The king left Craterus behind with most of the infantry and all of the cavalry. He was under orders to light as many fires as if the whole army were still camped before the pass, then wait for a trumpet signal to charge the wall. Alexander then ordered the rest of his men to load provisions for three days into their packs and prepare for the toughest climb of their lives. With a whispered prayer to the gods, the king and thousands of his soldiers set off in the night single file up the trail.
The path was covered in snow so deep that the men sunk repeatedly up to their chests as if they had fallen in holes. Their friends who tried to pull them out of the drifts fell in themselves. Hidden ravines and deep gorges were everywhere, while thick pines blotted out the stars on all sides. The wind was bitterly cold and whipped the frozen branches against the faces of the miserable soldiers. But Alexander had ordered his men to move over the mountain in absolute silence, so there were none of the usual complaints of cold and weary soldiers on the march. Hour after hour they struggled through impossible conditions over unknown trails in complete darkness, trusting their lives to a single Lycian shepherd and their king, who believed in a childhood prophesy.
At last, as the new day was beginning, they reached the summit of the trail well above the Persian Gates. Here Alexander ordered his exhausted men to rest and eat while he conferred with his officers. His plan was to split his forces yet again, sending a sizable detachment under Ptolemy directly down the mountainside to strike at the side of the wall at the right moment. With the rest of the men, Alexander continued down the trail to the back of the pass, a passage that was scarcely less difficult than the climb to the summit. When he reached the main road behind the Gates, he surprised a Persian guard unit stationed there, killing them all except for a few who fled down the mountain.
Night had fallen again as Alexander put his men into formation and advanced against the Persians. He ordered a trumpet blast that carried to Craterus at the far side of the Gates as a signal to begin the attack from his end. At the same time, Ptolemy and his men hit the Persians from the side after their own hike down the steep mountain. It was now Ariobarzanes who was caught in a trap. Some of his men tried to make a stand while others tried to flee, but Alexander’s surprise was so complete that almost all were slaughtered. Only the satrap himself and a handful of his men managed to escape by horse into the hills. It was one of the most horrendous battles imaginable, fought in darkness in a narrow, snow-covered pass. Thousands of Persians died in defense of their native land, hacked down by bone-tired but determined Macedonian and Thracian warriors who had made an impossible trek over the mountains in the depths of winter. The frozen corpses of the men who had died in the earlier battle before the wall were at last given funeral rites. The Lycian shepherd who had led them was rewarded lavishly by Alexander and warmly praised by the men whose lives he had held in his hands. The Persian Gates had fallen and the road to Persepolis now lay open before them.
It was now a race to reach the capital before the Persians could set up an effective defense or evacuate the treasury to the north. Alexander had already sent Philotas ahead to bridge the Araxes River on the way to the city. He had also just received a letter from Tiridates, the royal treasurer at Persepolis, who was probably a eunuch, informing the king that he would hand over the town and treasury to Alexander if he could arrive quickly. But it was essential that the Macedonians beat Ariobarzanes and his men to the city or they would surely fight for control of the capital. Tiridates was obviously hoping for the same sort of preferred treatment that important officials who had willingly given over their cities had received from the king in the past.
The Macedonians rushed at full speed down from the Zagros Mountains toward Persepolis, but when they were almost at the city they saw something that caused Alexander to pause in spite of his haste. Before him on the road was a procession of eight hundred elderly men and women bearing branches of supplication. They were a hideous and pitiable sight as each one of them had been mutilated. Some lacked hands, others feet, some were without ears or noses. To add to the shock, they all cried out to the king in Greek. Their spokesman explained that they had been carried away to this place many years before by an earlier Persian king as punishment for deeds in their homeland. They formed a colony of Greek exiles on the doorstep of the Persian capital to serve as a visible reminder for those passing by of the price of disloyalty to the Great King. Many of the refugees were craftsmen, so that their Persian masters had spared those limbs necessary for their particular work, but all were disfigured.
