048 G R E 
tlie {landard of Alexandef fufSciently rcfpe^table. 
Cleander and Sitalus, the commanders of thofe forces, 
were acciifed by tlie Medes of defpoiling their temples, 
ranfacking their tombs, and committing other detefta- 
ble deeds ot avarice and cruelty. Their own foldiers 
confirmed the accufation ; and their crimes were pu- 
iiiflied with death. This prompt juftice gave imme¬ 
diate fatisfadtion, and ferved as a falutary example in 
future ; for, of all the rules of government pracHfed by 
tills illufirious conqueror, none had a fironger tendency 
to confirm his authority, and confclidate his empire, 
than his vigilance to reftrain the rapacity of liis lieute¬ 
nants, and to defend his fubjedls from opprellion. 
Encouraged by the long abfence of Alexander, and 
the perils to which his adventurous charadler continu¬ 
ally expofed his life, Harpalus, Orfines, and Abulitcs, 
governors of Babylon, Perfepolis, and Sul'a, began to 
defpife his orders, and to adt as independent princes, 
rather than accountable minifiers. In fuch emergen¬ 
cies, Alexander knew by experience the advantage of 
celerity# He therefore divided his army. The greater 
part of the heavy-armed troops were entrufled to Ele- 
phaeftion, with orders to proceed along the fea-coa(l, 
tlnd to attend the motiows of the fleet commanded by 
Nearchus. With the remainder, the king haftened to 
Pafargadae. Orfines was convidted of many enormous 
crimes, which w’ere puniflied with adequate feverity. 
Baryaxes, a Mede, w'ho had afftimed the royal tiara, 
luftered death ; and his qdherenls (hared his fate. The 
return of Alexander from.the eafi: proved fatal to Abu- 
lites, and h.is fon Oxathres, who had cruelly oppreffed 
the wealthy province of Sufiana, and particularly the 
inhabitants of the capital. Harpalus, whofe condudi: at 
Babylon had proved equally flagitious, efcaped with 
his tiCafures to Athens; but by a decree of the people 
he was expelled from Attica, and this traitor to the 
inofl generous of princes feems himfelf to have been 
foon afterwards treacheroufly (lain. The brave Peu- 
certas, who had faved Alexander’s life at the affault of 
the Mallian fortrefs, was promoted to the government 
of Perfia ; and in this important command, he fliewed 
that the virtues of found policy are not incompatible 
with the mod adventurous valour. 
In the central provinces of his new empire, w’hich 
from time immemorial had been the feat of Afiatic 
pomp and luxury, Alexander fpent the l ift, and not the 
lead glorious, year of his reign. In the figurative lan¬ 
guage of antiquity, thew'orld was filenvin his prefence; 
and his only remaining care was to improve and confo- 
lidate his conquefts. For the(e important purpofes, he 
carefully examined the courfe of the Euheus, the Ti¬ 
gris, and the Eupluates ; and the indefatigable induf- 
try of his troops was judicioufly employed in removing 
the weirs, or dams, by which the timid ignorance of the 
AlTyrian and Perfian kings had obftructed the naviga¬ 
tion of thofe-great rivers. But Alexander, having no 
reafon to dread fleets of war, was anxious to invite thofe 
of commerce. The harbours w^ere repaired ; arfenals 
were conftrucled ; a bafon was formed at Babylon luf- 
ficient to contain a thoufand gallies. By thefe and fimi- 
lar improvements, he expected co facilitate internal in- 
tercourfe among his central piovinces, while, by open¬ 
ing new channels of communication, he hoped to unite 
the productive countries of Egypt and the Eaft with 
-the moft remote regions of the earth. But objetls lefs 
remote demanded his more immediate attention. In 
the winter leafon, the waters of the Euphrates, w'hich 
produce the extraordinary fertility of Alfyria, are con¬ 
fined within their lofty channel. But in the I'pring and 
I'uimner, and efpecially towards the fummer folftice, 
they overflow their banks, and, inftcad of watering, 
- would totally deluge the adjacent territory, unlefs tlie 
fuperfluoiis moifture were difeharged into the great ca- 
iial of Pallacopas. This artificial river, formed, it is 
i'aid, by Nebuchadnezzar, commences an liundred miles 
E C E. 
