A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Destruction of Persepolis 279
he extremely hated the inhabitants, he was resolved not
to trust them with any thing, but utterly to ruin and
destroy Persepolis. As to the stately structure of the The palace,
palace we conceive it will not be out of place if we say
something. This grand fabric was surrounded with a
treble wall; the first was sixteen cubits high, adorned with
pinnacles. The second was like to the first, but as high
again as the other. The third was drawn like a quadrant,
sixty cubits high, all of hard stone and of a nature which
warranted imperishable duration. On the four sides are
brazen gates, near to w^hich are gallowses of bronze twenty
cubits high. These were raised to terrify the beholders,
and the other for the better strengthening and fortifying
of the place. On the east side of the citadel, about four
hundred feet distant, stood a mount called the Royal
mount, for here are all the sepulchres of the kings, many
apartments and Uttle cells cut into the midst of the rock;
into these cells there is made no direct passage, but the
coffins with the dead bodies are by instruments hoisted
//
up, and so let down into these vaults. In this citadel were
many stately lodgings, of excellent workmanship, both
for the king and his commanders, and treasury chambers
most commodiously contrived for
the laying up of
money.
Here Alexander made a sumptuous feast for the enter-
tainment of his friends in commemoration of his victory,
Alexander's
and offered magnificent sacrifices to the gods. And indeed piod. xvii
at one time when the "companions" of the king were
feasting and carousing, madness seized upon the souls of
the men flushed with wine. When also one of the women
present—Thais of Athens—said, "Alexander will perform
the most glorious act of his fife, if while he is feasting
with us he will
burn the palace;" and so the glory and
72.