Had he died in the thick of the fight, a halo of glory would have surrounded him.

But, because he lacked, in common with many other great kings and commanders, the quality of heroism, we are not justified in affixing to his memory the stigma of personal cowardice.

Like Pompey, like Napoleon, he yielded in the crisis of his fate to the instinct of self-preservation.

He fled from the field where he had lost his crown, not to organize a new army, not to renew the contest, but to prolong for a few weeks a life which had ceased to have any public value.
It is needless to pursue further the dissolution of the Empire.
The fatal blow was struck at Arbela--all the rest was but the long death-agony.

At Arbela the crown of Cyrua passed to the Macedonian; the Fifth Monarchy came to an end.