destroying the Acropolis. In recent decades, the question of why the invasion of Persia has
begun to be asked, and one of the answers is economical. 54 Hammond argues that with such
a large and expensive army, Alexander had to go to war in order to pay his troops, with
Persia being the only obvious choice. Similar to this is the case of the Swedish Deluge, in
which Charles X Gustav of Sweden’s naked motivation for war was because of the expenses
of his soldiers in Bremen- the easiest solution was to go to war and invade Greater Poland. 55
Hellenism potentially played a role in the early invasion, sharing the stage with the
pragmatic need to keep the army funded. Alexander’s administrative policies emulate a
leader interested not solely in Hellenism, but in ease of management and pragmatism. Here
we see that, in line with his attitudes to Persians, Persepolis’ destruction was most likely not
fuelled by Hellenism but expediency.
Due to the nature of the sources and lack of them, it is difficult to be assertive about
Alexander’s true int entions in Persepolis. This essay has set out the most plausible one, that
it was destroyed to undermine Darius. This pragmatic approach is completely reflective of
Alexander’s policy making across his campaign and especially when it comes to his attitude
with the Persians. At every step, he undermined their power whilst appearing to assimilate
into their culture, a practical administrative strategy in order to maintain his empire. This
mirrors Persepolis because the largest threat to his empire at that time was Darius, and
destroying the royal palace would weaken this threat. Practical or not, Alexander’s
treatment of the Zoroastrian religion is completely in line with Persepolis, as both evoked
54 Ian Worthington, ‘Alexander, Philip, and the Macedonian Background’ , in Brill’s Companion to Alexan der the Great , Ed. Joseph Roisman (Leiden: BRILL, 2003), pp. 67-98 (pp. 70 – 95); Brosius, pp. 169-193; N. G. L. Hammond, F. W. Walbank, A History of Macedonia: Volume III: 336-167 BC (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 66 55 Robert I. Frost, After the Deluge: Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War, 1655-1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
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