26

AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. and chose wives for a hundred of his principal1. officers in the most illustrious Persian families. Theirnuptials were celebrated with great pomp, and festi-vity, and with high exultation of the conquered >

people. In imitation of them , above ten thousandMacedonians of inferior rank married Persian wo-men , to each of whom Alexander gave nuptialpresents, as a testimony of his approbation oftheir conduct 55 .

But assiduously as Alexander labored to unitehis European and Asiatic subjects by the mostindissoluble ties, he did not trust entirely to thesuccess of that measure for the security of his newconquests. In every province which he subdued,he made choice of proper stations, where he builtand fortified cities , in which he placed garrisons ,composed partly of such of the natives as con-formed to the Grecian manners and discipline,and partly of such of his European subjects, aswere worn out with the fatigues of service, andwished for repose,, and a permanent establishment.

These cities were numerous, and served not onlyas a chain of posts to keep open the communicationbetween the different provinces of his dominions,but as places of strength to over-awe and curb theconquered people. Thirty thousand of his newsubjects who had been disciplined in these cities,and armed after the European fashion, appearedbefore Alexander in Sufa, and were formed by

35 Arrian, lib. vii. c. 4. Plat. de Fort. Alex. p. 304.

See NOTE VII.

I