Editing Alexander the Great (section)

===Persia===
{{Further|Battle of the Persian Gate}}
[[File:2persian gate wall.JPG|thumb|Site of the [[Persian Gates|Persian Gate]] in modern-day [[Iran]]; the road was built in the 1990s.]]

From Babylon, Alexander went to [[Susa]], one of the [[Achaemenid]] capitals, and captured its treasury.<ref name="AIII16" /> He sent the bulk of his army to the Persian ceremonial capital of [[Persepolis]] via the Persian [[Royal Road]]. Alexander himself took selected troops on the direct route to the city. He then stormed the pass of the [[Persian Gates]] (in the modern [[Zagros Mountains]]) which had been blocked by a Persian army under [[Ariobarzanes (satrap of Persis)|Ariobarzanes]] and then hurried to Persepolis before its garrison could loot the treasury.<ref>{{harvnb|Arrian|1976|loc=III, 18}}</ref>

On entering Persepolis, Alexander allowed his troops to loot the city for several days.<ref>{{harvnb|Foreman|2004|page=152}}</ref> Alexander stayed in Persepolis for five months.{{sfn|Morkot|1996|p=121}} During his stay, a fire broke out in the eastern palace of [[Xerxes I]] and spread to the rest of the city. Possible causes include a drunken accident or deliberate revenge for the burning of the [[Acropolis of Athens]] during the [[Greco-Persian Wars|Second Persian War]] by Xerxes;{{sfn|Hammond|1983|pp=72–73}} Plutarch and [[Diodorus]] allege that Alexander's companion, the [[hetaera]] [[Thaïs]], instigated and started the fire. Even as he watched the city burn, Alexander immediately began to regret his decision.{{Sfn |Yenne|2010 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=kngnd0GlUc4C&pg=PA99 99]}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Freeman |first1=Philip |title=Alexander the Great |date=2011 |publisher=Simon & Schuster Paperbacks |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4391-9328-0 |page=213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v550aeZcGowC&pg=PA213 |access-date=21 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Briant |first1=Pierre |title=Alexander the Great and His Empire: A Short Introduction |date=2010 |orig-year=1974 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0-691-15445-9 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6wl0xMQCW40C&pg=PA109 |access-date=21 November 2017}}</ref> [[Plutarch]] claims that he ordered his men to put out the fires{{Sfn |Yenne|2010 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=kngnd0GlUc4C&pg=PA99 99]}} but the flames had already spread to most of the city.{{Sfn |Yenne|2010 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=kngnd0GlUc4C&pg=PA99 99]}} [[Quintus Curtius Rufus|Curtius]] claims that Alexander did not regret his decision until the next morning.{{Sfn |Yenne|2010 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=kngnd0GlUc4C&pg=PA99 99]}} Plutarch recounts an anecdote in which Alexander pauses and talks to a fallen statue of Xerxes as if it were a live person:

{{blockquote|Shall I pass by and leave you lying there because of the expeditions you led against Greece, or shall I set you up again because of your magnanimity and your virtues in other respects?<ref>{{cite book |title=Alexander the Great: The Invisible Enemy: A Biography |first=John Maxwell |last=O'Brien |publisher=Psychology Press |date=1994 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alexandergreatin00obri_0/page/104 104] |isbn=978-0-415-10617-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/alexandergreatin00obri_0/page/104}}</ref>}}