Alexander was so moved by the story of these aged and broken souls that tears ran down his face. He promised that he would do everything he could to help them return home to Greece. The exiles thanked him and asked if instead they might stay where they were. In Greece, they explained, they would be scattered into small groups and treated as objects of scorn. But here in Persia, they were a community with a common bond of misfortune who all looked out for one another. All they asked from Alexander was help in taking care of themselves. The king gladly agreed and ordered all be given enough money to see them comfortably through the rest of their lives, along with clothing, oxen, sheep, and bushels of wheat. He exempted them from taxes and gave strict orders to the officials ruling the region to treat them with the greatest respect.
Persepolis lay in a broad plain ringed by distant mountains at the heart of the Persian homeland. There were other capitals—Susa, Babylon, Ecbatana—but these were conquered cities that had been taken over during wars of expansion. Persepolis, on the other hand, was the soul of the empire. Here was the place the Great King and his nobles came to remember what they had accomplished over two centuries. In the days of the young Cyrus the Great, the Persians were a minor subject people, a band of highland warriors who had swept in from the lands to the north to live on the edge of civilization. They were fierce fighters and men of honor, but they were little more than country cousins to the Medes, who ruled them, and nothing but barbarians to the ancient cultures of the Fertile Crescent. They had no written language and no skill in building great monuments. But then in the course of a single lifetime they had conquered the Medes and spread into Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and central Asia. No empire in history had accomplished such a wondrous achievement. At Persepolis, where once the Persian clans had gathered in tents, they built a magnificent city using the talents of the civilized peoples they ruled. Here they stored the tribute and treasure collected from distant provinces to fund their armies and administer their empire. The first Great King Darius was the earliest architect of Persepolis, declaring on a wall inscription at the site:
I AM DARIUS, THE GREAT KING, KING OF KINGS,
KING OF NATIONS, KING ON THIS WIDE EARTH,
SON OF HYSTASPES, THE ACHAEMENID.
KING DARIUS PROCLAIMS: ON THIS PLATFORM WHERE
THIS FORTRESS HAS BEEN BUILT, NO FORTRESS HAS
BEEN BUILT BEFORE. BY THE FAVOR OF AHURAMAZDA,
I BUILT THIS FORTRESS AS AHURAMAZDA AND ALL THE
GODS WITH HIM WILLED IT. I BUILT IT, COMPLETED IT,
MADE IT BEAUTIFUL AND SECURE,
EXACTLY AS I DETERMINED.
Alexander and the army of Macedonia approached this great city at the end of January, almost four years after they had left Europe and crossed into Asia. By rapid marches over impossible terrain, tenacity in battle, and sheer determination, they had beaten Ariobarzanes at the Persian Gates and reached the walls of Persepolis unopposed. The turncoat treasurer Tiridates kept his word and opened the gates to the king. But unlike at Babylon, there were no welcoming crowds lining the streets. The citizens of the city hid in their homes praying to their gods, fearing for good reason the worst at the hands of this young king from the edge of the world.
The city that Alexander entered was not like Babylon in its ancient, vibrant grandeur or even like Susa with its magnificent palace complex and rich heritage of Elamite culture. Persepolis was a new city, monumental in the truest sense, a s
tately sermon in stone proclaiming the awesome power of the Persian Empire. The large palace complex was located on a rock terrace rising above the plain and was approached by a broad double stairway guarded by statues of giant bulls to ward off evil, a borrowing from earlier Mesopotamian iconography. Climbing onto the terrace, the visitor would see the audience hall on a platform with magnificent relief carvings of Persian soldiers and subject nations approaching the royal throne. Petitioners to the Great King passed beautifully detailed carvings of nobles in their chariots and imperial guards on one side. On the other side were Arabs leading camels and Indians bearing gifts, along with suppliant Parthians, Bactrians, Egyptians, Scythians, Greeks, Syrians, Babylonians, Lydians, Elamites, Medes, and others. Everyone who was granted the honor of an audience with the Great King would have to climb past these testimonials of Persian might.
