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PRELIMINARY SURVEY

OF

ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS.

SECTION I.

Two Aspects of Alexander's Reign. Peculiarities in his Character and Fortune. Resources commensurate to his Undertakings. Political Geography of Asia. Delineation of Mount Taurus to the northern and eastern Extremities of the Macedonian Conquests. Alexander's transactions on those frontiers. Notions of the Greeks concerning Taurus, as the ground of geographical distinction, corrected by modern Discoveries. Military and Caravan Roads through Asia. Alexander's Garri sons and Factories. His new Maxims: I. With regard to Government; II. Religion; III. Revenue.

I.

Death of

324. Two

ALEXANDER died at Babylon in the thirty-third year of SECT. his age, agitating vast and various schemes both of war and of policy. His short reign, of only twelve years and eight Alexander, months, may be viewed under two distinct Olymp. either aspects: as cxiv. 1. Bethe termination of republican Greece, thereby drained of her fore Christ strength, and thenceforth eclipsed of her splendour; or as the aspects of his reign. commencement of a Grecian dynasty in the East, comprehending in that quarter all those nations whose records are embodied in what is now called ancient history. In treating the subject under the former point of view, I endeavoured,

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I.

SECT. in a preceding work', to unfold the plan of Alexander's campaigns, and accurately to describe his battles and sieges. But, in contemplating his reign under its second and still more important aspect, as the foundation of a new empire, destined speedily to dissolve into many separate monarchies, it becomes necessary to advert, not only to the exploits which he achieved, but to the extraordinary undertakings which he meditated, and which, verging as they certainly did, on romantic heroism, were nevertheless, the boldest of them, confined within strict practicable limits.

Peculiari

character

and for

tune.

Above all candidates for renown, the Macedonian stands, ties in his indeed, preeminent for his uniform and nice discrimination between difficulties and impossibilities. The former, he perseveringly surmounted; with the latter, he never once had the presumption to grapple. This distinction in his favour, which insured to him the highest interest with writers of reflection, has not failed, however, to expose him to the envious blasts of satire, eager to lessen greatness, and to the more pestilent breath of fabulous panegyric, servilely prone to exaggerate merit into perfection. If his detractors have absurdly arraigned him, as a destroyer, a rod, and a scourge; his admirers are not entitled to adorn him with the fame of a blameless hero. In the usual course of his behaviour, he was mild, temperate, and just 3; yet, on several important occasions, he was the victim both of anger and of pleasure; the two most ordinary sources of human frailty. But such personal excellencies or defects disappear before the splendour of his public life, the regular boldness of his plans, and the unrivalled magnitude of his performances. Endowed with an alertness and energy peculiarly his own, he nevertheless practised patiently in war the lessons derived from Philip,

1 History of Ancient Greece.

He speaks of him upwards of seventy times in the course of his Geagraphy, and always with perfect consistency.

2 Strabo, l. ii. p. 70. and l. xv. p. 798. How deeply is the loss to be re rretted of Strabo's Commentary on the Transactions of Alexander, alluded Arrian, Exped. Alexand. 1. vii. to in the former of these passages! c. 29. and passim.

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