Persĕpŏlis

, a celebrated city, the capital of the Persian empire. It was laid in ruins by Alexander after the conquest of Darius. The reason of this is unknown. Diodorus says that the sight of about 800 Greeks, whom the Persians had shamefully mutilated, so irritated Alexander, that he resolved to punish the barbarity of the inhabitants of Perse polis, and of the neighbouring country, by permitting his soldiers to plunder their capital. Others suppose that Alexander set it on fire at the instigation of Thias, one of his courtesans, when he had pa ed the day in drinking and in riot and debauchery. The ruins of Perse polis, now Estakar , or Tehel-Minar , still astonish the modern traveller by their grandeur and magnificence. Curtius , bk. 5 , ch. 7 .— Diodorus , bk. 17 , . — Arrian. — Plutarch , Alexander .— Justin , bk. 11 , ch. 14 .