The former lord of Asia was indebted to a Macedonian soldier, who brought him a cup of cold water, for the last act of attendance. He assured the man that his inability to reward this service added bitterness to his dying moments; but commended him to Alexander, whose generosity he himself had proved, and who would not fail to honor this his last request. The conqueror came up while the lifeless remains of Darius still lay by the road-side. Deeply moved, he threw his own royal mantle over the body of his foe, and ordered that a magnificent procession should convey the last of the Persian kings to the tomb of his fathers. In the battle of Arbela the Persian empire fell. The reduction of the provinces occupied the few remaining years of Alexander’s life; but their submission was certain from the moment when the forces of Asia were put to flight and their monarch was a captive. RECAPITULATION. Xerxes, having re-conquered Egypt, and laid all his empire under contribution, led into Europe the largest army which the world has seen. He gained the pass of Thermopylæ by treachery, but his fleet was shattered by storms and utterly defeated at Salamis. The war ended, the following year, in the overthrow of Mardonius at Platæa, and the destruction of a Persian fleet and army at Mycale. The forty years’ reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus began the decline of the empire. A fresh immigration of liberated Jews re-fortified Jerusalem, and the books of the Old Testament were for the first time collected and arranged. The feud with the Samaritans was perpetuated by their building a rival temple on Mount Gerizim. In the reign of Darius II many provinces revolted, and Egypt remained independent sixty years. Upon the death of Darius, his younger son Cyrus, with the aid of 10,000 Spartan mercenaries, made war upon his brother Artaxerxes Mnemon, but he was defeated and slain at Cunaxa. A general war followed, in which Sparta was humbled by the combined forces of Persia and the minor states of Greece, and the treaty of Antalcidas made the great king arbiter in Grecian affairs. Artaxerxes III, having murdered all his kindred, re-conquered Syria, Phœnicia, and Egypt. He was destroyed, with all his children, by Bagoas, his minister, who conferred the sovereignty on Darius Codomannus. This last of the Achaemenidæ was defeated by Alexander the Great at Issus, and finally at Arbela; and all the dominions of Persia became parts of the Macedonian Empire. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. BOOK II.