Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/332

308 a portrait also of one in whom can be discerned a humanity and sensibility which are perhaps not essentially Greek, but might well be the result of a Greek education on a fine semi-Hellenic mind. And Plutarch also depicts him as feeling his permanent source of strength to be Hellenic, and looking upon his Macedonians as little more than necessary tools. Allowing something for Plutarch's Hellenism, we find that the facts bear out these statements. "The Greeks are demigods among Macedonian brutes," Alexander cried in one of his fits of passion. The Greek Eumenes was his secretary; with Aristotle, his former tutor, and Phocion, who understood his aspirations, he is said to have kept up correspondence. The boys in Babylon were educated in Greek fashion, though they were taught the Macedonian drill. After the battle of Issus he sent a portion of the spoils to Greek cities as far distant as Croton, and at the same time made proclamation of their autonomy. He told the Athenians, after the destruction of Thebes, "to attend to affairs, as they would have to rule Greece if anything happened to him;" and even if this last story be only an Athenian invention, the fact that it could be invented is itself significant.

It seems, then, that whether we look at his character, or at his conduct towards the Greeks, and his respect for their culture, Alexander had advanced a long way beyond his father in his acknowledgment of the claims of the Hellenic