It would be imagined that a city so laid waste as Tyre was by
Alexander, could not easily or shortly recover strength to contend
against any enemy, and yet we find Tyre, only nineteen years after,
maintaining itself for fifteen months against Antigonus, one of
Alexander’s captains, who had been present at its great siege. But
the fugitives from Sidon and other parts, the women and children from
Carthage, with, most likely, many enterprising strangers, thought
the traditions of Tyre too great and tempting to allow it to be
long abandoned; and if not so glorious as it had been, this queen
of commercial cities soon became a highly respectable mart, though
its trade was reduced within much narrower limits: it had embraced
the world; it was now confined to the neighbouring countries, and it
had lost the empire of the sea. Seconded by the famous Demetrius
Poliorcetes, his son, Antigonus presented himself before the place
with a numerous fleet, which made him master of the sea, and cut
the besieged off from supplies of provisions. As the siege was too
protracted to accord with the other views of Antigonus, he left the
operations under the command of Andronicus, one of his generals, who,
by pressing the Tyrians very closely, and by making frequent assaults,
obliged them at length to capitulate. This important conquest was made
A.C. 313.