A resident of Pella, Diades had been a student of Polyidus of Thessaly and succeeded him as chief engineer at the time of Alexander the Great’s accession.
He accompanied Alexander the Great in his warfare on East. He constructed (or improved) movable towers, battering rams, scaling engines used to scale walls and battering crane used for the destruction of city walls.
Together with Charias they constructed some of the most impressive and powerful war machines used by Alexander’s army in his conquests, which proved decisive in his victories against the Persians. He chiefly designed battering rams, moving towers, catapults and cranes aimed at demolishing enemy walls.
He was director of many sieges and also known as the ‘man who took Tyre’. This because his siege engines were used during Alexander’s successful Siege of Tyre.
Diades of Pella
