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At the same moment, the trumpets sounded the battle signal on both sides and cheers came from all parts as the soldiers applauded in concert the feats of brave men on one side or the other. [2] Some tried to put out the fires that rose aloft among the siege engines; others joined with the foe in close combat and wrought great slaughter; others erected secondary walls behind those which crumbled, heavier by far in construction than the preceding. [3] The commanders under Memnon took their places in the front line and offered great rewards to those who distinguished themselves, so that the desire for victory rose very high on both sides. [4] There could be seen men encountering frontal wounds or being carried unconscious out of the battle, others standing over the fallen bodies of their companions and struggling mightily to recover them, while others who were on the point of yielding to the storm of terrors were again put in heart by the appeals of their officers and were renewed in spirit. [5] At length, some of the Macedonians were killed at the very gates, among them an officer Neoptolemus, a man of distinguished family.1

Presently two towers were levelled with the ground and two curtains overthrown, and some of Perdiccas's soldiers, getting drunk, made a wild night attack on the walls of the citadel.2 Memnon's men noticed the awkwardness of these attackers and issuing forth themselves in considerably larger numbers routed the Macedonians and killed many of them. [6] As this situation became known, large numbers of Macedonians rushed up to help and a great struggle took place, and when Alexander and his staff came up, the Persians, forced back, were confined within the city, and the king through a herald asked for a truce to recover the Macedonians who had fallen in front of the walls. Now Ephialtes and Thrasybulus,3 Athenians fighting on the Persian side, advised not to give up the dead bodies for burial, but Memnon granted the request.

1 According to Arrian. 1.20.10, Neoptolemus, the son of Arrhabaeus and brother of that Amyntas who accompanied Alexander as a staff officer (Arrian. 1.12.7; 14.1; 28.4), had deserted to the Persians and was killed in the attack on Halicarnassus. Diodorus here places him on the Macedonian side—and in view of the continued trust reposed by Alexander in his brother, this is a more reasonable account.

2 Two men only of Perdiccas's battalion; the event took place some days later (Arrian. 1.21.1). Was Perdiccas trying to repeat his success at Thebes (chap. 12.3)? It was the kind of exploit which Alexander would reward liberally. The drunkenness may have been a fiction, since Perdiccas acted without orders.

3 Two of the Athenian generals whose surrender had been demanded after the capture of Thebes (chap. 15.1). Cp. Realencyclopädie, 5 (1905), 2852 f.; 5 A (1936), 575. Arrian. 1.10.4 mentions Ephialtes but not Thrasybulus.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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