Alexander's policy in the conquered countries:
29. After the abandonment of India, the whole circuit of Alexander's conquests was precisely that of the former Persian empire; his later projects were probably directed against Arabia alone. However easy it had been to make these conquests, it was a more difficult task to retain them; for Macedonia, exhausted by continual levies of men, could not furnish efficient garrisons. Alexander removed this difficulty, by protecting the conquered from oppression; by showing proper respect to their religion; by leaving the civil government in the hands of the native rulers who had hitherto possessed it; and by confiding to Macedonians the command only of the garrisons left in the chief places, and in the newly established colonies. To alter as little as possible in the internal organization of countries was his fundamental principle.
his views.
30. Simple as Alexander's plans were in the outset, their simplicity was more than compensated by the magnitude and importance of their results. Babylon was to be the capital of his empire, and consequently of the world. The union of the east and the west was to be brought about by the amalgamation of the dominant races by intermarriage, by education, and, more than all, by the ties of commerce, the importance of which much ruder conquerors, in Asia itself, soon learnt to appreciate. In nothing probably is the superiority of his genius more brilliantly displayed, than in his exemption from all national prejudice, particularly when we consider that none of his countrymen were in this respect to be compared with him. To refuse him this merit is impossible, whatever judgment we may form of his general character.
Death of Alexander,
April 21, 323.
31. Sudden death of Alexander at Babylon by fever; under the peculiar circumstances of the time, the greatest loss mankind could experience. From the Indus to the Nile the world lay in ruins; and where was now the architect to be found, that could gather up the scattered fragments and restore the edifice?
Alexander's disorder may be easily accounted for by the hardships he had undergone, and the impure air to which he exposed himself in cleaning out the canals about Babylon. He certainly was not poisoned; and in the charge of immoderate drunkenness brought against him, we must take into account the manners of the Macedonian and Persian courts. Was it not the same with Peter the Great? In estimating his moral character we must bear in mind the natural vehemence of his passions, ever inclined to the most rapid transitions; nor should we forget the unavoidable influence of constant success upon mankind.