Alexander lived to 80 years old... what changes?

[RINO Tom]

Cool thread!  I am very novice in this area, but I fear he would have put way too much effort into India and weakened the western part of the empire, potentially leaving it open to attack.  If he had been content with his Persian acquisitions and headed back to the central part of his empire, I have little doubt he would have curbed the rise of Rome significantly.  As far as Hellenization goes, I remember reading that Alexander was fascinated with a lot of the native cultures he encountered - specifically Persian culture - and was very willing to create hybrid traditions.  Didn't Greek culture start adopting the idea of reincarnation after encounters with Buddhism?  I think regional cultures in different divisions of the empire would have developed, all with a main Greek influence.

One thing is for sure, we would have gotten a lot more epic of a "Rome vs. Greece" showdown than we ended up getting ... what sounds like, at first, one of the most epic clashes of all time was somewhat anti-climactic due to how divided the Greeks were (with many city states supporting Roman intervention against Macedonian encroachment) and how relatively little attention they payed Italy as Rome rose to power.