Near the audience hall was another immense gathering space with one hundred columns, as well as the large and well-guarded treasury constructed of deceptively plain mud bricks. The palaces built by the first Darius and his son Xerxes were on the southern side of the terrace. That of Darius was Egyptian-inspired, small and compact, lined with walls polished to such a finish that it was known as the Hall of Mirrors. The palace of Xerxes occupied the highest part of the complex and was much grander than the structure of his father. Dozens of small chambers filled the back of the building, probably containing the harem of the king. Here the many wives and concubines of the Great King lived in splendid isolation. These ladies of the court were Persian nobility or the daughters of subject princes pledged as symbols of fealty to the empire. As a king had to be absolutely sure of the paternity of his sons, the women were guarded night and day by eunuchs.
The palace complex of Persepolis was an administrative and diplomatic center, a residence of the Great King and his entourage, a treasure house, and a ceremonial site of great importance. It was probably here that the Persian New Year ceremony was celebrated annually on the spring equinox, when gifts were given and the king confirmed as the earthly representative of the great god Ahuramazda. The majority of the population lived outside the grounds of the palace in the surrounding city. These were government officials, businessmen, and merchants who owned luxurious homes furnished with beautiful works of art. The people of Persepolis were the elite of the Persian world and had profited greatly from the tribute pouring into the capital for two hundred years.
Alexander had been generous with his army during the campaign, ensuring they were well paid when possible and given an ample share of booty along the way. But now as the men entered Persepolis, they were restless. They saw all around them riches beyond measure and knew that the private homes they passed held incredible wealth. They were, however, a disciplined lot and restrained themselves so as not to anger Alexander. Nevertheless, the king knew that even the self-control of his soldiers had its limits. Armies in the ancient world firmly believed it was their natural right to pillage any city they conquered. After all, they put their lives on the line fighting for king and country. Glory was all well and good for princes and nobles, but they longed for tangible treasure to spend while they were still young enough to enjoy it and gold to buy that farm they had always had their eye on back home. As for captive women, in the minds of the soldiers they were nothing more than the spoils of war and were to be treated as such.
Alexander had made the situation at Persepolis even more volatile by his depiction of the capital city as the ultimate goal of their campaign. The king roused his men to continue the march through deserts and mountains to Persepolis to seek revenge, calling it the most hated city in Asia. By the time the army actually reached the Persian capital, they were so embittered toward the town as the symbol of all that was evil in the world that they had no eye for the beauty of palaces or any interest in building good relations with the natives for the sake of Alexander’s new empire. They wanted to seize everything of value for themselves and watch the rest burn.
After Alexander had taken possession of the royal terrace overlooking the town, he felt he could no longer constrain his men. Rather than have a riot on his hands, he gave his army free rein to sack the great city of Persepolis, sparing only the palace complex for himself. His army had plundered cities before from Thebes to Gaza, but this was the first time he allowed a town that had peacefully surrendered to be ravaged. It was a radical change in his policy toward conquered peoples and not at all conducive to building trust among his subjects. It was also a dangerous precedent to allow such license to an army, but the king believed the alternative was more perilous.
All that day and throughout the night the soldiers ran wild through the streets of Persepolis in an orgy of ferocious greed rarely equaled in history. The Macedonians burst into every private house and killed the men inside, then took turns raping the women and girls. When they wearied of this, they bound their captives to sell into slavery. At the same time, they stripped the homes of anything remotely valuable, even fighting among themselves for the best objects. Some hacked the limbs from golden statues when they found they could not carry away the heavy objects whole. Not a few of the men were killed by their comrades quarrelling over fine purple cloth or silver jewelry. Some even had their hands cut off by men they had long fought beside as they tried to grab a bit more treasure for themselves. A few of the Persian households tried to fight back, but it was no use. The bravest among the citizens saw what was coming and set their own houses on fire with themselves and their families inside before the Macedonians could break down the doors. Others put on their finest clothing and threw their wives and children from the roofs to their deaths in the streets below, then followed themselves. Finally, after a full day and night of horror for the people of the capital, Alexander ordered his men to cease from looting the city and stop the killing. But by then, there was little left to steal and few lives left to spare. Persepolis was a smoking ruin filled with the dead, an indescribable scene of horror as naked widows and orphans were led away in the winter cold to the slave markets. Alexander at last had his revenge against the Great King’s empire, but the Persians would never forget what he had done.