» 
below Babylon. It is not fed by fprings, nor replcnKTt. 
ed from mountain fnows, but branching from the great 
trunk ot the Euphrates, moderates its too impetuous 
ftream by diverting it into the fea, through lakes and 
niarfiies, by various, and for the niofi part iiivifi- 
ble, outlets. But this ufeful contrivance finally de¬ 
feated its own purpofe. The Pallacopas' gradually 
funk into its foft and oozy bed, and the Euphrates, 
which even originally was much higher than this canal, 
continued to flow into the new channel, even after tlie 
feafon when its waters ceafe to rife by the melting of 
the Armenian fnows. This diminution of the river ren¬ 
dered it infufficient to water the fields of Adyria; an 
inconvenience feverely felt in a country almoft unac¬ 
quainted with rain. The governors of Babylon at¬ 
tempted uiiluccefsfuliy to remedy the evil, whole mag¬ 
nitude jultly excited the attention of Alexander. From 
war, the mother of necefiity, he ha#l learned to improve 
the benefits of peace. Wiiile preparations were making 
for more diftant expeditions, he (ailed down tlie Eu¬ 
phrates ; carefully examined the na! ure of the foil ; and 
having difeovered, at the diftance of about four miles 
from the inofculation of the Euphrates and Pallacopas, 
a hard and rocky bottom, he commanded a canal to be 
cut there, which ferved to moderate tlie inundations at 
one feafon, without too much draining the water.-, at an¬ 
other. Having performed this cll'entiai fcrvice to Alfy- 
ria, he followed the courfe of the P .llacopas, and fur- 
veyed the lakes and nuirdies, w'hich guard the Arabian 
frontiers. In the neighliourhood of his new canal, he 
obferved a convenient (ituatjon for a city, which, being 
built and fortified, was peopled with thole (uperannuated 
Greeks who feemed no longer capable of military fer- 
vice, and with fuch others of their countrymen as 
thought proper to fettle in this fertile, though remote, 
country. 
Ill returning from his expedition towards the banks 
of the Euphrates, Alexander was met by ambafiadors 
from Carthage, Spain, and Italy, as well as from many 
inland countries of Alia and Africa, extending from 
Mount Imaus to til* fouthern extremity of Aithiopia. 
It was then, fays his hiftorian, that he appeared inafter 
of the world, both to his followers and to himfelf; and, 
as if the known parts of it had been infufficient to fa- 
tisfy his ambition, he gave orders to cut timber in the 
Hyrcanian foreft, with a defign to build (hips, and ex¬ 
plore the unclifeovered (bores of the Cafpian and Ara¬ 
bian feas. But neither thefe lofty defigns, nor the glory 
of war, nor the pomp of royalty, which, of all princes, 
Alexander enjoyed in the greateft fplendour, could ap- 
peafe his grief for the lols of Hephieftioii, whofe death 
is laid, by Arrian, to have haftened his ovrn. It cer¬ 
tainly tinged his charailer with a deep melancholy, 
which rendered him luCceptible of fuch impreflions as 
the firmnefs of his mind would otherwife have refilled' 
and repelled. His melancholy, however, appears to 
have been diverted by the voyage down the Euphrates, 
and by diredling the improvements in the canal of Pal¬ 
lacopas. On returning to Babylon, he gave audience 
to fome Grecian anibali'adors ; and having reviewed his 
troops and gallies, prepared to execute the enterprifes 
which he had fo long meditated. But his deligns and 
his life were rapidly drawing to a clofe. Whether to 
conquer his niehiiicholy, or to triumph in the vivacities 
of the table, he indulged without moderation in that 
banqueting and feftivity to which, after the fatigues of 
war, he had often (hewn himfelf too much addicted.; 
and a fever, occalioiied, or at lead increafed, by an ex- 
cellive abule of wine, thvvice of liis nation and of his 
family, put a period to liis life on the 28th of May, in 
the tiiirty-thiid year <jf' Ifis age, the thirteenth of his 
reign, and in the year befoi e Chrift 324.—For various 
anecdoies of his life, &c. lee the article Alexander, 
vol. i. p. 269. 
Such was the reign of Alexander, whofe charaifter; 
being 
