Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/279

 Alexa7ider the Great and the Hellenistic Age 227 Four years later the young king found that this divinity which Alexander he claimed lacked outward and visible manifestations. There deification by must 2fO with it some outward observances which would vividly *^^ ^""^/^ ^ ■> cities of the suggest his character as a god to the minds of the world which dissolved lC32fUG he ruled. He adopted oriental usages, among which was the demand that all who approached him on official occasions should bow down to the earth and kiss his feet. He also sent formal notification to all the Greek cities that the league of which he had been head was dissolved, that he was nenceforth to be officially numbered among the gods of each city, and that as such he was to receive the state offerings which each city presented. Thus were introduced into Europe absolute monarchy and Absolute the divine right of kings. Indeed, through Alexander there was ^Tdivine transferred to Europe much of the spirit of that Onent which "^ht of kings had been repulsed at Marathon and Salamis. But these meas- ures of Alexander were not the efforts of a weak mmd to gratify a vanity so drunk with power that it could be satisfied only with superhuman honors. They were carefully devised political measures dictated by state policy, and systematically developed step by step for years. This superhuman station, investing with divine power the Personal throne of the world-king Alexander, was gained at iragic cost to suffered^by ^^ Alexander the Macedonian youth and to the group of friends Alexander as •' ° a result of his and followers about him (p. 219). Beneath the Persian robes deification of the State-god Alexander beat the warm heart ot a young tional policy Macedonian. He had lifted himself to an exalted and lonely eminence whither those devoted friends who had followed him to the ends of the earth could follow him no longer. Neither could they comprehend the necessity for measures which thus strained or snapped entirely those bonds of friendship which linked together comrades in arms. And then there were the Persian intruders treated like the equals of his personal friends (Plate V, p. 224), or even placed over them! The tragic consequences of such a situation were inevitable.