Up to this point the march of Alexander had been through territories which the Persians had themselves acquired by conquest, and which had been long exploited by their satraps. The populations were, therefore, not inimical to the new conquerors. Indeed, as we have seen in many cases, the latter were greeted as deliverers from the heavy yoke of the Persians. On its side, the Macedonian army had been kept under strict discipline, and the lives and property of the people through whom it had passed were carefully respected. But Persepolis was really in the enemy’s country, the cradle of Persian rule, and there was no chance of reconciling its inhabitants by kind treatment. They were now to feel the brunt of real warfare. The city was given up to plunder, and the royal citadel of the Achæmenian kings was burnt down in a drunken revel. This ruthless act has been condemned, and it does appear to have been the result of a moment of excess, not planned as part of a policy of repression, for Alexander ordered the flames quenched, though he himself had cast the first firebrand that had set the costly cedar work of the palace in flames. These various military operations lasted far into the autumn. When winter came the sorely tried and traveled Greeks took four months’ rest, and from this point begins another stage in the expedition, for Persis was regarded as sufficiently pacified to allow the bulk of the army to march into Media. Here Darius was preparing to make a last stand, but his efforts to collect a new army had the somewhat pitiful result of bringing to his standard a force of not more than 3000 horsemen and 6000 foot soldiers. As the Greeks approached, he fled before them, recognizing the hopelessness of resistance. He seemed minded to take refuge in the extreme limits of what had been his empire, the province of Bactria. Without striking a blow, Alexander occupied Ecbatana, the last of the great Persian capitals. All that now remained was to round off the conquest by capturing the person of the defeated monarch, and to force the satraps of the eastern provinces to accept the new régime. This program offered no serious military problems, but it was bound to consume time and required patience. Many of the non-Macedonian Greeks were now sent home, after receiving generous rewards for their service, and Parmenio was left at Ecbatana, while Alexander with the best of his troops set off to pursue Darius. Hurrying on by Ragæ, a place a little to the south of the modern capital of Persia, Alexander found there that the royal fugitive had already passed through the Caspian Gates into the regions of Parthia. Bactria was still much farther to the east. The followers of Darius, with the exception of a few faithful Greek mercenaries, determined to hand over their unlucky monarch as a prisoner to the satrap of Bactria, Bessus, a kinsman of his, and to trust to his initiative to organize a national resistance more effectively than Darius.