Alexandet the great.

[pankration]

If we're going to use proper historical sources you can look at Fox, Hammond, Renault, Arrian et.al and you will see a common consensus on Persepolis. It was not set afire by Alexander or on his order; it appears to have been burned by court courtesans who in an orgiastic stupor lit fires in a banquet hall. Alexander is definitely to blame, after all, everything comes from the top. He regretted it after and said so. Politically it was a bad move (although it showed he could be merciless, not an undesirable trait in a conqueror) and intellectually even worse. He sanctioned the near destruction of the oldest monotheistic faith in the world and he was smart enough to know that he had crossed a line.