Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/294

 262 HISTORY OF GREECE. ficent views on the subject of imperial goyernment, and foi In tentions highly favorable to the improvement of mankind. I see no ground for adopting this opinion. As far as we can venture to anticipate what would have been Alexander's future, we see nothing in prospect except years of ever-repeated aggression and conquest, not to be concluded until he had traversed and subju- gated all the inhabited globe. The acquisition of universal do- minion — conceived not metaphorically, but literally, and con- ceived with greater facility in consequence of the imperfect geo- graphical knowledge of the time — was the master-passion of his soul. At the moment of his death, he was commencing fresh aggression in the south against the Arabians, to an indefinite ex- tent ; -^ while his vast projects against the western tribes in Africa and Europe, as far as the pillars of Herakles, were consigned in the orders and memoranda confidentially communicated to Kra- terus.- Italy, Gaul, and Spain, would have been successively attacked and conquered ; the entei-prises proposed to him when in Baktria by the Chorasmian prince Pharasmanes, but post- poned then until a more convenient season, would have been next taken up, and he would have marched from the Danube northward round the Euxine and Palus Masotis against the Scy- thians and the tribes of Caucasus.3 There remained moreover the Asiatic regions east of the Hyphasis, which his soldiers had lefused to enter upon, but which he certainly would have in- vaded at a future opportunity, were it only to efface the poignant humiliation of having been compelled to relinquish his proclaim- ed purpose. Though this sounds like romance and hyperbole, it was nothing more than the real insatiate aspiration of Alexander, who looked upon every new acquisition mainly as a capital for acquiring more.* "You are a man like all of us, Alexander — ' Arrian, vii. 28. 5. * Diodor. xviii. 4. ' Arrian, iv. 15, 11. Krucj-Qai ri uei 'Ali^avSpoc. Compare vii. 1. 3-7 ; vii. 15, 6, and the speech made by Alexander to his soldiers on the banks of the Hj'phasis, when he was trying to persuade them to march forward, v. 26 seq. We must remem- ber that Arrian had before him the work of Ptolemy, who would give, in all probability, the substance of this memorable speech from his own hearing.
 * Arrian, vii. 19, 12. To ds uTirj^eg, wf ye fioi doKel,. u~7^riaTng yv rov