sailed to Salamis to share in the common danger. By such gestures Alexander was signaling to the
Greeks that at least some of the objectives of the pan-Hellenic campaign had been fulfilled.
Three weeks after leaving Arbela, Alexander reached Babylon (east of the Euphrates River). There
he was greeted by Mazaeus, the leader of the Persian right wing at Gaugamela, who had fled to
Babylon after the battle. Mazaeus came out as a suppliant, with his adult sons, to surrender himself
and the city. Following him was the man in charge of the citadel and treasury of Babylon,
Bagophanes, who had carpeted Alexander’s road into the city with flowers and garlands and had set
up silver altars piled up with frankincense and perfumes at intervals. The gifts to Alexander also
included herds of cattle and horses and lions and leopards in cages. After the ingratiating treasurer
came the Magi chanting, then the Chaldaean priests, Babylonian priests and musicians, and finally the
Babylonian cavalry. Having been conquered many times, the Babylonians knew how to put on a good
show for the latest would-be world conqueror.
Once he had settled in the city, Alexander directed the Babylonians to rebuild the temples that the
Persian king Xerxes allegedly had destroyed, most importantly the temple of the powerful storm god,
Baal. Alexander himself sacrificed to Baal according to the instructions of the Chaldaeans. Mazaeus
was appointed to the governorship of the city, with a Greek troop commander and tax collector.
Alexander stayed in Babylon for thirty days because there was plenty of food and the local
population was friendly to strangers. Curtius Rufus claims that this was the longest he stayed
anywhere and that in Babylon he let military discipline slide, taking advantage of the fact that the
Babylonians permitted their children and wives to have sex with strangers as long as it was paid for.
The Babylonians also were a bibulous lot, so they and the Macedonians shared common interests.
From the money surrendered to Alexander in Babylon, he gave each Macedonian cavalryman six
minas (in Greek currency), while the foreign cavalry received five. The gratuity was equal to about
300 days’ pay. The Macedonian infantry received two minas, while the mercenaries got a bonus of
two months’ pay. There was much more to come.
After Alexander marched out of Babylon, toward the end of November 331 he was joined by
reinforcements sent by Antipater, including 6,000 Macedonian infantry; 500 cavalry; 600 Thracian
cavalry; 3,500 Trallian infantry; and from the Peloponnese, 4,000 mercenary infantry and 380
cavalry. The horsemen were assigned to the Companion cavalry and the infantrymen to battalions
according to their national origins. In each squadron of cavalry two companies were formed, with the
companies commanded by Companions appointed by Alexander himself on the basis of proven
courage. This reorganization of the command structure signified Alexander’s desire to gain more
direct control of the Companion cavalry as a whole.
It was also around this time that Amyntas brought fifty young-adult sons of Macedonian noblemen
to serve as royal pages. These young men waited on the king at dinner, brought him his horses when
he went to battle, and attended him when he was hunting. They also guarded his bedroom while he
slept. Before long, some of these royal pages conceived a strong dislike for Alexander and his
policies.
SUSA
Alexander now marched eastward along the ancient road through Elam (now southwestern Iran) to
Susa, covering the 225-mile distance in twenty days. Susa (modern Khuzistan) had been developed by
Darius as one of the capital cities of Persia because of its access to the western parts of his empire.
Its satrap, Abulites, greeted Alexander at the river Choaspis with gifts including dromedaries and a
dozen elephants, and surrendered the city. In the city, Alexander ascended the throne of Darius and
promptly provoked some discreet hilarity: when he sat on the throne, his legs were too short to reach
the royal footstool. An alert page saved further embarrassment by placing a table under Alexander’s
dangling legs.
What was more important, in Susa Alexander came into possession of 40,000 talents of gold and
silver bullion and 9,000 talents of minted gold in the form of Persian Darics. This was the largest
financial windfall that any Greek or Macedonian had ever gained. Three thousand talents of silver
Lacedaemonian war.
Of greater symbolic significance, Alexander also recovered the bronze statues of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton, the so-called tyrant slayers of Athens. These famous statues had been taken from Athens
and brought to Susa by Xerxes after he sacked Athens in 480. Alexander returned them to the
Athenians, who set them up in the cemetery called the Kerameikos. The gift was a timely reminder to
the Athenians of the justification of the war just as Sparta’s King Agis was tempting them to break
away from the pan-Hellenic alliance.
In Susa Alexander also sacrificed according to ancestral custom and held torch races and an
athletic contest. The sacrifices undoubtedly were made to give thanks to the gods for the singular
favor they had shown Alexander and the Macedonians. His very presence in Susa was an
unprecedented indication that he was specially favored by Zeus. Certainly no other Greek or
Macedonian had ever before been in a position to make such sacrifices in the very heart of Persia.
