The Persian empire was a "soft" empire, resembling the British Empire of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The imposition of a common English culture was far beyond the capacity of even the ambition of the British Empire's modest-size official personnel. Rulership in the British Empire varied radically. In Africa and parts of India, the British were content with "indirect rule"--leaving government largely in the hands of native chieftains and princes. Hedonism, eroticism, and self-indulgence on the part of the elite were common characteristics of such empires. The Roman Empire, in contrast, was hard-core. Only two languages--Greek in the East and Latin the West--were recognized. Every effort was made to impose Greco-Roman culture and religion on the peoples of the Roman Empire. ... Alexander's empire, modeled on that of his Persian predecessor, was of the soft variety...
Norman Cantor, Alexander The Great: Journey To The End of the Earth, 26-27
tags: Antiquity Antiquity ×