The ultimate result of Alexander's conquests was the
fusion of East and West. He realized that his new empire must contain a place
for Oriental, as well as for Greek and East and Macedonian, subjects. It was
Alexander's aim, therefore, to build up a new state in which the distinction
between the European and the Asiatic should gradually pass away. He welcomed
Persian nobles to his court and placed them in positions of trust. He organized
the government of his provinces on a system resembling that of Darius the
Great.
He trained thousands of Persian soldiers to replace the worn-out
veterans in his armies. He encouraged by liberal dowries mixed marriages
between Macedonians and Orientals, and himself wedded the daughter of the last
Persian king. To hold his dominions together and provide a meeting place for
both classes of his subjects, he founded no less than seventy cities in
different parts of the empire. Such measures as these show that Alexander had a
mind of wide, even cosmopolitan, sympathies. They indicate the loss which
ancient civilization suffered by his untimely end.
