to put down a Spartan rebellion. Darius, meanwhile, dispatched letters to his eastern satrapies asking them to remain loyal. The satrapies, however, had other intentions, and quickly capitulated to Alexander. Bessus fatally stabbed Darius, before fleeing eastwards. Darius was found by one of Alexander's scouts, moaning in pain. Darius, dying and chained to a baggage train being pulled by an ox, was lying next to a lone dog and his royal robes were covered in blood. He asked for water, and then, clutching the Macedonian soldier's hand, said that he was thankful that he would not die utterly alone and abandoned. Alexander, who may have felt genuinely saddened at Darius' death, buried Darius next to his Achaemenid predecessors in a full military funeral. Alexander claimed that, while dying, Darius had named Alexander as his successor to the Achaemenid throne and had asked Alexander to avenge his death, a striking irony since it was Alexander who had pursued him to his death. The Achaemenid Persian Empire is considered to have fallen with the death of Darius. Alexander, viewing himself as the legitimate Achaemenid successor to Darius, viewed Bessus as a usurper to the Achaemenid throne, and eventually found and executed this 'usurper'. The majority of the existing satraps were to give their loyalty to Alexander, and be allowed to keep their positions. Alexander's troops now thought the war was over. Alexander was unsure how to deal with this, so he decided to scare them into submission. He gave a speech, arguing that their conquests were not secure, that the Persians did not want the Greeks to remain in their country, and that only the strength of Macedon could secure the country. The speech worked, and Alexander's troops agreed to remain with him. Alexander, now the Persian "King of Kings", adopted Persian dress and mannerisms, which, in time, the Greeks began to view as decadent and autocratic. They began to fear that Alexander, the king they had hero-worshiped, was turning into an eastern despot, although a young eunuch was eventually introduced to Alexander, and helped to keep his decadence in check. Battle of the Persian Gate In the winter of 330 BC, at the Battle of the Persian Gate northeast of today's Yasuj in Iran, the Persian satrap Ariobarzanes led a last stand of the Persian forces. After the Battle of Gaugamela in present-day Iraqi Kurdistan, Alexander had advanced to Babylon and