Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/211

 ALEXANDER MARCHES TO EKBATANA. 1?^ neither Greece, nor Asia Minor, nor any of his previous west- ern acquisitions, was he ever destined to see again. Now, in regard to the history of Greece — the subject of these volumes — the first portion of Alexander's Asiatic cam- paigns (from his crossing the Hellespont to the conquest of Per- sis, a period of four years, March 334 b. c, to March 330 b. c), though not of direct bearing, is yet of material importance. Having in his first year completed the subjugation of the Hellenic world, he had by these subsequent campaigns absorbed it as a small fraction into the vast Persian empire, renovated under his impe- rial sceptre. He had accomplished a result substantially the same as would have been brought about if the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, destined, a century and a half before, to incorporate Greece with the Persian monarchy, had succeeded instead of fail- ing.^ Towards the kings of Macedonia alone, the subjugation of Greece would never have become complete, so long as she could receive help from the native Persian kings, who were perfectly adequate as a countervailing and tutelary force, had they known how to play their game. But all hope for Greece from without was extinguished, when Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis became subject to the same ruler as Pella and Amphipolis — and that I'uler too, the ablest general, and most insatiate aggressor, of his age ; to whose name was attached the prestige of success almost superhuman. Still, against even this overwhelming power, some of the bravest of the Greeks at home tried to achieve their libe- ration with the sword : we skall see presently how sadly the at- tempt miscarried. But though the first four years of Alexander's Asiatic expe- dition, in which he conquered the "Western half of the Persian empire, had thus an important effect on the condition and desti- nies of the Grecian cities — his last seven years, on which we are now about to enter, employed chiefly in conquering the East- ern half, scarcely touched these cities in any way. The stupen- dous marches to the rivers Jaxartes, Indus, and Hyphasis, which • Compare the language addressed by Alexander to his weary soldiers, on the banks of the Hyphasis (Arrian, v. 26), with that which Herodotus puts into the mouth of Xerxes, when announcing his intended expeditioo •gainst Greece (Herodot. vii. 8).