ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND DARIUS. 303

ever to do with the battle. Its dispersal ended the
Persian resistance; the empire was surrendered to
Alexander almost without another blow.

Great a soldier as Alexander unquestionably was,
he was remarkably favored by fortune, and won the
greatest empire the world had up to that time
known with hardly an effort, and with less loss of
men than often takes place in a single battle. The
treasure gained was immense. Darius seemed to
have been heaping up wealth for his conqueror.
Babylon and Susa, the two great capitals of the
Persian empire, contained vast accumulations of
money, part of which was used to enrich the soldiers
of the victorious army. At Persepolis, the capital
of ancient Persia, a still greater treasure was found,
amounting to one hundred and twenty thousand
talents in gold and silver, or about one hundred and
twenty-five million dollars. It took five thousand
camels and a host of mules to transport the treasure
away. The cruel conqueror rewarded the Persians
for this immense gift, kept through generations for
his hands, by burning the city and slaughtering its
inhabitants, in revenge, as he declared, for the harm
which Xerxes had done to Greece a century and a
half before.

What followed must be told in a few words. The
conqueror did not feel that his work was finished
while Darius remained free. The dethroned king
was flying eastward to Bactria. Alexander pursued
him with such speed that many of his men and ani-
mals fell dead on the road. He overtook him at last,
but did not capture him, as the companions of the