Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/206

 174 HISTOKY OF GREECE. The sight of these mutilated Greeks was well calculated to excite not merely sympathy for them, but rage against the Per- sians, in the bosoms of all spectators. Alexander seized this opportunity, as well for satiating the anger and cupidity of his soldiers, as for manifesting himself in his self-assumed character of avenger of Gi-eece against the Persians, to punish the wrongs done by Xerxes a century and a half before. He was now amidst the native tribes and seats of the Persians, the descend- ants of those rude wan-iors who, under the first Cyrus, had ovei-- spread Western Asia from the Indus to the ^geaa. In this their home the Persian kings had accumulated their national edifices, their regal sepulclu-es, the inscriptions commemorative of their religious or legendary sentiment, with many trophies and acquisitions arising out of their conquests. For the pur- poses of the Great King's empire, Babylon, or Susa, or Ekba- tana, were more central and convenient residences ; but Perse- polis was still regarded as the heart of Persian nationality. It was the chief magazine, though not the only one, of those an- nual accumulations from the imperial revenue, which each king successively increased, and which none seems to have ever dimin ished. . Moreover, the Persian grandees and officers, who held the lucrative satrapies and posts of the empire, were continually sending wealth home to Persis, for themselves or their relatives. tion these mutilated captives; but I see no reason to mistrust the deposi- tion of the three authors by whom it is certified. Curtius talks of 4000 captives ; the other two mention 800. Diodorus calls them — 'EX?^.7]veg vtto Tuv TTpoTEpov fiaacMuv uvaaraToi yeyovoTEC, OKraKoaioi jilv ax^dbv rbv un^/ibv ovreg, rale (5' rjXLKiaLg ol 'kTieIgtol /xev yEyijpaKOTEC, i/KpcjTTjpiaa/iEvot ^E nuvTEC, etc. Some avupiraoTOL irpbc (iaailia 6ia aocpiav are noticed in Xenoph. Mem. iv. 2, 33 ; compare Herodot. iii. 93 ; iv. 204. I have already mentioned the mutilation of the Macedonian invalids, taken at Issus by Darius. Probably those Greek captives were mingled with a number of other captives, Asiatics and others, who had been treated in the same manner. None but the Greek captives would be likely to show themselves to Alex- ander and his army, because none but they would calculate on obtaining sympathy from an army of Macedonians and Greeks. It would have been interesting to know who these captives were, or how they came to be thus cruelly used. The two persons among them, named by Curtius as spokes- men in the interview with Alexander, are — Eukteraon, a Kymaean — anJ Thesetd-tus, an Athenian.