Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

486 ALEXANDER'S BOUNDARIES.he also had abetted Spitamenes. Alexander received boththese embassies with courtesy and sent them away satisfied,having made friendship between them and Ai'tabazus, whomhe had appointed viceroy of Bactria.Alexander had early imagined that the Caspian Sea was apart of the ocean, and that as such he must eventually subdueits borders in order to complete the boundaries of his idealempire.But he had now learned from the reports of his ownofficers and from those ofthe barbarians that the ocean wasnowhere near the Caspian, and that untold stretches ofcountrybeyond were inhabited by the people he called Scythians.He was therefore content to make alliances with and to erectobstacles against these tribes rather than seek to extend hisconquests into their territory.His limitation of his own borderswas always conceived on a scale full of common sense.He told Pharasmenes that he must first conquer India ; butonce lord of all Asia he would return to Greece, and thenceadvance through the Hellespont, theBosphorus and EuxineSea. He would tlien gladly ask his alliance and aid. Alexanderwas very anxious to get matters to rights in Bactriaand Sogdiana, for his mind was set on the conquest ofIndia,and he was impatient of these seemingly never-ending delays.Alexander's plan of conquest was well matured ;its schemewas compact and intelligent. Few things show Alexander'sgrasp of his gigantic problem better than the fact that he limitedthe boundary of his conquest of Persia by the water-shedof the upper Euphrates and Tigris, of Ariana by the Oxusand Jaxartes, and made his eastern limit the Indus and Hydaspes,fortifying these rivers with suitable cities, or militaryposts, as a barrier against the tribes beyond, and erecting ayet better barrier against them by his control over the borderingnations.But the campaign against India was destined to be delayed.