[453] Diodorus (xvii. 70, 71) and Curtius (v. 20, 22) say that Alexander delivered Persepolis to his soldiers to pillage, and that he ordered a general massacre of the inhabitants. These authors agree with Plutarch (Alex., 38) in asserting that in a drunken revel he was instigated by the courtesan Thais to set fire to the palace, and accompanied her to commence the act of destruction. See Dryden’s famous ode. But Arrian’s account establishes the fact that the fire was the result of a deliberate plan. As regards the massacre, Plutarch (37) expressly states that Alexander wrote home that he ordered it from motives of policy.
[454] This was the principal pass through the Elburz mountains from Media into Hyrcania and Parthia.
[455] This was the capital of Media, called in Chaldee Achmetha (Ezra vi. 2). The present city of Hamadan is on the same site. It is situated at the foot of Mount Orontes, and was used by the Persian and Parthian kings as their summer residence. It was surrounded by seven walls, each overtopping the one before it, from the outer to the inner, crowned with battlements of different colours. Its citadel was used as a royal treasury. Below it stood a splendid palace, with silver tiles, and adorned with wainscotings, capitals, and entablatures of gold and silver. These treasures, to the value of 4,000 talents, were coined into money by Antiochus the Great of Syria. See Herodotus, i. 98; Polybius, x. 27.
[456] This tribe lived in the mountains between Media and Persia.
[457] £1,700,000.
[458] Curtius (v. 23) says that 6,000 Grecian mercenaries under Plato the Athenian met Alexander in Media, having marched up from Cilicia.
[459] Diodorus (xvii. 80) says that the amount of treasure deposited at Ecbatana was 180,000 talents or £41,400,000.
[460] A large city in the extreme north of Media, mentioned in the Book of Tobit. It was famous in the Middle Ages under the name of Rai. The ruins of Rai lie south-east of Teheran.
[461] ἔστε generally means until. In its present use cf. ii. 11 supra, ἔστε μὲν φάος ἦν.
[462] The Drangians lived in a part of Ariana west of Arachosia.