, but also of interest, is a large statue of Vercingetorix. It was built in 1865 as a symbol of French nationalism. In recent years, the entire hill fort and the fields surrounding it have been turned into the Musée Parc Alésia. This consists of a large museum and visitor’s centre. It also holds various Roman reconstructions, including a full-size 100m section of Caesar’s fortifications. The museum offers guided tours of the ancient site throughout the year.

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Author: written for Timetravelrome by Marian Vermeulen.

Sources: Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic Wars; Plutarch, Life of Caesar; Strabo, Geography.

Header photo:  Alesia Fortifications by Prosopee licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Tyre enjoyed its heights of prosperity around the 10^th-7^th centuries B.C. Its wealth came from the abundance of Murex shellfish. Their shells enabled the Tyrians to produce and sell a rich purple dye unrivaled in the ancient world. In the 6^th century B.C., their prosperity attracted the attention of King Nebuchadnezzar II. He attacked Tyre, maintaining a siege for thirteen years but never taking the city. This spectacular failure discouraged attempts from most kings and generals, but Alexander the Great was neither an average king, nor an average general. In 332 B.C., he began his spectacular siege of Tyre.

Macedonia Attacks

Determined to overthrow the Persian Empire, Alexander knew he would need to interrupt the movements of the Persian navy. With no fleet himself, he began a strategic conquest along the coast of Asia Minor. City after city fell to the great Macedonian army. By the time they reached Tyre, Alexander’s reputation had preceded him. King Azemilk wisely sent out envoys to meet Alexander, pledging his support and allegiance, and placing his city at the Macedonian King’s disposal. Alexander offered to make a sacrifice at the Temple of Melqart, a Phoenician equivalent to Alexander’s beloved Hercules. Unfortunately, the Tyrians sacred festival had begun, and they allowed no foreigner to set foot on the island during that time. King Azemilk proposed that Alexander could sacrifice to Melqart on the mainland in Old Tyre, but he could not allow him into the central city. 

Alexander was not a man who took kindly to being told “no.” Insulted and infuriated, Alexander exclaimed “you think nothing of this land army, because of your confidence in its position, living as you do on an island, but I am soon going to show you that you are really on the mainland. And you can be sure that I shall either enter your city or storm it.” In an attempt to avoid a protracted siege, he sent messengers to the island, demanding that the city surrender. Secure in their defenses, the Tyrians duplicitously murdered the messengers. They threw their bodies off the walls and into the sea, as Alexander and the Macedonians watched in horror. So began the great siege of Tyre. During the months-long battle, both sides showed incredible innovation in the art of warfare. They invented engineering marvels of their era, some of which remain commonplace today.

Siege and Defense Innovations

Alexander decided to construct a mole through the harbor to support a bridge. His men thought the task impossible, but such was his magnetism that he convinced them to begin work willingly. The Macedonians destroyed Old Tyre, using timber and stone from the city to construct a base on the seabed. Initially not comprehending their enemy’s intentions, the Tyrians rowed out in small boats and floated alongside the toiling Macedonians, mocking them incessantly. They taunted the “famous warriors, now carrying loads on their backs like pack-animals” and jeeringly asked if Alexander “had more power than Neptune.” If anything, the insults only steeled the resolve of the Macedonians. Soon the Tyrians realized that they were indeed in danger. They returned in boats, but this time with archers, shooting at the workers. Alexander ordered his men to hoist up animal skins and large sheets of canvas to protect his men.

The Tyrians responded by constructing a kamikaze boat. Smeared with tar and Sulphur, they rowed it out until it caught the wind, lit the bows on fire, and jumped off into their following boats. The flaming vessel crashed headlong into the mole, setting the timbers and structures ablaze. Men burned in the flames. Those who could threw themselves into the sea. The Tyrians wanted to take them alive, so they beat the swimming Macedonians’ hands until the men were disabled. Then they would take them on board. Undeterred, Alexander resolved to build an even bigger mole. Using whole trees heaped with dirt and rock, they created an immensely strong, interlocking structure. Also of assistance, was the fortuitous arrival of Alexander’s fleet, which gave further protection to the working soldiers. 

The City Falls

Alexander mounted his rams and towers on his ships, and attacked the walls from a floating siege array. To combat this, the Tyrians hurled huge chunks of stones over the walls, so that the ships would tear themselves up if they came too close. Alexander mounted winches on the ships, and anchored them securely to winch away the debris. The Tyrians sent swimmers out to cut the anchor lines, and so Alexander replaced the rope with chain. At one point during the siege, Carthaginian ships came to give encouragement to the city. They offered no significant assistance, but at least evacuated Tyre’s women and children to Carthage for safety. The Tyrians focused on building a second wall around the city for protection. Soon after the wall’s completion, the mole reached the island, and the Macedonians brought their siege engines up. 

Fierce fighting ensued around the walls, with the Tyrians continuing to demonstrate their ingenuity. They created spoked wheels to turn continuously on the ramparts and destroy incoming arrows. They also heated sand until it was scalding, and then dumped it over the walls onto the attacking Macedonians. Despite all their defenses, the rams did their work and broke their walls. At the same time, Alexander had brought up his ships still carrying siege towers. Tyre faced a breach from all sides. In a daring act typical of the young king, Alexander mounted the first floating siege tower, threw down a plank of wood to bridge the distance to the city walls, and ran across it alone, exhorting his men to follow him. The city fell to the onslaught. 

Defeat and Rebirth

Frustrated by the six, almost seven month siege and the painful deaths of his men, Alexander gave his soldiers free reign. They destroyed and burned the city. More than 13,000 Tyrians were sold into slavery, and 2,000 were crucified and their bodies displayed along the shoreline. Alexander spared only those who had taken refuge in the Temple of Marqat. He allowed the Carthaginian ambassadors to return to their city, but he issued a dire warning. He considered them his enemies, and would return for them one day.

Alexander never got that chance, and Carthage fell not to Macedonia, but to Rome. In an ironic twist, Rome destroyed Carthage, but rebuilt her sister-city, Tyre, after it was annexed in 64 B.C. by Pompey the Great. Tyre regained some of her former glory during the Roman era. This can be seen in the excellent Roman ruins that remain to this day. Remnants of Alexander’s great mole are also still visible, lying beneath the waters of the harbor.

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Alexander; Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander; Quintus Curtius Rufus, The History of Alexander; Diodorus Siculus, Library of History

This article was written for Time Travel Rome by Marian Vermeulen.0

Photo: Tyre Al Mina Colonnaded Street by Heretiqis licensed under  CC BY-SA 2.5

What to see here?

Tyre’s best Roman claim to fame is its second century Hippodrome: the largest ever discovered. Built for the purpose of chariot races, it could accommodate an audience of 20,000. It is also the site of a large necropolis dating from the Roman-Byzantine era, a second century triumphal arch (though to whom remains a mystery), a beautiful colonnade made from white, green-veined marble and the remains of the Roman baths. Near the Al Mina archaeological site is the colonnaded “Mosaic Road” where underfoot you can see a host of Roman and Byzantine originals.  

Tyre is under the protection of UNESCO as a listed world heritage site. Unfortunately, the body responsible for cultural heritage and preservation was unable to protect it from the bombing destruction caused by Israeli offensives of the 1980s and 90s. 

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