You mean:
"would things have been different if Alexander had not hijacked the Persian Empire"
Well .. Greek 'civilization' was not exactly unknown within the
Persian Empire, for a start Greek mercenaries fought /against/
Alexander, and there were Greek cities within the Persian Empire - one
of which he slaughtered to the last person simply because they were
the descendants of Greeks who sided with the Persians in an earlier
Greek/Persian punch up.
Also ... Alexander and his lads went rather native, took Persian wives
(normal) adopted Persian dress and arms (interesting). Of course he
took over the existing Persian army ...
Despite Alexander's illustrious tutor, Aristotle, he and his
Macedoneans do not exactly sound cultured - certainly not a civilizing
force.
If I remember correctly the Persian Empire was hijacked (at least)
once before, the one I recall is the Medes. The later Roman Empire
was, in its later days, continually being hijacked, yet the new rulers
got absorbed pretty quickly.
My general impression is that Alexander was more like a nasty case of
influenza, than an influx of any unknown form of civilization.
Perhaps the answer would be to check out the demographics of
Constantinople 30 years prior to his visit, and 30 years after his
demise.
Interesting. |
