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

666 A SALVAGE OF HELLENISM.giance. Less heed was paid to the constitution of armiesthese were composed of the most heterogeneous elements,contained men of all nationalities ; and missile-throwers, chariotsand elephants found their uses in bolstering up decliningdiscipline, tactical resources which Alexander had heartilydespised and never used in action.The extension of the system of mercenary troops in Greece,of which the early chapters of this work have treated, wasfollowed by its necessary consequence. The strength ofthe Greeks, of which patriotism was the essence, had disappeared,and the land had sunk to a despicable level of politicalor military ability. A few exceptions, such as those ofPyrrhus, king of Epirus, the Achaean and ^Etolian Leagues,and Sparta under Cleomenes, a hundred years after Alexander,only serve to throw into relief the deplorable conditionof the land.Alexander's magnificent plans in the East had been shipwrecked.A salvage of Hellenism remained to testify to thegreat conqueror's splendid projects. But soon the old nationaltendencies, too strong to be suppressed by an outer coating offoreign manners, began to struggle to the surface in everycountry he had subdued beyond the Euphrates. The descendantsof Alexander's generals were with few excej)tionsunworthy of their sires or their sires' training ; they graduallysank to the level of Oriental despots. The populationsremained the same. The armies grew weak as the monarchsweakened ; and the dependence on foreign accessories sappedthe vigor and self-reliance of the infantry. The average soldierdegenerated into a swash-buckler, a bully in peace, acoward in war.So far as the territorial limits of Alexander's empire areconcerned, these were within three generations narrowed to asmall part of their original extent. The Parthians under the