Alexander Burns Persepolis
Persia: Empire and AfterwardsFour Years
Alexander crossed into Asia in 334 BC. By 330 BC the Achaemenid empire — two centuries old, stretching across three continents — had ceased to exist. Darius III was defeated at Issus and then decisively at Gaugamela, fled east, and was killed by his own satrap. Alexander took Babylon, Susa, and then Persepolis.
The Fire
The ceremonial capital was burned. Archaeology confirms it: the terrace shows a fierce fire, with burnt cedar beams collapsed onto the floors, and the heat was great enough to leave its mark on the stone. What is not settled is why.
Two Stories
One tradition, in Diodorus, Plutarch and Curtius, describes a drunken banquet at which an Athenian woman named Thais urged that the palace be burned in revenge for Athens, and Alexander led the revellers out with torches. Arrian, generally the soberest of the sources, presents it instead as deliberate policy — a declaration that the war of revenge was concluded. Both traditions are ancient; the sources genuinely disagree, and historians still do.
What Was Lost
Whatever the motive, the effect was permanent. Persepolis was never rebuilt. Administrative archives kept there were destroyed, which is part of why the Achaemenid empire is so much better documented by its enemies than by itself — one reason the Greek version of these two centuries has had so little competition.
The Empire That Did Not Die
The dynasty ended; the structure did not. Alexander kept the satrapy system, kept many Persian officials, took a Persian wife and asked his officers to do the same. His successors, the Seleucids, governed the same provinces from the same cities with the same machinery. Persia had been conquered, and its way of running an empire went on running it.
Key Dates to Remember
- 334 BC — Alexander crosses into Asia
- 333 BC — Issus
- 331 BC — Gaugamela — the decisive defeat
- 330 BC — Darius III killed; Persepolis burns
- 323 BC — Alexander dies at Babylon
- 312 BC — The Seleucid empire is founded on Persian machinery