From his point of view, his rule was legitimatized when he was enrolled among the deities recognized by each city; for thereafter he had a clear right to issue orders to all the citizens of his world. From their point of view, on the other hand, by deifying Alexander they escaped from the intolerable necessity of obeying the commands of a foreigner. They thereby gave their consent to be ruled by him. They subordinated their will to his. The deification of rulers was, accordingly, simply the proskynesis of cities. Its consequences were an absolutism such as Europe--and for that matter Asia--had never known before and has never ceased to know since. And it is this melancholy consequence of apotheosis which has only too frequently obscured its signal service: that it made possible the lasting union of all the city-states of the world in a single great territorial state. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Hogarth, D. _The Deification of Alexander the Great._ In _English Historical Review_, II (1887), pp. 317 _ff._ 2. Niese, B. _Zur Würdigung Alexander's des Grossen._ In _Historische Zeitschrift_, LXXIX (1897), pp. 1 _ff._ 3. Wheeler, B.I. _Alexander the Great_, (1900). 4. Bevan, E. _The Deification of Kings in the Greek Cities._ In _English Historical Review_, XVI (1901), pp. 625 _ff._ 5. Meyer, Eduard. _Alexander der Grosse und die absolute Monarchie._ In _Kleine Schriften_ (1910), pp. 283 _ff._ 6. Kärst, J. _Der hellenistische Herrscherkult._ Beilage 2 in _Geschichte des hellenistischen Zeitalters_, II, 1 (1909), pp. 374 _ff._ 7. Ferguson, W.S. _Legalized Absolutism en route from Greece to Rome._ In _American Historical Review_, XVIII (1912), pp. 29 _ff._ FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 58: Arrian, _Anabasis_, VII, 9, 2 _ff._] [Footnote 59: _De Cor._ 67.] [Footnote 60: Müller, F.H.G., I, _Frg._ 27.] [Footnote 61: _Politics_, III, 11 (17), 12, p. 1288 _a_.] [Footnote 62: _Politics_, III, 8 (13), 1, p. 1284 _a_.] [Footnote 63: _Politics_, I, 1 (2), 9, p. 1253 _a_.] [Footnote 64: Aulus Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, IX.] [Footnote 65: Johnston, R.M., _The Corsican_, p. 498.] [Footnote 66: See above, page 28, and below, page 243.] [Footnote 67: Plut., _Alex._ 54.] [Footnote 68: _Kleine Schriften_, pp. 314 _ff._] [Footnote 69: VII, 4, 4 _ff._] [Footnote 70: Athenaeus, XII, pp. 538 _ff._ (Translated by Wheeler in his _Alexander the Great_, pp. 477 _f._)] [Footnote 71: VII, 4, 7 _f._] [Footnote 72: In Macedon, by the regent Αντιτροϛ ἁσεβἑϛ τοὑτο κριναϛ (Suidas).] [Footnote 73: Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-encyclopädie_, VI, 1, pp. 952 _ff._; Wendland, _Die Hellenistisch-römische Kultur_ (1907), pp. 67 _ff._] [Footnote 74: _Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans_ (1912), p. 55.] [Footnote 75: Ferguson, _Hellenistic Athens_, p. 143.] [Footnote 76: Meyer, Ed., _Kleine Schriften_, p. 330, n. 2.] V THE EMPIRE OF THE PTOLEMIES