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In 306 Salamis was the most important Greek
city on the island of Cyprus. The island was held by Ptolemy I, the ruler of
Egypt, who was using it as a base in his wars against Antigonus Monophthalmus,
who held most of the coast of Asia Minor and Syria.
In 306 Antigonus sent his son Demetrius (soon to be known as “the
besieger”) to capture the island. He landed in the north east of the
island with an army of 15,000 infantry and 400 cavalry, and advanced towards
Salamis. The island was defended by Ptolemy’s brother Menelaos, who had a
smaller force - 12,000 infantry and 800 cavalry concentrated at Salamis.
Despite being outnumbered Menelaos advanced north from Salamis, fighting a
battle with Demetrius five miles from the city. Demetrius was victorious, and
forced Menelaos back into Salamis.
Cyprus in 306:
Demetrius now began the first of the great sieges that would earn him his
nickname. His siege train contained the first of his great siege towers, in
this case a nine-story tower called the helepolis, taller than the city walls
of Salamis. The lower levels of the tower contained stone-throwers designed to
attack the walls, the upper levels lighter catapults designed to force the
defenders off the wall. He would construct a similar tower during the siege of
Rhodes in the next year. Armed with the helepolis and a full range of the most
advanced siege engines then available, Demetrius was able to destroy part of
the city walls, but the defenders were able to destroy a significant part of
the siege train in a night attack, and Demetrius was repelled, at least for the
moment.
The city eventually fell after the very visible failure of a relief expedition
led by Ptolemy in person. His fleet was defeated in battle just south of the
city (Battle of Salamis of Cyprus). The sixty ships trapped in Salamis had
fought their way past a blockading force, but only in time to witness
Ptolemy’s defeat and to sail back into the city. With the defeat of the
relief expedition it was clearly pointless to continue the siege. Menelaos
surrendered, and was returned to Egypt. Cyprus was soon entirely in
Demetrius’s hands, along with 16,000 Egyptian soldiers. In the aftermath
of the victory at Salamis Antigonus adopted the royal title, and made Demetrius
his co-monarch. The capture of Cyprus was followed by a failed expedition to
Egypt, and then in 305-304 by the more famous Siege of Rhodes.
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