The succeeding age of  Alexander saw Hellenism expand into 
Asia and prepare the course of the later Roman expansion. 
These, however, were the very centuries in which Greek 
civilization obviously fell apart.

     Toynbee points to the strange falsification of history by 
archeology, insofar as the survival of many material objects of 
the past does not indicate the quality of ordinary life and 
experience at any particular time. Continuous technical 
improvement in the means of warfare occurs over the entire 
period of Hellenic and Roman decline. Toynbee checks out his 
hypothesis by testing it with the developments in Greek 
agriculture. When the enterprise of Solon weaned the Greeks 
from mixed farming to a program of specialized products for 
export, there were happy consequences and a glorious 
manifestation of energy in Greek life. When the next phase of