Except for adventurous self-seekers, there was no longer any incentive to take an interest in
public affairs. After the brilliant episode of Alexander's conquests, the Hellenistic world was
sinking into chaos, for lack of a despot strong enough to achieve stable supremacy, or a
principle powerful enough to produce social cohesion. Greek intelligence, confronted with new
political problems, showed complete incompetence. The Romans, no doubt, were stupid and
brutal compared to the Greeks, but at least they created order. The old disorder of the days of
freedom had been tolerable, because every citizen had a share in it; but the new Macedonian
disorder, imposed upon subjects by incompetent rulers, was utterly intolerable--far more so than
the subsequent subjection to Rome.
There was widespread social discontent and fear of revolution. The wages of free labour fell,
presumably owing to the competition of eastern slave labour; and meantime the prices of
necessaries rose. One finds Alexander, at the outset of his enterprise, having time to make
treaties designed to keep the poor in their place. "In the treaties made in 335 between Alexander
and the States of the League of Corinth it was provided that the Council of the League and
Alexander's representative were to see to it that in no city of the League should there be either
confiscation of personal property, or division of land, or cancellation of debt, or liberation of
slaves for the purpose of revolution." * The temples, in the Hellenistic world, were the bankers;
they owned the gold reserve, and controlled credit. In the early third century, the temple of
Apollo at Delos made loans at ten per cent; formerly, the rate of interest had been higher. â€
Free labourers who found wages insufficient even for bare necessities must, if young and
vigorous, have been able to obtain employment as mercenaries. The life of a mercenary, no
doubt, was filled with hardships and dangers, but it also had great possibilities. There might be
the loot of some rich eastern city; there might be a chance of lucrative mutiny. It must have
been dangerous for a commander to attempt to disband his army, and this must have been one
of the reasons why wars were almost continuous.
* The Social Question in theThird Century, by W. W. Tarn, in The Hellenistic Age by
various authors. Cambridge, 1923. This essay is exceedingly interesting, and contains
many facts not elsewhere readily accessible.â
€
Ib.