Editing Alexander the Great (section)

==Last years in Persia==
[[File:Stag hunt mosaic, Pella.jpg|left|thumb|Stag Hunt Mosaic, the figure on the right possibly being Alexander, and the figure to the left wields a double-headed axe, likely alluding to [[Hephaistos]]; possibly meaning his [[general]] [[Hephaestion]]]]
Discovering that many of his [[satrap]]s and military governors had misbehaved in his absence, Alexander executed several of them as examples on his way to [[Susa]].<ref name="AVI27" /><ref name="AVII4" /> As a gesture of thanks, he paid off the debts of his soldiers, and announced that he would send over-aged and disabled veterans back to Macedon, led by Craterus. His troops misunderstood his intention and mutinied at the town of [[Opis]]. They refused to be sent away and criticized his adoption of Persian customs and dress and the introduction of Persian officers and soldiers into Macedonian units.<ref name="Worthington 2003 307">{{harvnb|Worthington|2003|pp=307–08}}</ref>

After three days, unable to persuade his men to back down, Alexander gave Persians command posts in the army and conferred Macedonian military titles upon Persian units. The Macedonians quickly begged forgiveness, which Alexander accepted, and held a great banquet with several thousand of his men.<ref name="Roisman 2010 194">{{harvnb|Roisman|Worthington|2010|p=194}}</ref> In an attempt to craft a lasting harmony between his Macedonian and Persian subjects, Alexander [[Susa weddings|held a mass marriage]] of his senior officers to Persian and other noblewomen at Susa, but few of those marriages seem to have lasted much beyond a year.<ref name="AVII4" />

[[File:Valenciennes, Pierre-Henri de - Alexander at the Tomb of Cyrus the Great - 1796.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''Alexander at the Tomb of [[Cyrus the Great]]'', by [[Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes]] (1796)]]
Meanwhile, upon his return to Persia, Alexander learned that guards of the [[tomb of Cyrus the Great]] in [[Pasargadae]] had desecrated it, and swiftly executed them.<ref name="AVI29" /> Alexander admired [[Cyrus the Great]], from an early age reading [[Xenophon]]'s ''[[Cyropaedia]]'', which described Cyrus's heroism in battle and governance as a king and legislator.<ref name="Ulrich">{{cite book |title=Alexander the Great |author=Ulrich Wilcken |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=1967 |page=146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WiSZM-LYsk4C&pg=PA146 |isbn=978-0-393-00381-9 |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref> During his visit to Pasargadae, Alexander ordered his architect [[Aristobulus of Cassandreia|Aristobulus]] to decorate the interior of the sepulchral chamber of Cyrus's tomb.<ref name="Ulrich" />

Afterwards, Alexander travelled to Ecbatana to retrieve the bulk of the Persian treasure. There, his closest friend, Hephaestion, died of illness or poisoning.<ref name="AVII14" /> Hephaestion's death devastated Alexander and he ordered the preparation of an expensive [[funeral pyre]] in Babylon along with a decree for public mourning.<ref name="AVII14" /> Back in Babylon, Alexander planned a series of new campaigns, beginning with an invasion of Arabia.<ref name="AVII19" />