[Sam the Sham]

Reading Esther, Daniel, and Nehemiah, the "tyrannical enslavers" of Marathon emerge as strict but fair and occasionally generous.

The Persians were a noble, honorable people while every Greek was whoring for Persian gold.

[F14 Pilot]

lol

[Cronos]

The Persians were a noble, honorable people while every Greek was whoring for Persian gold.

I wouldn't go so far, I would say that both groups had their own good points -- the Irani attack on the Greek states was more to prevent piracy (the Persian Empire wasn't very big on sea trade) than on conquering a (to them) useless piece of hilly terrain.

though...... I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Alexander wasn't the greatest conqueror -- he was just a canny and lucky guy -- a man who overthrew a weak Shah and took over his Empire. The Persian Empire he faced was weak at the core and he just replaced the Shah with himself. After that he utilised Persian governing techniques -- these were not really refined by the Greeks, the Romans did the refining. The only time Alexander faced an equal enemy was facing King Porus on the Indus vally -- a minor king of a petty state by the standards of the Indian Empires of the day (further east there was the Magadhan Empire which had an enormous army)