The palace was greatly enhanced as was the rest of the city by Xerxes I r. Darius I had purposefully chosen the location of his city in a remote area, far removed from the old capital, probably in an effort to dramatically differentiate his reign from the past monarchs. The Apadana was designed to humble any guest and impress upon visitors the power and majesty of the Persian Empire.
The city is described by the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus l. The following are the best-known ancient accounts of the burning of Persepolis, all of them written centuries after the event, but based on earlier works now lost. In all of them, except Arrian's, the story follows the same basic narrative of the Macedonian conquerors celebrating with too much wine and deciding to set the city on fire in retaliation for the burning of Athens in BCE.
As for Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire, Alexander described it to the Macedonians as their worst enemy among the cities of Asia, and he gave it over to the soldiers to plunder, with the exception of the royal palace.
It was the wealthiest city under the sun and the private houses had been filled for a long time with riches of every kind. The Macedonians rushed into it, killing all the men and plundering the houses, which were numerous and full of furniture and precious objects of every kind. Here much silver was carried off and no little gold , and many expensive dresses, embroidered with purple or with gold, fell as prizes to the victors.
But the great royal palace, famed throughout the inhabited world, had been condemned to the indignity of total destruction. The Macedonians spent the whole day in pillage but still could not satisfy their inexhaustible greed. As for the women, they dragged them away forcibly with their jewels, treating as slaves the whole group of captives.
