Hi Kevin. Just doing some further reading, the Roman Republic had already been created. It appears that Rome was already a local power. Nicholoas has said in another post that Alexander was going to attack them after the Persia campaign.

Hey, Evan,

Like I said, it's been years (more like decades) since I studied that - but I am pretty certain Rome was small potatoes compared to what he could get going eastward. Yes, maybe he had plans to attack it later, but the big bang for the buck at the time was going east.

Kevin