Yet that was not enough for him. He pushed forward into India, across high mountain ranges and wide rivers. What he accomplished there, in the way of conquest, was marvellous, yet it had no big effect on the great story, because his conquests beyond the mountains were not lasting. His wonderful troops, though they must have looked on him as almost supernatural in his ability to lead them on to victory, began to long for their homes, probably to wonder if they would ever see them again after coming so far. He reached the shores of the Indian Ocean, and thence set his face to return homeward.
In Babylonia he stayed awhile, arranging for the government of the immense empire of which he was the undisputed master, and there he died, of a fever which is said to have been brought on, or greatly increased, by intemperate drinking—a death unworthy of his extraordinary achievements and of a pupil of such a master as Aristotle.
And death at thirty-two! The exploits of Alexander and his army are unequalled in the whole course of the story of the world. Yet we must ever remember how much of that immense achievement was due to the genius of his father Philip, who created all the fighting force which the son led so triumphantly. The fame of the son is so glorious that the father's work is rather hidden by it. What Philip might have done, if he had lived, with the great machine of war which he devised we cannot tell, but it is sure that Alexander could not have achieved his conquests as he did but for the machinery which his father had made ready for him.
Death of Alexander
No doubt death came for the great conqueror quite unexpectedly in his thirty-third year, and he had made no arrangements as to who was to be his successor on the throne of the vast empire that he had won. There was no lack of claimants for it. Many of his victorious generals were willing enough, and there was much confused fighting among the victors and the forces under the command of each. One of the principal generals, Ptolemæus, or Ptolemy, was the commander of the armies that held Egypt. In Babylonia and Syria it appears that there was a period of rivalry and struggle between several of the leading generals, until at length one of them, Seleucus, prevailed over the rest, and he claimed to be, and in large measure really was, ruler of Syria and of the East as Ptolemy was ruler of Egypt. The proud title of King of Kings, which the Persian monarchs had assumed, now came to nothing, seeing that there were at least two kings now in this eastern part of the world. Seleucus and his successors, called the Seleucidæ, became established as Kings of Syria, in its new capital city of Antioch; and Ptolemy and his successors, called the Ptolemies, became no less firmly seated on the throne of the ancient Pharaohs in Egypt.
Others of Alexander's generals who became rulers of one or other part of his empire after his death were Antigonus, Lysimachus, and Cassander. Cassander was son of Antipater, whom Alexander had left as his regent in Macedonia to govern the country for him when he went on his wars against the Persians. All these generals and their followers continued fighting, with various results, until the great and decisive battle at Ipsus (not Issus), of which the practical result was that Cassander was established as king of Macedonia and Greece. The battle of Ipsus was fought in 301 B.C., twenty-two years later than the battle of Issus. Seleucus and Lysimachus were the victorious leaders over Antigonus, who was killed during the fight in this battle of Ipsus; and to Lysimachus had already been assigned the kingdom of Thrace.
So now, in 300 B.C., we have Cassander over Macedonia and Greece, Lysimachus over Thrace, Seleucus over Syria and Babylonia, and Ptolemy over Egypt. That is the condition of affairs at that date on this eastern side of the picture. But it had not been brought about without some sharp fighting between Seleucus and Ptolemy, and here, as before, Palestine was like the horseshoe between the blacksmith's hammer and his anvil. It lay right in the path between the two great combatants.
The Jews in Egypt
Alexander, when he went conquering, with little or no opposition, into Egypt, had shown much favour to the Jews. We have seen that many of them had returned, under favour of Cyrus the Persian, from their Babylonian exile, to Jerusalem. The temple had been rebuilt, not without a good deal of interference from their Syrian neighbours; the religious rites had been re-instituted and were strictly observed.