alexander

Leadership Process Three: Establishing Identity 105
25: The Death of Darius
Despite having defeated his satraps once (at Granicus) and Darius
twice (at Issus and Gaugamela), Alexander still could not
claim to be king. Darius had to be killed. Only this death would
establish Alexander’s identity as king.
After the palace at Persepolis was burned, Alexander continued
the pursuit of Darius to Ecbatana, a wooden hill fortress
used by the Persian kings as a cooler summer retreat.
The army had just missed Darius at Ecbatana, so Alexander
departed with just the cavalry to chase him down. The foot
soldiers would follow more ponderously.
There is little agreement on exact events, though the
outline of what transpired follows. The consensus is that
Darius was dead before Alexander’s cavalry caught up with
the fleeing, dispirited remnants of the army. Alexander had
Darius’s body returned to the royal capital (the burned Persepolis)
for a proper funeral.
The more interesting, if slightly less credible, account is
that Darius’s ministers and generals recognized how precarious
their position was, if captured, and agreed to kill Darius,
send his head to Alexander, and plead for clemency or
at least mercy. The rumor that survived in the vulgate
sources is that a eunuch boy named Besius, who had been
one of Darius’s favorite lovers, was dispatched with the
head in a silk bag to plead for the Persian ministers’ lives
and fortunes. It is quite certain that this very beautiful boy
became Alexander’s lover also. 2 Alexander absorbed the
2. Mary Renault explores this story and views of the two royal households
in her wonderful book The Persian Boy (New York: Bantam, 1972).