Meanwhile,  he  united  the  two  in  the  military  and  civil  services,
incorporating  20,000  Persians  into  his  phalanx,  appointing
many  Persians  to  satrapies,  and  composing  his  court  pretty
equally  of  Persian  and  Macedonian  noblemen.  His  scheme
had  the  merits  of  originality  and  intrinsic  fairness.  Its  execu-
tion would  undoubtedly  have  elevated  Asia  to  a  point  which
she  has  never  yet  reached.  But  this  advantage  could  not
have  been  gained  without  some  counterbalancing  loss.    The


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176  RAWUNSON

mixed  people  which  it  was  his  object  to  produce,  while  vastly
superior  to  ordinary  Asiatics,  would  have  fallen  far  below  the
Hellenic,  perhaps  even  below  the  Macedonian  type.  It  is  thus
not  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  scheme  was  nipped  in  the
bud,  and  Hellenic  culture  preserved  in  tolerable  purity  to  ex-
ercise a  paramount  influence  over  the  Roman,  and  so  over  the
modem,  world.
The  death  of  Alexander  has  been  ascribed  by  some  to  poi-
son, by  others  to  habitual  drunkenness.  But  the  hardships  of
the  Gedrosian  march  and  the  unhealthiness  of  the  Cbaldaean
marshes  sufficiently  account  for  it.
SECOND  PERIOD.
