Books
Phase
Burning of Persepolis
330 BCE
The Burning of Persepolis followed Alexander’s capture of the Persian ceremonial capital in 330 BC. Ancient accounts differ over whether the destruction was planned revenge, drunken impulse, political theatre, or a mixture of motives. The burning became one of the most symbolic acts of Alexander’s conquest.
Persepolis mattered because it represented both victory over Persia and the dangerous instability within Alexander’s kingship. Destroying the city could be framed as revenge for Persian attacks on Greece, but it also complicated Alexander’s claim to rule the Achaemenid Empire as its legitimate successor. The episode exposes the tension between conquest, vengeance and kingship.
Books centred on this episode include The Ends of the Earth, which explicitly follows the destruction of Persepolis, and historical accounts such as Alexander and The History of Alexander, which carry the Persian campaign through the city. Mary Renault’s The Persian Boy begins later in Alexander’s conquest and should not be presented as a direct Burning of Persepolis title.
Related people for Burning of Persepolis
Alexander of Lyncestisc. 5th century BCE–331 BCE Alexander the Great357 BCE–324 BCE Antigonus I Monophthalmusc. 382–301 BCE Antipater398 BCE–320 BCE Bagoasc. 5th century BCE–c. 4th century BCE Cassander356 BCE–297 BCE Darius III381 BCE–331 BCE Hephaestionc. 356 BCE–324 BCE Olympias376 BCE–317 BCE Parmenion401 BCE–330 BCE Perdiccas366 BCE–322 BCE Philip III of Macedon360 BCE–318 BCE Philip II of Macedonc. 382–336 BCE Ptolemy I Soter369/368–282 BCE Roxana348 BCE–311 BCE
Non-Fiction
1 Best Non-Fiction Book About the Burning of Persepolis
Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.