The newly formed Empire must be brought under the influence of the Greek mind. The people must be taught the Greek language-they must live in cities built after a Greek model. The Alexandrian soldier now turned school-master. The military camps of yesterday became the peaceful centres of the newly imported Greek civilisation. Higher and higher did the flood of Greek manners and Greek customs rise, when suddenly Alexander was stricken with a fever and died in the old palace of King Hammurabi of Babylon in the year 323.
热爱希腊的亚历山大宣布，新建立的帝国必须置于希腊精神的影响之下。他要求自己的子民学习 希腊语，居住在按希腊样式建成的城市里。现在，亚历山大的士兵脱去甲胄，放下刀剑，变成了传播希腊文化的教师。昨天的军营成为了输入希腊文明的和平中心。希腊的风俗习惯和生活方式像席卷世界的洪水，一浪高过一浪。可就在此时，年轻的亚历山大突然遭到热病的袭击，于公元前323年死于汉谟拉比国王修筑的旧巴比伦王宫。
Then the waters receded. But they left behind the fertile clay of a higher civilisation and Alexander, with all his childish ambitions and his silly vanities, had performed a most valuable service. His Empire did not long survive him. A number of ambitious generals divided the territory among themselves. But they too remained faithful to the dream of a great world brotherhood of Greek and Asiatic ideas and knowledge.
之后潮水开始退去，但留下了一片希腊文明的肥沃土壤。凭着孩子气的雄心与愚蠢的自负，亚历山大做出了一项极有价值的贡献。他的帝国在他死后不久便开始土崩瓦解，一批野心勃勃的将军瓜分了世界，可他们仍旧忠实于亚历山大的梦想--建立一个融合希腊文明与亚洲精神的伟大世界。
They maintained their independence until the Romans added western Asia and Egypt to their other domains. The strange inheritance of this Hellenistic civilisation (part Greek, part Persian, part Egyptian and Babylonian) fell to the Roman conquerors. During the following centuries, it got such a firm hold upon the Roman world, that we feel its influence in our own lives this very day.
这些分裂出来的国家一直保持独立，直到罗马人发动远征，将整个西亚和埃及囊括进自己的版图。于是，亚历山大留下的这份奇特的精神遗产（包括部分希腊、部分波斯、部分埃及和部分巴比伦），被新来的罗马征服者照单全收。在接下来的几个世纪里，它牢牢地扎根于罗马的世界，直到今天我们还能感受到它的影响。