represented, "that the gods offered them what they should not even have dared to wish, viz. their country, their wives, their children, and all those things for whose sake men are fond of life, and despise death. That they had long enough borne the sad yoke of slavery; and that nothing happier could present itself, than their being indulged the bliss of going at last to breathe their native air, to resume their ancient manners, laws, and sacrifices, and to die in presence of their wives and children." However, the former opinion prevailed; and accordingly they besought the king to permit them to continue in a country, where they had spent so many years. He granted their request, and presented each of them three thousand drachms; five men's suits of clothes, and the same number for women; two couple of oxen to plough their lands, and corn to sow them. He commanded the governor of the province not to suffer them to be molested in any manner, and ordered that they should be free from taxes and tributes of every kind. Such behaviour as this was truly royal. It was, indeed, impossible for Alexander to restore them the limbs, of which the Persians had so cruelly deprived them; but then he restored them to liberty, tranquillity, and abundance. Thrice happy those princes, who are affected with the pleasure which arises from the doing of good actions, and who melt with pity for the unfortunate ! Alexander, having called together, the next day, the generals of his army, represented to them, "that no city in the world had ever been more fatal to the • About 1501. Greeks than Persepolis, the ancient residence of the Persian monarchs, and the capital of their empire; for that it was from thence all those mighty armies poured, which had overflowed Greece, and whence Darius, and afterwards Xerxes, had carried the fire brand of the most accursed war, which had laid waste all Europe; and therefore that it was incumbent on them to revenge the manes of their ancestors." It was already abandoned by the Persians, who all fled separately as fear drove them. Alexander entered it with his phalanx, when the victorious soldiers soon met with riches sufficient to satiate their avarice, and immediately cut to pieces all those who still remained in the city. However the king soon put an end to the massacre, and published an order, by which his soldiers were forbid to violate the chastity of the women. Alexander had before possessed himself, either by force or capitulation, of a great number of incredibly rich cities; but all this was a trifle compared to the treasures he found here. The barbarians had laid up at Persepolis, as in a storehouse, all the wealth of Persia. Gold and silver were never seen here but in heaps; not to mention the clothes and furniture of inestimable value; for this was the seat of luxury. There was found in the treasury, one hundred and twenty thousand talents, which were designed to defray the expense of the war. To this prodigious sum he added six thousand talents, taken from Pasagarda. This was a city which Cyrus had built, wherein the kings of Persia used to be crowned. P About 18,000,0001. sterl. • About 900,0001. During Alexander's stay in Persepolis, a little before he set out upon his march against Darius, he entertained his friends at a banquet, at which the guests drank to excess. Among the women, who were admitted to it masked, was Thais the courtezan, a native of Attica, and at that time mistress to Ptolemy, who afterwards was king of Egypt. About the end of the feast, during which she had studiously endeavoured to praise the king in the most artful and delicate manner, a stratagem too often practised by women of that character, she said, in a gay tone of voice, "that it would be matter of inexpressible joy to her, were she permitted, masked as she then was, and in order to end this festival nobly, to burn the magnifi cent palace of Xerxes, who had burned Athens: and set it on fire with her own hand, in order that it might be said in all parts of the world, that the women, who had followed Alexander in his expedition to Asia, had taken much better vengeance of the Persians, for the many calamities they had brought upon the Grecians, than all the generals who had fought for them both by sea and land." All the guests applauded the discourse; when immediately the king rose from table, his head being crowned with flowers, and taking a torch in his hand, he advanced forward to execute this mighty exploit. The whole company follow him, breaking into loud acclamations, and afterwards, singing and dancing, they surround the palace. All the rest of the Macedonians, at this noise, ran in crowds, with lighted tapers, and set fire to every part of it. However, Alexander was sorry, not long after, for what he had done; and thereupon gave orders for extinguishing the fire; but it was too late. As he was naturally very bountiful, his great successes increased this beneficent disposition; and he accompanied the presents he made with such testimonies of humanity and kindness, and so obliging a carriage, as very much enhanced their merit. He exerted this temper in a particular manner towards fifty Macedonian young lords, who served under him as guards. Olympias his mother, thinking him too profuse, wrote to him as follows: "I do not blame you" said she, "for being beneficent towards your friends, for that is acting like a king: but then a medium ought to be observed in your munificence. You equal them all with kings, and by heaping riches upon them, give them an opportunity of making a great number of friends, of all whom you deprive yourself." As she often wrote the same advice to him, he always kept her letters very secret, and did not shew them to any person; but happening to open one of them, and beginning to read it, Hephestion drew near to him, and read it over his shoulder, which the king observing, did not offer to hinder him; but taking only the ring from his finger, he put the seal of it upon the lips of his favourite, as an admonition to him not to divulge what he had read. He used to send magnificent presents to his mother; but then he would never let her have any concern in the affairs of the government. She used frequently to make very severe complaints upon that account, but he always submitted to her ill humour with great mildness and patience. Antipater having one day wrote a long letter against her, the king, after reading it, replied, 'Antipater does not know that one single tear shed by " a mother, will obliterate ten thousand such letters as this." A behaviour like this, and such an answer, shew, at one and the same time, that Alexander was both a kind son and an able politician; and that he was perfectly sensible how dangerous it would have been, had he invested a women of Olympias's character with the supreme authority. SECTION X. DARIUS LEAVES ECBATANA. HIS DEATH. ALEXANDER SENDS HIS CORPSE TO SYSIGAMBIS. ALEXANDER,' after he had taken Persepolis and Pasagarda, was resolved to pursue Darius, who was arrived by this time at Ecbatana, the capital of Media. There remained still with this fugitive prince thirty thousand foot, among whom were four thousand Greeks, who were faithful to him to the last; besides these, he had four thousand slingers, and upwards of three thousand cavalry, most of them Bactrians, commanded by Bessus, governor of Bactria. Darius marched his forces a little out of the common road, having ordered his baggage to go before them; then assembling his principal officers, he spoke to them as follows: "Dear companions, among so many thousand men, who composed my army, you only have not abandoned me during the whole course of my ill fortune; and in a little time, nothing but your fidelity Diod. I. xvii. p. 540–546. p. 689. Q. Curt. I. v. c. 8-14. Arrian. I. iii. p. 133–137. Plut. in Alex. |