620 THE MACEDONIAN CAMPAIGN. 



Discover of P^ ace * Meantime the enterprise of the Tyrian sailors had 

 the straits of carried them through the Straits of Gibraltar, and enabled 

 Gibraltar. them to have direct access with the tin and amber countries 

 without the intervention of any overland traffic. It was doubtless the 

 discovery of this outlet to the Atlantic which led to the destruction of 

 the Gaulish trade in tin and the German trade in amber. So greatly 

 was this latter substance prized, that the overland commerce in it had 

 many ramifications : thus amber was carried into Italy by the Etruscans, 

 who had a sacred road under the protection of the adjacent tribes to the 

 Baltic Sea. 



With their commerce the Phoenicians disseminated a knowledge of 

 many inventions peculiar to themselves, among which may be mentioned 

 the use of stamped metallic coinage. Their great African colony, Car- 

 thage, exerted in these movements eventually a more powerful influence 

 than even the parent country. 



Emulating the enterprise of the Phoenicians, the Greek mariners un- 

 dertook expeditions both to the east and to the west, succeeding, as we 

 have seen, in establishing themselves on the shores of the Euxine, and 

 eventually passing, under Colceus of Samos, through the Straits of Gib- 

 raltar into the Atlantic Ocean; but even up to the time of the Mace- 

 The Macedoni- donian expedition, their geographical ideas were very crude 

 an campaign. an( j f u n O f errors. Of the expedition of Alexander, Hum- 

 boldt remarks that it partook as much of the character of a scientific as 

 of a military undertaking, and its consequences, both immediate and re- 

 mote, upon Europe can scarcely be exaggerated. That great commander 

 surrounded himself with whatever talent was to be found in Greece, and 

 made his military successes for a time subservient to the science of his 

 native country. It was through this that Aristotle obtained that com- 

 manding influence which not only gave him an authority over the active 

 mind of his own times, but which was felt even until the introduction of 

 the Baconian system of philosophy. The campaigns of Alexander doub- 

 led the geography of the Greeks in longitude, opened to their investi- 

 gation new countries even to the tropics, brought them acquainted with 

 races of men who had been the depositaries of science, as it then existed, 

 for thousands of years, and, in short, added Asiatic to Grecian knowl- 

 edge. It is a significant fact that, after the taking of Babylon, Alexander 

 sent to Aristotle a series of astronomical observations reaching back 

 through 1903 years. 



The Macedonian expedition not only made a profound impression on 



Restoration of ^ e European mind by its immediate results its influence is 



monarchy in equally palpable in its remoter consequences. It would be 



impossible, in such a sketch as this, to do justice to that great 



event in all its details ; for nations can not be thus brought in contact 



