of Alexander, during his twelve years of
reign, throwing Philip into the shade, had been on a scale so much
grander and vaster, and so completely without serious reverse or even
interruption, as to transcend the measure, not only of human
expectation, but almost of human belief. The Great King (as the King
of Persia was called by excellence) was, and had long been, the type
of worldly power and felicity, even down to the time when Alexander
crossed the Hellespont. Within four years and three months from this
event, by one stupendous defeat after another, Darius had lost all his
Western empire, and had become a fugitive eastward of the Caspian
Gates, escaping captivity at the hands of Alexander only to perish by
those of the satrap Bessus. All antecedent historical parallels--the
ruin and captivity of the Lydian Croesus, the expulsion and mean
life of the Syracusan Dionysius, both of them impressive examples of
the mutability of human condition--sank into trifles compared with the
overthrow of this towering Persian colossus. The orator AEschines
exprest the genuine sentiment of a Grecian spectator when he exclaimed
(in a speech delivered at Athens shortly before the death of Darius),
"What is there among the list of strange and unexpected events that
has not occurred in our time? Our lives have transcended the limits of
humanity; we are born to serve as a theme for incredible tales to
posterity. Is not the Persian king--who dug through Athos and bridged
the Hellespont--who demanded earth and water from the Greeks--who
dared to proclaim himself in public epistles master of all mankind
from the rising to the setting sun--is not he now struggling to the
last, not for dominion over others, but for the safety of his own
person?"

Such were the sentiments excited by Alexander's career even in the
middle of 330 B.C., more than seven years before his death. During the
following seven years his additional achievements had carried
astonishment yet further. He had mastered, in defiance of fatigue,
hardship, and combat, not merely all the eastern half of the Persian
empire, but unknown Indian regions beyond its easternmost limits.
Besides Macedonia, Greece, and Thrace, he possest all that immense
treasure and military force which had once rendered the Great King so
formidable. By no contemporary man had any such power ever been known
or conceived. With the turn of imagination then prevalent, many were
doubtless disposed to take hi