Obv: Herakles wearing lion head headdress. Rev: Zeus seated. Metal: Silver 17.01 grams, 27 mm diameter. Condition: dark cabinet toned VF.

Tyre was an island city located off the coast of Phoenicia. When Alexander III "the Great" arrived and demanded the Tyrians to surrender, they were in a very difficult position. They knew that the Persian King Darius III was on his way, but they also knew that this young Macedonian King took great revenge on cities that stood their ground. Who to offend the Persian King or this young upstart? They chose to wait for the Persian King on their island with its great walls. Alexander III commenced to build a causeway from the mainland to the island. The Tyrians used their mighty navy against the relentless construction of the causeway. They crashed flamming unmaned galleys into the construction works, but in the end they failed to stop the construction. Alexander III's causeway was completed and the walls to the city were breached with battering rams. Fortunately most of the inhabitants were evacuated by sea to the Tyrian colony of Carthage, for when the walls finally fell the remaining inhabitants were slaughtered without mercy. The causeway caused the channel to the mainland to silt up and now Tyre is a penninsula to the mainland.