I've just heard of the months-long campaign of fighting in the streets between Caesar's forces and those of Ptolemy XIII during the siege of Alexandria. It's been described as "One of the most vicious campaigns of urban warfare", but what would this street fighting have looked like?

by badonkadelic

I found it quite hard to write a succinct title question that asked what I wanted to ask - but as the title says. What would urban warfare have looked like between armies presumably armed with melee or generally short-ranged weapons consist of? Was this attrition-style warfare? Was the fighting scattered or was it more an intense series of pitched battles and actions followed by quiet? Did it revolve around siege engineering and the like? Was it less urban warfare as we imagine today, and more what we would think of as a "Siege" with an unbroken fortified position that the opposing force tried to breach?

Finally - was the Alexandrian dynamic unique or was this the "done thing"? What has urban warfare looked like in the pre-firearms era elsewhere?

hairguythrowaway4171

Follow up: in other ancient/classical wars, sieges were common and once the city walls were breached the battle almost immediately ended in favor of the attackers. How common was long drawn out urban warfare during this time?