Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/259

Rh Alexander, whose aim was to unite the two nations, thought fit to establish in Persia a great number of Greek colonies. He built therefore a vast multitude of towns; and so strongly were all the parts of this new empire cemented, that after his decease, amidst the trouble and confusion of the most frightful civil wars, when the Greeks had reduced themselves, as it were, to a state of annihilation, not a single Province of Persia revolted.

To prevent Greece and Macedon from being too much exhausted, he sent a colony of Jews to Alexandria; the manners of those people signified nothing to him, provided he could be sure of their fidelity.

The kings of Syria, abandoning the plan laid down by the founder of the empire, resolved to oblige the Jews to conform to the manners of the Greeks; a resolution that gave the most terrible shocks to their government.

HIS prince, who depended intirely on his own strength, hastened his ruin by forming designs that could never be executed but by a long war; a thing which his kingdom was unable to support.

It was not a declining state he undertook to subvert, but a rising empire. The Ruffians made use of the war he waged against them, as of a military school. Every defeat brought them nearer to victory; and losing abroad, they learnt to defend themselves at home. Rh