Alexander the Great was one of the foremost, perhaps the
first, of the great captains of antiquity. But he was more than a
world-conqueror; he was a statesman of the highest order. Had he been spared
for an ordinary lifetime, there is no telling how much he might have
accomplished. In eleven years he had been able to subdue the East and to leave
an impress upon it which was to endure for centuries. And yet his work had only
begun. There were still lands to conquer, cities to build, untrodden regions to
explore. Above all, it was still his task to shape his possessions into a well-knit,
unified empire, which would not fall to pieces in the hands of his successors.
His early death was a calamity, for it prevented the complete realization of
his splendid ambitions.
HELLENIZING OF THE ORIENT
The immediate result of Alexander's conquests was the
disappearance of the barriers which had so long shut in the Orient. The East,
until his day, was an almost unknown land. Now it lay open to the spread of
Greek civilization. In the wake of the Macedonian armies followed Greek
philosophers and scientists, Greek architects and artists, Greek colonists,
merchants, and artisans. Everywhere into that huge, inert, unprogressive
Oriental world came the active and enterprising men of Hellas. They brought
their arts and culture and became the teachers of those whom they had called
"barbarians."