Abulites was appointed satrap of Susiana. Mazarus, a Companion, was made commander of the
garrison in the citadel of Susa, and Archelaus was made general there. Left behind in Susa as well
were Darius’ mother, Sisygambis, and his children, who were provided with Greek tutors. This
measure indicates that Alexander expected Greek to be used near the center of the Persian empire for
the foreseeable future.
In addition to providing the queen mother with language lessons, Alexander decided to make a
present to her of purple fabric, some Macedonian clothes, and women to teach her and her
granddaughters how to make woolen clothes. Unfortunately, as Alexander subsequently learned,
nothing was more degrading for Persian women than working with wool. Informed of his cultural faux
pas, the king hurriedly apologized for his ignorance while also reminding Sisygambis that he had
given her the title of his own mother.
THE UXIANS
By late December 331, Alexander was on his way to Persis, the heartland of the Persian empire itself,
despising both the snow that often blocked the passes through the Zagros Mountains, and also the
tribesmen who guarded them. Those fierce tribesmen made a living extracting “gifts” from all who
wished to pass, including Persian kings. Some of these tribesmen, the Uxian hillmen, sent Alexander a
message telling him that they would not let him into Persia unless they received their usual payment.
In reply, Alexander invited the Uxians to meet him at the pass, where he would give them what they
had demanded.
Alexander then sacked the nearest Uxian villages and advanced to the pass before the Uxians had
arrived. Craterus was sent ahead to seize the heights of the mountains to which Alexander believed
the Uxians would retreat under his pressure. When the Uxians found Alexander at the appointed
mountain pass, they fled without a fight. Those who escaped to the hills were promptly wiped out by
Craterus. Alexander had paid the Uxians—in shrouds. Only after Darius’ mother pleaded with
Alexander on their behalf were the surviving Uxians allowed to keep possession of their land—in
exchange for an annual tribute of 100 horses, 500 mules, and 30,000 sheep.
Once the Uxians had been humbled, Parmenio then took the easier main road southward—perhaps
through modern Kazerun as far as Firuzabad, and then up to Shiraz and Persepolis—with the
Thessalian cavalry, the allied and mercenary units, the more heavily armed units, and the baggage
train. Alexander took the more scenic and dangerous route, through the hills from modern Fahlian,
with the Macedonian infantry, the Companion cavalry, the Agrianes, archers, and advanced scouts.
Alexander’s path initially was blocked at the so-called Persian Gates (perhaps the gorge known as
Tang-i Mohammed Reza) by the satrap Ariobarzanes, who had fortified the pass and now lay in wait
with 40,000 infantry and 700 cavalry. This was a considerable obstacle; indeed, it is a myth that
Alexander was welcomed into Persia. A first assault on the pass was repulsed with losses to the
Macedonians, but then Alexander found another way around the pass, and an attack on the defenders
survived.
Alexander then pressed on to Persepolis itself, marching so quickly that the garrison there did not
even have time to plunder the treasury at his approach. For the first time in history, Greeks and
Macedonians were about to enter the capital city of the great Persian empire not in chains, but under
arms.
THE SACK OF PERSEPOLIS
Shortly before he reached Persepolis, however, Alexander received a letter from its governor,
Tiridates, saying that if he arrived ahead of those who planned to defend the city on Darius’ behalf, he
(Tiridates) would betray the city to Alexander. Thus, Alexander led his troops on to the Persian
capital by forced marches.
But after the Macedonians crossed the Araxes River, their advance was halted by a dreadful sight.
About 800 Greeks, most of them elderly, came out to greet Alexander, bearing branches of
supplication. These Greeks had been carried away from their homes by previous Persian kings and in
captivity had been taught skills or crafts. Afterward their captors had mutilated them, amputating all
the extremities they did not need to perform their work. Some lacked hands, others feet, some ears and
noses. Others had been branded with letters from the Persian alphabet. The battle-hardened veterans
of the Macedonian army pitied the lot of these poor wretches; Alexander was said to have been
moved to tears.
Alexander promised to restore these men to their homes in Greece as soon as possible. But they
voted to stay together where they were, rather than to be separated into small groups in Greek cities,
where their deformities would stand out. To each of these horribly mutilated Greeks Alexander
therefore granted 3,000 drachmae, five men’s robes, two oxen, fifty sheep, and fifty bushels of wheat.
He also made them exempt from royal taxes and charged his officials to make sure that no one harmed
them. Diodorus comments that Alexander mitigated the lot of these unfortunates in keeping with his
natural kindness. Scholars who have scoured the sources for each and every example of his cruelty
have passed over Alexander’s humane gesture here in silence. Nor have they addressed the general
issue of Persian mutilation of prisoners of war.
