72 Before Chrift 333. 



when the Macedonians fcaled the walls, they poured down upon them 

 fhowers of burnmg land, which penetrated to the bone with excruciat- 

 ing torture. But after a gallant defence of feven months Tyre funk 

 under the coUeded maritime power of Ihe Eaft, and the attack of an 

 enemy, who afpired to the conqueft of the world : the city was deftroy- 

 ed, and the citizens were butchered or enflaved, except a few, who 

 took refuge in a temple, and, according to Curtius, fifteen thoufand, 

 who were carried off by the Sidonians, repenting, but too late, of the 

 part they had taken in the deftruclion of their friends (a". 3^2). 



Thus fell Tyre, ' the renowned city, which was ftrong in the fea,' 

 ' wiiofe merchants were princes, whofe traflSckers were the honourable 

 ' of the earth,' after oppofing to the conqueror of the Eaft, a more vi- 

 gorous refiftance than he experienced from the whole power of Perfia. 

 And it muft be allowed, that her fall was more glorious to the vanquifhed 

 than to the conquerors; and that Alexander, with all his military con- 

 dud:, and perfevering valour, could icarcely have accomplifhed the de- 

 ftruclion of Tyre, if the other maritime flates, inftead of confpiring 

 againfl; her, and depriving her of the dominion of the fea, had united 

 to repell the invader, and fecure their own independence. 



53-2 — From Phoenicia Alexander marched intoEgypt, wdiich fubmitted 

 to him without a blow. Though then but a very young man, his judge- 

 ment perceived at once, what the highly-extolled wifdom of Egypt had 

 for fo many years been blind to, that that country was formed by nature 

 to command and unite the commerce of the whole world. No one of 

 the many mouths of the Nile * was capable of being formed into a har- 

 bour, fit to receive the fhipping expeded to frequent the deftined port. 

 But on a part of the fliore, wefl: of all the mouths, and almoft uninhabit- 

 ed, where the Egyptian kings had built a fort to repell the pirates of 

 antient Greece, he found a harbour, protefted by the ifland of Pharos, 

 and formed by nature for the fituation of the commercial capital of the 

 world. On this fpot he immediately ereded a city, which was carried 

 on with a regularity of plan, and beauty of execution, hitherto unequal- 

 ed, under the direclion of Dinocrates, a mathematician and archited, 

 who had been employed to rebuild the temple of Diana at Ephefus. 

 Canals conneded it with the Nile, and with the lake of Maroea, or 

 Mareotis, which afforded inland navigation to fo great an extent of 

 country, that Strabo thought the port on this inland lea more wealthy 

 than that on the great one. Though the new city, which was called 

 Alexandria, was foon deprived of the advantages flowing from the fa- 

 vour of its founder by his death ; yet, by the foftering care of his fuc- 



* The general deptli of tlic main cliamicl of Hvcn tlic Cnnopic mouth, the largeft of the wholf, 



the Nile, Is only from ttirec to ei^ht cuhlis. The is remarkably cncumbortd witli flioals. [Z)W. 



boats of I'tolcmy LagU3 eroded the Pchifinc S/'ru/. 0/ym/>. Ii8. — Shniv's Trnvr/s, />. ^^^ ; ar\d 



branch, by felting with polc-j a;;ain(l the iiottom, fupp/micut, /: 47. — Purduis^s Fil^rimes, /,. vi, /. 



wliieh, ill many places, lias not three ftct of water. i/Oi.j 



