rty-four thousand
infantry, four thousand cavalry, and seventy talents in money. The
result of his expedition was the ruin of the Persian empire, and also
the ruin of Greece. It was not without reason that his memory was cursed
in his native country. Her life-blood was drained away by his successes.
In view of the splendid fortunes to be made in Asia, Greece ceased to be
the place for an enterprising man. To such an extent did military
emigration go, that Greek recruits were settled all over the Persian
empire; their number was sufficient to injure irreparably the country
from which they had parted, but not sufficient to Hellenize the dense
and antique populations among whom they had settled.

[Sidenote: Its ruinous effect on Greece.]

[Sidenote: Injury to Athens from the founding of Alexandria.]

Not only was it thus by the drain of men that the Macedonian expedition
was so dreadfully disastrous to Greece, the political consequences
following those successful campaigns added to the baneful result.
Alexander could not have more effectually ruined Athens had he treated
her as he did Thebes, which he levelled with the ground, massacring six
thousand of her citizens, and selling thirty thousand for slaves. The
founding of Alexandria was the commercial end of Athens, the finishing
stroke to her old colonial system. It might have been well for her had
he stopped short in his projects with the downfall of Tyre, destroyed,
not from any vindictive reasons, as is sometimes said, but because he
discovered that that city was an essential part of the Persian system.
It was never his intention that Athens should derive advantage from the
annihilation of her Phoenician competitor; his object was effectually
carried out by the building and prosperity of Alexandria.

[Sidenote: Scientific tendency of the Macedonian campaigns.]

[Sidenote: Origin of the influence of Aristotle through Alexander.]

Though the military celebrity of this great soldier may be diminished by
the history of the last hundred years, which shows a uniform result of
victory when European armies are brought in contact with Asiatic, even
under the most extraordinary disadvantages, there cannot be denied to
him a profound sagacity and statesmanship excelled by no other
conqueror. Before he became intoxicated with success, and,
unfortunately, too frequently intoxicated with wine, there was much that
was noble in his character. He had been under the instruction of