94 PARTITION OF THE EMPIRE. 



Roman emperors,' who gazed upon that tomb with 

 reverence and awe. The golden coffin had been sold 

 by a degenerate Ptolemy, and had been changed for 

 one of glass, through which the body could be seen. 

 Augustus placed upon it a nosegay and a crown. 

 Septimius Severus had the coffin sealed up in a vault. 

 Then came the savage Caracalla, who had massacred 

 half Alexandria, because he did not like the town. 

 He ordered the vault to be opened, and the coffin to 

 be exposed, and all feared that some act of sacrilege 

 would be committed. But those august remains could 

 touch the better feelings which existed even in a 

 monster's heart. He took off his purple robe, his 

 imperial ornaments, all that he had of value on his 

 person, and laid them reverently upon the tomb. 



The empire of Alexander was partitioned into three 

 great kingdoms, that of Egypt and Cyrene : that of Mace- 

 donia, including Greece : and that of Asia, the capital 

 of which was at first on the banks of the Euphrates, 

 but was afterwards unwisely transferred to Antioch. 

 In these three kingdoms, and in their numerous 

 dependencies, Greek became the language of govern- 

 ment and trade. It was spoken all over the world, 

 on the shores of Malabar, in the harbours of Ceylon, 

 among the Abyssinian mountains, in the distant 

 Mozambique. The shepherds of the Tartar steppes 

 loved to listen to recitations of Greek poetry ; and 

 Greek tragedies were performed to Brahmin " houses," 

 by the waters of the Indus. The history of the 

 Greeks of Inner Asia, however, soon comes to an end. 

 Sandracottus the Rajah of Bengal conquered the 

 Greek province of the Punjaub. The rise of the 

 Parthian power cut off the Greek kingdom of Bokhara 

 from the western world, and it was destroyed, according 



