Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/274

 224 Outli?ies of Europe a7i History and had set up kingdoms which were to be centers of Greek influence on the frontiers of India. From such centers Greek art entered India, to become the source of the art which still survives there ; and the Greek works of art from Alexander's communities in these remote regions of the east penetrated even to China, to contribute to the later art of China and Japan. Never before had East and West so interpenetrated as in these amazing marches and campaigns of Alexander. Alexander's scientific enterprises His endeavor to merge European and Asiatic civilization Section 37. International Policy of Alexander : ITS Personal Consequences During all these unparalleled achievements the mind of this young Hercules never ceased to busy itself with a thousand problems on every side. He dispatched an exploring expedition up the Nile to ascertain the causes of the annual overflow of the river, and another to the shores of the Caspian Sea to build a fleet and circumnavigate that sea, the northern end of which was still unknown. He brought a number of scientific men with him from Greece, and with their aid he sent hundreds of natural- history specimens home to Greece to his old teacher Aristotle, then teaching in Athens. Meantime he applied himself with diligence to the organiza- tion and administration of his vast conquests. Such problems must have kept him tediously bending over many a huge pile of state papers, or dictating his great plans to his secretaries and officers. He believed implicitly in the power and superiority of Greek culture. He was determined to Hellenize the world and to merge Asia with Europe by transplanting colonies of Greeks and Macedonians. In his army, Macedonian, Greek, and Asiatic stood side by side. He himself felt that he could not rule the world as a Macedonian, but must make concessions to the Persian world (Plate V, p. 224). He married Roxana, an Asiatic princess, and at a gorgeous wedding festival he obliged his officers and friends also to marr}' the daughters of Asiatic