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  UFO fanatics have clutched onto unfounded bogus fabrications of Alexander the Great having encountered UFOs in his campaigns of domination.  Personally, I believe UFOs are very real but this particular story is highly questionable.

 "329 BC Alexander the Great records two great silver shields, spitting fire around the rims in the sky that dived repeatedly at his army as they were attempting a river crossing. The action so panicked his elephants, horses, and men they had to abandon the river crossing until the following day."

"Frank Edwards, a prolific UFO reporter, in 'Stranger than Science'  quotes  an undisclosed source when he makes the following claim ...

 "Alexander the Great was not the first to see them nor was he the first to find them troublesome. He tells of two strange craft that dived repeatedly at his army until the war elephants, the men, and the horses all panicked and refused to cross the river where the incident occurred. What did the things look like? His historian describes them as great shining silvery shields, spitting fire around the rims... things that came from the skies and returned to the skies."

Frank Edwards cites that Alexander's Historian  "describes them as great shining silvery shields, spitting fire around the rims... things that came from the skies and returned to the skies." Alexander the Greats Court Historian was Callisthenes, a Nephew of Aristotle who was later executed on Alexander's orders. Some of his works have survived fragmentarily and in condensed forms See Penguin Classics "The Greek Alexander Romance (Penguin Classics)"   and  :The history of Alexander the Great..."   there is no clue in either of these works as to where Edwards may have obtained his information. [It is probable that Callisthenes did not actually write these works, and are most likely reworks of his writings by a mystery writer[s] of the 3rd or 4th Century commonly referred to as pseudo-Callisthenes.]  <Back

"332 BC Phoenicia, Tyre, a city-state. During a siege by the Greeks a fleet of flying shields is described as plunging from the sky and breaching the city walls. "

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The following translation is from "Gods and Spacemen In Greece and Rome"  by W. Raymond Drake.  Drake cites Alberto Fenoglio^[1], who claims that he drew his information from a work by Johann Gustavo Droysen , 1808–1884.  Droysen, was a respected German Historian, his book on Alexander the Great [Geschichte Alexanders des Großen.] is considered by many to be the best modern era work on the subject of Alexander the Great.

"The fortress would not yield, its walls were fifty feet high and constructed so solidly that no siege-engine was able to damage it. The Tyrians disposed of the greatest technicians and builders of war-machines of the time and they intercepted in the air the incendiary arrows and projectiles hurled by the catapults on the city.   ..One day suddenly there appeared over the Macedonian camp these "flying shields", as they had been called, which flew in triangular formation led by an exceedingly large one, the others were smaller by almost a half. In all there were five. The unknown chronicler narrates that they circled slowly over Tyre while thousands of warriors on both sides stood and watched them in astonishment. Suddenly from the largest "shield" came a lightning-flash that struck the walls, these crumbled, other flashes followed and walls and towers dissolved, as if they had been built of mud, leaving the way open for the besiegers who poured like an avalanche through the breeches. The "flying shields" hovered over the city until it was completely stormed then they very swiftly disappeared aloft, soon melting into the blue sky."

This is a fascinating tale , if True. There is no English language translation of the scholarly work by Droysen to verify the cited content.  Albert Fenoglio, from who Drake drew his data is a charlatan who has been known to have fabricated a number of UFO tales.

Alberto Fenoglio the perpetrator who cited  Droysen the Historian,  was responsible for several hoaxes and has close to zero credibility.  Other bogus feats of UFO journalism perpetrated by Fenoglio include ...

 The Alencon Spaceman " Recent research has revealed the tale of the Alencon Spaceman to be a hoax perpetrated by a mischievous Italian Ufologist named Alberto Fenoglio."

He is also responsible for a false story citing a diary of a Jesuit Priest claiming to have witnessed  bizarre aeirial phenomena - the diary it turns out never existed  See Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times By Jacques Vallee, Chris Aubeck  November 1661 Tibetan Flying Hat

Also See Larry Hatch's List of Discredited UFO Sightings


 

The Life and Deeds of Alexander the Great p. 70 records the conquest of Tyre, and states only that "they opened the gates of the city by night, entered and killed the guards ...sacked the whole city and leveled it to its foundations... "

Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus, drawing on earlier Greek sources, describes a slightly differing version of the fall of Tyre in  The History of Alexander (Penguin Classics)

 "...The king himself climbed the highest siege-tower [which was full of catapults and other siege-engines]. His courage was great, but the danger greater for, conspicuous in his royal insignia and flashing armor, he was the prime target of enemy missiles. And his actions in the engagement were certainly spectacular. He transfixed with his spear many of the defenders on the walls, and some he threw headlong after striking them in hand-to-hand combat with his sword or shield, for the tower from which he fought practically abutted the enemy walls.


By now the repeated battering of the rams had loosened the joints in the stones and the defensive walls had fallen; the fleet had entered the port; and some Macedonians had made their way on to the towers the enemy had abandoned . The Tyrians were crushed by so many simultaneous reverses. Some sought refuge in the temples as suppliants while others locked their doors and anticipated the enemy by a death of their own choosing. Others again charged into the enemy, determined that their deaths should count for something. But the majority took to the rooftops, showering stones and whatever happened to be to hand on the approaching Macedonians...."    [Translation by John Yardley.]

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