Persians the cause of their defeat on that occasion. Of the Macedonians, about twenty-five of the Companions were killed at the first onset; brazen statues of whom were erected at Dium,[135] executed by Lysippus,[136] at Alexander’s order. The same statuary also executed a statue of Alexander himself, being chosen by him for the work in preference to all other artists. Of the other cavalry over sixty were slain, and of the infantry, about thirty.[137] These were buried by Alexander the next day, together with their arms and other decorations. To their parents and children he granted exemption from imposts on agricultural produce, and he relieved them from all personal services and taxes upon property. He also exhibited great solicitude in regard to the wounded, for he himself visited each man, looked at their wounds, and inquired how and in the performance of what duty they had received them, allowing them both to speak and brag of their own deeds. He also buried the Persian commanders and the Greek mercenaries who were killed fighting on the side of the enemy. But as many of them as he took prisoners he bound in fetters and sent them away to Macedonia to till the soil, because, though they were Greeks, they were fighting against Greece on behalf of the foreigners in opposition to the decrees which the Greeks had made in their federal council.[138] To Athens also he sent 300 suits of Persian armour to be hung up in the Acropolis[139] as a votive offering to Athena, and ordered this inscription to be fixed over them: “Alexander, son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the Lacedaemonians, present this offering from the spoils taken from the foreigners inhabiting Asia.” CHAPTER XVII. ALEXANDER IN SARDIS AND EPHESUS.