In the early Summer of 330, Alexander hunted down the Persian king Darius III Codomannus in the desert east of modern Tehran (ancient Rhagae). It appears that when the first Macedonian horsemen appeared, the Persian courtiers decided to kill their own king rather than allow him to be captured. When Alexander was close upon them, two courtiers, Nabarzanes and Barsaentes, struck him down, left him, and made their escape. The wound proved fatal, and Darius died shortly afterwards, before Alexander could see him.

---

Size: 3504px × 5184px
Location: Tehran (ancient Rhagae), Iran (Persia)
Photo credit: © De Luan / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 330, 4th, achaemenid, alexander, ancient, antiquarian, antiquity, army, art, barsaentes, battle, bc, black, body, bygone, century, corpse, darius, death, drawing, east, empire, engraving, etching, graphic, great, greek, hellenic, heritage, historic, history, icon, iconic, iii, illustration, iran, issus, killed, king, league, line, litho, lithograph, macedonians, middle, military, monochrome, murder, nabarzanes, officer, people, persian, pictorial, picture, royalty, soldiers, study, troops, wars, white, woodcut