Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/303

 ASIATIC GREEKS — SUBSTANTIALLY ORIENTALS. 271 nent difiei'ence as compared with their Persian predecessors, consisted in their retaining the military traditions and organiziw tion of Philip and Alexander, an elaborate scheme of discipline and manoeuvring, which could not be kept up without permanent official grades and a higher measure of intelligence than had ever been displayed under the Achaemenid kings, who had no mili- tary school or training whatever. Hence a great number of in- dividual Greeks found employment in the military as well as in the civil service of these Greco-Asiatic kings. The intelligent Greek, instead of a citizen of Hellas, became the instrument of a foreign prince ; the details of government were managed to a great degree by Greek officials, and always in the Greek lan- guage. Moreover, besides this, there was the still more important fac«. of the many new cities founded in Asia by the Seleukidse and the other contemporary kings. Each of these cities had a con- siderable infusion of Greek and Macedonian citizens, among the native Orientals located there, often brought by compulsion from neighboring villages. In what numerical ratio these two ele- ments of the civic population stood to each other, we cannot say. But the Greeks and Macedonians were the leading and active portion, who exercised the greatest assimilating force, gave im- posing effect to the public manifestations of religion, had wider views and sympathies, dealt with the central government, and carried on that contracted measure of municipal autonomy which the city was permitted to retain. In these cities the Greek in- habitants, though debarred from political freedom, enjoyed a range of social activity suited to their tastes. In each, Greek was the language of public business and dealing ; each formed a centre of attraction and commerce for an extensive neighborhood ; all together, they were the main hellenic or quasi-hellenic element in Asia under the Greco- Asiatic kings, as contrasted with the rustic villages, where native manners, and probably native speech, still continued with little modification. But the Greeks of Anti- och, or Alexandria, or Seleukeia, were not like citizens of Ath- ens or Thebes, nor even like men of Tarentum or Ephesus. While they communicated their language to Orientals, they be- came themselves substantially orientalized. Their feelings, judg- ments, and habits of action, ceased to be hellenic. Polybius,