While his men were still ravaging the city, Alexander walked through the palace taking an inventory of his new possessions. The first thing he noticed was a statue of Xerxes that had been carelessly overturned by some of his men. This was the Persian king who had invaded Greece early in the previous century, slaughtered the Spartans at Thermopylae, and burned Athens to the ground. And yet, Alexander knew that Xerxes had many admirable qualities, not least of which was a gift for building the magnificent palace around him. He stopped in front of the toppled statue and spoke to it as if it were alive, asking if he should set it up on its pedestal again even though he had done such harm to Greece. He pondered the problem for a long time in silence as his friends stood near, then walked away.
The king next entered the throne room and approached the seat of the Great King, a grandiose piece of furniture on a raised platform covered by a golden canopy. The pages had apparently already placed a footstool of appropriate height before the throne in anticipation of Alexander’s entrance, for the ancient sources don’t mention his feet dangling above the floor as they did in Susa. It was a moving moment for Alexander and all those present. Here at last the king fulfilled his dream of sitting on the throne of the Great King at Persepolis. For four years he had fought his way across the Persian Empire defeating armies and sacking cities to earn this right. Demaratus of Corinth, his old family friend, burst into tears at the sight. He declared that he pitied those Greeks who had died before they could see Alexander seated on the throne of Darius.
From the palace Alexander moved to the treasury, where he gazed in awe at the tribute collected by the Great Kings of Persia for two centuries. The royal treasury at Susa had held an unbelievable store of gold and silver, but the abundance of wealth contained in this simple mud-brick building at Persepolis made the coffers at Susa look small by comparison. There was row afte
r row of boxes filled with gold coins collected from all the nations of the empire. Alexander thought it best to remove the money from Persepolis and so ordered it transported to the treasury at Susa. But the load was so immense that the Macedonian quartermasters had to send for thousands of mules and camels from Mesopotamia to bear the treasure.
Alexander also visited the royal center at Pasargadae just a few miles to the east of Persepolis. This was the place where Cyrus won his final victory over the Medes, prompting the first Great King of Persia to build a palace there. This was also the holy site where each new Persian king was crowned. Each man who would lead the empire entered the sanctuary there and laid aside his own cloak, taking up instead the garment that Cyrus had once worn. The coronation rituals seemed strange to outsiders, but the new king first ate a fig cake, then chewed on turpentine wood, and finally drank a cup of sour milk. It is likely that each king began his reign in this way to remember that in spite of golden palaces and the comforts of civilization, most important, he was the leader of a highland tribe of warriors nourished on simple and sometimes bitter fare.
Alexander appropriated the treasury at Pasargadae to add to the caravan heading for Susa, but he was even more interested in visiting the tomb of Cyrus. It was a small, rectangular stone structure at the top of a platform of stairs. A garden surrounded the tomb tended by a permanent staff of priests. The door to the tomb was narrow and small, so that even a short man like Alexander had difficulty squeezing through the single opening. Inside was a golden sarcophagus containing the body of Cyrus. Beside it was a couch covered with a Babylonian tapestry and surrounded by purple carpets over the cold stone floor. Next to the couch were laid out Median trousers and royal robes, along with a table holding swords and jewelry. The hereditary family of priests who tended the tomb received daily a sheep and grain for their own needs, along with a horse each month to offer as a sacrifice to the spirit of Cyrus. On the outside of the door was an inscription in Persian cuneiform that the priest interpreted for Alexander:
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