History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c26.4

v2.c26.4

Alexander’s great raid was the first attempt to break through this barrier, and to join the East and West by commercial or social interchanges. The steady organisation of the Roman empire succeeded in consolidating what that brilliant conqueror had sketched out. During the permanence of her supremacy the space intervening between India and Europe was bridged over by the order she maintained among the various communities established in Western Asia, and there seemed no reason why the intercourse so established should be interrupted. Unsuspected, however, by the Roman world, two nomad nations, uninfluenced by its civilisation, hung on either flank of this great line of communication, ready to avail themselves of any moment of weakness that might occur.