=25.= The decisive battle took place, B. C. 301, at Ipsus, in Phrygia. Demetrius had arrived from Europe to the assistance of his father; but Seleucus, with the forces of the East, including 480 Indian elephants, increased the army of Lysimachus. Antigonus, in his eighty-first year, was slain; Demetrius, completely defeated, took refuge in Greece, but was not permitted to enter Athens. The two conquerors, Seleucus and Lysimachus, divided the dominions of Alexander, with due regard to their own interests. Seleucus received the Euphrates Valley, Upper Syria, Cappadocia, and part of Phrygia. Lysimachus added the rest of Asia Minor to his Thracian dominion, which extended along the western shores of the Euxine as far as the mouths of the Danube; Ptolemy retained Egypt, and Cassander continued to reign in Macedonia until his death. [Illustration: EMPIRE of the MACEDONIANS.] =26.= The results of the twenty years’ war were disastrous to Greece and Macedonia, not only by the exhausting expenditure of blood and treasure, but by the introduction of Oriental habits of luxury and unmanly servility, in place of the free and simple manners of former times. Though the minds of the Greeks were enlarged by a knowledge of the history and philosophy of the Eastern nations, and by observation of the natural world and its productions in new climates and circumstances, yet most of the influences which had kept alive the free spirit of the people had ceased to work. Patriotism was dead; learning took the place of genius; and imitation, the place of art. =27.= At the same time, Asia had gained many splendid cities, her commerce had vastly increased, and the Greek military discipline and forms of civil government gave new strength to her armies and states. From the Indus to the Adriatic, and from the Crimea to the southern bounds of Egypt, the Greek language prevailed, at least among the educated and ruling classes. In Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, the influence of Hellenic thought continued a thousand years in full force, until Mahomet and his successors set up their new Semitic empire. The wide diffusion of the Greek language in western Asia was among the most important preparations for the spread of Christianity. If Alexander had lived to complete his great scheme of interfusing the eastern and western races, Asia would have gained and Europe lost in still greater measure. RECAPITULATION. Perdiccas became vizier, Philip Arrhidæus and Alexander IV being nominally kings. Wars of the generals for the division of the empire, B. C. 321-316; 315-311; 310-301. Murder of the two kings, 316, 311. Battle of Salamis in Cyprus, 306. The decisive combat at Ipsus gave Syria and the East to Seleucus; Egypt, to Ptolemy; Thrace, to Lysimachus; Macedonia, to Cassander. THIRD PERIOD. _History of the Several Kingdoms into which Alexander’s Empire was divided._ I. THE SYRIAN KINGDOM OF THE SELEU´CIDÆ. B. C. 312-65.