‘There is nothing impossible to him who will try.’ Alexander is believed to have said this during his siege of a fortress, possibly at Tyre or Gaza, both occurring in 332 BC.

A more direct translation from the original Greek changes the above quote to ‘For the courageous, nothing is unattainable.’ The first quote emphases determination while the more accurate second translation stresses courage.

The saying has been passed down through the ages but the exact where, when, and even if he said this has been lost to the winds of time.

Tyre was an island fortress about 0.6 miles off the Mediterranean coast in southern Lebanon. Alexander at the time lacked a navy to attack the fortress so he built a 3200’ long by 200’ wide causeway from the shore to the island which is still in existence to this day. After 4 months the land siege proved ineffective, causing Alexander to put together a navy. The combined naval and land siege allowed Alexander to capture the city.

During the siege of Gaza, shortly after Alexander’s victory over Tyre, the Macedonian army captured the city on their 4^th assault of the city’s walls using the machines that were built to breach the walls of Tyre. Repercussions for the cities refusal to surrender were catastrophic with Alexander slaughtering all males and selling the women and children into slavery.

Source: Siege of Tyre by Uggerud, 2024, The Collector. Siege of Gaza by Hansley, Greece High Definition. Courage of Alexander, Memoria Press. Alexander the Great.org. Graphic: The Great Siege of Tyre by Andre Castaigne, 1898-99, Public Domain