Perhaps roused to anger, when Alexander entered Persepolis, the king returned to the vengeful
rhetoric of the campaign’s ideology. He told his generals that no city was more hateful to the Greeks
than Persepolis, the dynastic capital of Persia since the days of Darius I: it was the city from which
troops without number had poured forth and from which the Persian kings had waged an unholy war
on Europe. To appease their forefathers’ spirits, Alexander said, they should blot Persepolis out.
And thus Alexander handed over the Persian capital (except for the royal palaces) to an army that
had been deprived of any substantial reward except the gratuity given to it at Babylon. The private
homes of the Persians were sacked, the men slaughtered, and the women enslaved in an orgy of
plunder and murder, though Alexander did issue an order for the soldiers to keep their hands off the
women. Rape was explicitly forbidden.
The sack of Persepolis, according to one historian, was “an act of outrage on a helpless populace
and was coldly calculated.” But, as we consider that act, it is important to keep in mind that the
populace of Persepolis had lived off the fruits of the defeat, suffering, and exploitation of millions of
people (including large numbers of Greeks) throughout its history. Persepolis’ symbolic role at the
center of an empire does not justify a single murder of an innocent Persian civilian, or a single act of
destruction to private property. But it probably helps to explain the ferocity with which the
Macedonian soldiers took their revenge. Moreover, the Macedonians’ recent encounter with hundreds
of terribly mutilated Greeks cannot have inspired them to be merciful to their enemies.
Pasargadae, the older Persian capital, in which the tomb of Cyrus the Great lay, was spared such
destruction, although its treasury of 6,000 talents was confiscated. Meanwhile, Alexander took
possession of the treasury in Persepolis; it contained the absolutely staggering sum of 120,000 talents.
He had some of the bullion transported to Susa, while part was kept with the army. Some of the riches
eventually ended up with Parmenio at Ecbatana (Hamadan).
Alexander was now not just “rich rich,” he was madly rich, the wealthiest man in Greek history,
richer than Croesus. The richest man in the world and his men then rested in what was left of
Persepolis until Parmenio and his forces rejoined them. One last destructive revel now ensued.
THE BURNING OF THE PERSIAN PALACES
In April 330, after a short punitive raid against the Mardians, Alexander burned the palaces of the
Persian kings.
Parmenio had advised against this act on the grounds that it was hardly wise to destroy one’s own
property. Alexander replied that he wished to punish the Persians for the destruction of Athens, the
burning of the temples, and all their other crimes against the Greeks. Thus, the burning of the palace
complex in Persepolis was a matter of policy, one directly related to the justification of the pan-
Hellenic campaign itself.
But several ancient writers tell a more scandalous tale. In this version, after Alexander held games
in honor of his victories, and performed costly sacrifices, there was a feast, followed by drinking.
One of the courtesans present, an Athenian named Thais, said that it would be the finest of all the
things Alexander had done in Asia if he took part in a triumphal procession, set fire to the royal
palaces, and permitted women’s hands in a few seconds to wipe out the famous accomplishments of
the Persians.
Alexander took up the idea: after the king, the courtesan was the first to hurl her blazing torch into
the palaces. The entire palace area was soon consumed, so great was the conflagration. Diodorus
comments that it was most remarkable that the impious act of Xerxes, king of the Persians, against the
acropolis at Athens should have been repaid in kind after many years by an Athenian woman, and in
sport.
Modern historians have divided over the question of whether Alexander destroyed the Persian
palaces for reasons of policy or during a drunken revel. But the Macedonians spent at least four
months in Persepolis; it is very hard to believe that in all that time the fate of the royal palaces was
not considered. The story of Parmenio advising Alexander not to destroy the palaces sounds like an
echo of a real debate (albeit one elaborated as part of the later campaign to discredit Parmenio).
These considerations suggest that the palaces were burned after a policy decision was taken. That
decision was consistent with the justification for the campaign itself, as Arrian explicitly states. The
burning of the palaces of the Persian kings was direct retribution for the burning of the temple of
Athena on the acropolis of Athens, and it was calculated, at least for several months.
Later, however, after Alexander had become the king of Asia, the policy decision of 330 looked
very different. The story of Thais instigating the destruction of the palaces probably belongs to the
period after Alexander had returned from India and had taken on his pan-Asian kingship. The blame
for what had turned out to be an embarrassing decision was thus shifted onto an Athenian courtesan.
Significantly, Arrian does not mention Thais or the drunken party that led to the fire, perhaps because
Thais later became the mistress of one of his main sources, none other than Ptolemy.
Either way, Alexander regretted the fire almost as soon as it was set, and he gave orders to
extinguish it. Parmenio had been right after all: destroying one’s own property was not wise; it was
the act of a conqueror, not a ruler. But it was too late. The palaces were in ashes and Darius was still
on the loose. Learning that he planned resistance in Media, Alexander made the mountainous land of
the Medes his next objective, after appointing a satrap in Persia.
PART TWO
King of All Asia
CHAPTER 12
The Death of Darius