He wished to turn the waters of the Euphrates back into their stream,
and drain the swamps into which they had spread; but Babylon was under
the curse of God, and was never to recover. Alexander caught a fever
while going about surveying the unwholesome swamps, and after trying to
hold out against it for nine days, his strength gave way. He said there
would be a mighty strife at his funeral, perhaps recollecting how the
prophecy had said that his kingdom should not continue; and instead of
trying to choose an heir, he put his ring on the finger of his friend,
and very soon died. He was but thirty-two, and had not reigned quite
twelve years; but perhaps no one ever did greater things in so short a
time. He died in the year 323; and so the great horn of the goat was
broken when it was at the strongest. No one hated him; for though
sometimes violent, he had generally been kind; he was frank, open,
and free-handed, warm-hearted to his friends, and seldom harsh to his
enemies, and he had done his best to educate and improve all the people
whom he conquered. It was owing to him that Greek manners and habits
prevailed, and the Greek tongue was spoken everywhere around the eastern
end of the Mediterranean, though Persia itself soon fell back into the
old eastern ways.
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