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Updated: May 13, 2025
Word being brought him that the royal commanders were lying in wait upon the coast of Pamphylia, with a numerous land army, and a large fleet, he determined to make the whole sea on this side the Chelidonian islands so formidable to them that they should never dare to show themselves in it; and setting off from Cnidos and the Triopian headland, with two hundred galleys, which had been originally built with particular care by Themistocles, for speed and rapid evolutions, and to which he now gave greater width and roomier decks along the sides to move to and fro upon, so as to allow a great number of full-armed soldiers to take part in the engagements and fight from them, he shaped his course first of all against the town of Phaselis, which, though inhabited by Greeks, yet would not quit the interests of Persia, but denied his galleys entrance into their port.
Menander, in one of his comedies, alludes to this marvel when he says, Was Alexander ever favored more? Each man I wish for meets me at my door, And should I ask for passage through the sea, The sea I doubt not would retire for me. But Alexander himself in his epistles mentions nothing unusual in this at all, but says he went from Phaselis, and passed through what they call the Ladders.
The fortresses of the powerful maritime prince Zenicetes Olympus, Corycus, Phaselis in eastern Lycia, Attalia in Pamphylia were reduced, and the prince himself met his death in the flames of his stronghold Olympus.
In Pamphylia there is no settlement that can be with confidence assigned to them; but in Lycia it would seem that they colonised Phaselis, and perhaps other places. The mountain which rises immediately behind Phaselis was called "Solyma;" and a very little to the south was another mountain known as "Phoenicus."
Their greatest enclosure and that one which has most name and is most frequented is called the Hellenion, and this was established by the following cities in common: of the Ionians Chios, Teos, Phocaia, Clazomenai, of the Dorians Rhodes, Cnidos, Halicarnassos, Phaselis, and of the Aiolians Mytilene alone.
While Alcibiades weighed anchor and sailed eastward straight for Phaselis and Caunus, the envoys sent by the Four Hundred to Samos arrived at Athens.
The Phoenician ships retired from Samos on the approach of the Greek fleet under Leotychides. No Phoenicians fought at Mycale. None are heard of as engaged at Sestos, or Byzantium, or Eion, or Doriscus, or even Phaselis.
About the same time Alcibiades returned with his thirteen ships from Caunus and Phaselis to Samos, bringing word that he had prevented the Phoenician fleet from joining the Peloponnesians, and had made Tissaphernes more friendly to the Athenians than before. Alcibiades now manned nine more ships, and levied large sums of money from the Halicarnassians, and fortified Cos.
"Like Alexander, if I wish to meet A man, at once I find him in the street; And, were I forced to journey o'er the sea, The sea itself would calm its waves for me." Alexander himself, however, in his letters, speaks of no such miracle, but merely tells us that he started from Phaselis, and passed along the difficult road called Klimax, or the Ladder.
On reaching the city of Phaselis, as the inhabitants, although of Greek origin, refused him admittance, and preferred to remain faithful to Persia, he ravaged their territory and assaulted the fortifications.
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