Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/296

 264 HISTORY OF GREECE. diers ; in other respects, left to the discretion of local rule, with occasional extreme inflictions of punishment, but no systematic examination or control.^ Upon this, the condition of Asiatic empire in all ages, Alexander would have grafted one special improvement: the military organization of the empire, feeble under the Achsemenid princes, would have been greatly strength- ened by his genius, and by the able officers formed in his school, both for foreign aggression and for home control.^ The Persian empire was a miscellaneous aggregate, with no strong feeling of nationality. The Macedonian conqueror who seized its throne was still more indifferent to national sentiment. He was neither Macedonian nor Greek. Though the absence of this prejudice has sometimes been counted to him as a virtue, it only made room, in my opinion, for prejudices yet worse. The substitute for it was an exorbitant personality and self-estimation, manifested even in his earliest years, and mflamed by extraordi- nary success into the belief in divine parentage ; which, while setting him above the idea of communion with any special na- tionality, made him conceive all mankind as subjects under one common sceptre to be wielded by himself. To this universal empire the Persian king made the nearest approach,^ according to the opinions then prevalent. Accordingly Alexander, when victorious, accepted the position and pretensions of the over- thrown Persian court as approaching most nearly to his full due. He became more Persian than either Macedonian or Greek. While himself adopting, as far as he could safely venture, the personal habits of the Persian court, he took studied pains to transform his Macedonian officers into Persian grandees, encour- aging and even forcing intermarriages with Persian women ac- cording to Persian rites. At the time of Alexander's death, there was comprised, in his written orders given to Kraterus, a plan for the wholesale transportation of inhabitants both out of ' See the punishment of Sisamnes by Kambyses (Herodot. v. 25). marks on the character and ascendency of Alexander, exercised by will and personal authority, as contrasted with the systematic and legal work- ing of the Roman empire (Orat. xiv. p. 332-360, vol. i. ed. Dindorf). ' Xenoph. Cyropaed. viii. 6, 21 Anabas. i. 7, 6 ; Herodot. vii. 8, 13 : com- pare Arrian, v. 26, 4-10.
 * The rhetor Aristeides, in his Encomium on Rome, has some good re-