empire, and hence were not spent, but remained as a sacred deposit.

(M728) It was to overthrow this empire that Philip aspired, after he had
conquered Greece, in part to revenge the injuries inflicted by the Persian
invasions, but more from personal ambition. And had he lived, he would
have succeeded, and his name would have been handed down as the great
conqueror, rather than that of his more fortunate son. Philip knew what a
rope of sand the Persian military power was. Xenophon had enlightened the
Greeks as to the inefficiency of the Persian armies, if they needed any
additional instruction after the defeat of Xerxes and his generals. The
vast armies of the Persians made a grand show, and looked formidable when
reviewed by the king in his gilded chariot, surrounded by his nobles, the
princes of his family, and the women of his harem. And these armies were
sufficient to keep the empire together. The mighty prestige attending
victories for one thousand years, and all the pomp of millions in battle
array, was adequate to keep the province together, for the system of
warfare and the character of the forces were similar in all the provinces.
It was external enemies, with a different system of warfare, that the
Persian kings had to dread--not the revolt of enervated States, and
unwarlike cities. The Orientals were never warlike in the sense that
Greece and Rome were. The armies of Greece and Rome were small, but
efficient. It was seldom that any Grecian or Roman army exceeded fifty
thousand men, but they were veterans, and they had military science and
skill and discipline. The hosts of Xerxes or Darius were undisciplined,
and they were mercenaries, unlike the original troops of Cyrus.

(M729) Now it was the mission of Alexander to overturn the dynasties which
reigned so ingloriously on the banks of the Euphrates--to overrun the
Persian empire from north to south and east to west--to cut it up, and form
new kingdoms of the dismembered provinces, and distribute the hoarded
treasures of Susa, Persepolis, and Ecbatana--to introduce Greek satraps
instead of Persian--to favor the spread of the Greek language and
institutions--to found new cities where Greeks might reign, from which they
might diffuse their spirit and culture. Alexander spent only one year of
his reign in Greece, all the rest of his life was spent in the various
provinces of Persia. He was the conqueror of the Oriental world. He had no
hard battles to fight, like