were being held by his governors and garrisons. This Macedonian Greek
who had become an emperor of the East greater than the greatest
theretofore, had already determined that his Seat of Empire should be
fixed in inner Asia; and he proposed that under his single sway East and
West be distinct no longer, but one indivisible world, inhabited by
united peoples. Then, suddenly, he was called to his account, leaving no
legitimate heir of his body except a babe in its mother's womb. What
would happen? What, in fact, did happen?

It is often said that the empire which Alexander created died with him.
This is true if we think of empire as the realm of a single emperor. As
sole ruler of the vast area between the Danube and the Sutlej Alexander
was to have no successor. But if we think of an empire as the realm of a
race or nation, Greater Macedonia, though destined gradually to be
diminished, would outlive its founder by nearly three hundred years; and
moreover, in succession to it, another Western empire, made possible by
his victory and carried on in some respects under his forms, was to
persist in the East for several centuries more. As a political conquest,
Alexander's had results as long lasting as can be credited to almost any
conquest in history. As the victory of one civilization over another it
was never to be brought quite to nothing, and it had certain permanent
effects. These this chapter is designed to show: but first, since the
development of the victorious civilization on alien soil depended
primarily on the continued political supremacy of the men in whom it was
congenital, it is necessary to see how long and to what extent political
dominion was actually held in the East by men who were Greeks, either by
birth or by training.

Out of the turmoil and stress of the thirty years which followed
Alexander's death, two Macedonians emerged to divide the Eastern Empire