The conquered empire presented Alexander with a system of government
ready-made, which it was natural for the new masters to take over. For
the Asiatic provinces and Egypt, the old Persian name of _satrapy_ (see
SATRAP) was still retained, but the governor seems to have been styled
officially in Greek _strategos_, although the term _satrap_ certainly
continued current in common parlance. The governors appointed by
Alexander were, in the west of the empire, exclusively Macedonians; in
the east, members of the Old Persian nobility were still among the
satraps at Alexander's death, Atropates in Media, Phrataphernes in
Parthia and Hyrcania, and Alexander's father-in-law Oxyartes in the
Paropanisidae. Alexander had at first trusted Persian grandees more
freely in this capacity; in Babylonia, Bactria, Carmania, Susiana he had
set Persian governors, till the ingrained Oriental tradition of
misgovernment so declared itself that to the three latter provinces
certainly Macedonians had been appointed before his death. Otherwise the
only eastern satrapy whose governor was not a Macedonian, was Areia,
under Stasanor, a Cypriote Greek. In the case of certain provinces,
possibly in the empire generally, Alexander established a double
control. The financial administration was entrusted to separate
officials; we hear of such in Lydia (Arr. i. 17, 7), Babylonia (id. iii.
16, 4), and notably in Egypt (id. iii. 5, 4). Higher financial
controllers seem to have been over groups of provinces (Philoxenus over
Asia Minor, Arr. i. 17, 7; see Beloch, _Gr. Gesch._ III. [i] p. 14), and
Harpalus over the whole finances of the empire, with his seat in
Babylon. Again the garrisons in the chief cities, such as Sardis,
Babylon, Memphis Pelusium and Susa, were under commands distinct from
those of the provinces. The old Greek cities of the motherland were not
formally subjects of the empire, but sovereign states, which assembled
at Corinth as members of a great alliance, in which the Macedonian king
was included as a member and held the office of captain-general. The
Greek cities of Asia Minor stood to him in a similar relation, though
not included in the Corinthian alliance, but in federations of their own
(Kaerst, _Gesch. d. hellenist. Zeitalt._ i. 261 seq.). Their territory
was not part of the king's country (_Inscr. in the Brit. Mus._ No. 400).
Of course, in fact, the power of the king was so vastly superior that
the Greek cities were in reality subject to his dictation, even in so
intimate a matter as the readmission of their exiles, and might be
obliged to receive his garrisons. Within the empire itself, the various
communities were allowed, subject to the interference of the king or his
officials, to manage their own affairs. Alexander is said to have
granted the Lydians to be "free" and "to use the laws of the ancient
Lydians," whatever exactly these expressions may mean (Arr. i. 17, 4).
So too in Egypt, the native monarchs were left as the local authorities
(Arr. iii. 5, 4). Especially to the gods of the conquered people
Alexander showed respect. In Egypt and in Babylon he appeared as the
restorer of the native religions to honour after the unsympathetic rule
of the Persians. The temple of Marduk in Babylon which had fallen began
to rise again at his command. It is possible that he offered sacrifice
to Yahweh in Jerusalem. In Persia, the native aristocracy retained their
power, and the Macedonian governor adopted Persian dress and manners
(Diod. xix. 48, 5; Arr. vi. 30). A new factor introduced by Alexander
was the foundation of Greek cities at all critical points of intercourse
in the conquered lands. These, no doubt, possessed municipal autonomy
with the ordinary organization of the Greek state; to what extent they
were formally and regularly controlled by the provincial authorities we
do not know; Pithon, the satrap of the Indian province is specially
described as sent "in colonias in Indis conditas" (Just. xiii. 4, 21).
The empire included large tracts of mountain or desert, inhabited by
tribes, which the Persian government had never subdued. The subjugation
of such districts could only be by a system of effective military
occupation and would be a work of time; but Alexander made a beginning
by punitive expeditions, as occasion offered, calculated to reduce the
free tribes to temporary quiet; we hear of such expeditions in the case
of the Pisidians, the tribes of the Lebanon, the Uxii (in Khuzistan),
the Tapyri (in the Elburz), the hill-peoples of Bajaor and Swat, the
Cossaei (in Kurdistan); an expedition against the Arabs was in
preparation when Alexander died.
See A. Köhler, _Reichsverwaltung u. Politik Alexanders des Grossen in
Klio_, v. 303 seq. (1905).