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CHAPTER V: Alexander

No man who ever lived, perhaps, possessed the necessary qualities for the execution of his mighty project in a more eminent degree than the youthful Alexander. Brave, skillful, and impetuous, he marched from victory to victory; till at length the power of the Persians was totally overthrown at the battle of Arbela, 331 B. c., and an end put to the empire by the murder of Darius by Bessus in the following year. Alexander having subdued Persia, his victorious arms were now directed against the countries which bounded Persia: and having reduced Hyrcania, Bactria, and several other independent kingdoms, he entered India and subdued all the nations to the river Hyphasis, one of the branches of the Indus. At length the patience of his troops became exhausted; they saw that the ambition of their leader was boundless, and refused to gratify his passion for universal conquest by proceeding farther. He died at Babylon in the year 323 B. c., leaving the affairs of his vast empire in a most unsettled state, and not even naming his successor.

In the western world, at this period, great kingdoms were evolving from obscurity, and events of the highest importance succeeding each other with unexampled rapidity. The first object that here claims our attention is the establishment and rapid growth of the Roman republic, which reached its highest pitch of power and grandeur, by the successive conquest of Italy and her isles, Spain, Macedonia, Carthage, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Gaul, Britain, and Egypt. It was, nevertheless, exposed to the greatest danger from the ambition of individuals: the civil wars of Marius and Sylla, and the conspiracy of Catiline, shook its very centre; and by the contention arising out of the rivalry of Julius Cæsar and Pompey, it was ultimately overthrown.