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From this a general rule is drawn which never or rarely fails:

that he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined;

because that predominancy has been brought about either by

astuteness or else by force, and both are distrusted by him who

has been raised to power.

CHAPTER IV. WHY THE KINGDOM OF DARIUS, CONQUERED BY ALEXANDER,

DID NOT REBEL AGAINST THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER AT HIS DEATH

Considering the difficulties which men have had to hold to a

newly acquired state, some might wonder how, seeing that

Alexander the Great became the master of Asia in a few years, and

died whilst it was scarcely settled (whence it might appear

reasonable that the whole empire would have rebelled),

nevertheless his successors maintained themselves, and had to

meet no other difficulty than that which arose among themselves

from their own ambitions.