COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

INFLUENCE OF THE MACEDONIAN CAMPAIGNS. 519
nations are not deficient in activity of mind and artistic ingenuity,
yet they live in subjection and servitude without evincing
the courage necessary for resistance, whilst the Greeks,
valiant and energetic, living in freedom and therefore well
governed, might, if they were united into one state, exercise
dominion over all barbarians.'' Thus wrote the Stagirite
during his second stay at Athens,* before Alexander had
passed the Granicus. These dogmas of the philosopher, however
contrary to nature he may have professed to consider an
unlimited dominion, (the 7ra/z/3uo-iAeia,) no doubt, made a more
vivid impression on the conqueror than the fantastic narrations
of Ctesias respecting India, to which August \Vilhelm
von Schlegel, and prior to him Ste. Croix, ascribed so important
an influence.f
In the preceding pages, we have attempted to give a brief
delineation of the sea as a means of furthering international
contact and union, and of the influence exercised in this re-
spect by the extended navigation of the Phoenicians, Carthaginians,
Tyrrhenians, and Etruscans. We have further shown
how the Greeks, whose maritime power w r as strengthened by
numerous colonies, endeavoured to penetrate beyond the basin
of the Mediterranean towards the east and the west by the
argonautic expedition from lolcus, and by the voyage of
Cola3us of Samos; and lastly, how the fleet of Solomon and
Hiram visited distant gold lands in their voyages to Ophir
section will lead us to the
through the Red Sea. The present
interior of a great continent, through different routes opened to
inland trade and river navigation. In the short period of
twelve years are compressed the campaigns in Western Asia
and Syria, with the battles of the Granicus, and the passes of
Issus; the taking of Tyre, and the easy conquest of Egypt;
the Persico-Babylonian campaign. TV hen the dominion of the
Acha3menida3 was annihilated at Arbela, in the plain of
Gaugamela; the expedition to Bactria and Sogdiana, between
the Hindoo Coosh and the Jaxartes (Syr) and ; lastly, the bold
advance into the country of the five rivers, the Pentapotamia
of Western India. Alexander founded Greek colonies almost
everywhere, and diffused Greek manners and customs over the
* Stahr, Aristotelia, th. ii. s. 114.
*h Ste. Croix, Examen critique des Historiens d'Alexandre, p. 731.
(Schlegel, Ind. Biblioftek, bd. i. s. 150.)