Alexander, who set out as king of the Macedonians and captain-general of
the Hellenes, assumed after the death of Darius the character of the
Oriental great king. He adopted the Persian garb (Plutarch, _de fort.
Al._ i. 8) including a head-dress, the _diadema_, which was suggested by
that of the Achaemenian king (_Just._ xii. 3, 8). We hear also of a
sceptre as part of his insignia (_Diod._ xviii. 27, 1). The pomps and
ceremonies which were traditional in the East were to be continued. To
the Greeks and Macedonians such a regime was abhorrent, and the
opposition roused by Alexander's attempt to introduce among them the
practice of _proskynesis_ (prostration before the royal presence), was
bitter and effectual. The title of _chiliarch_, by which the Greeks had
described the great king's chief minister, in accordance with the
Persian title which described him as "commander of a thousand," i.e. of
the royal body-guard, was conferred by Alexander upon his friend
Hephaestion. The Greek Chares held the position of chief usher ([Greek:
eisangeleus]). Another Greek, Eumenes of Cardia, was chief secretary
([Greek: archigrammateus]). The figure of the eunuch, so long
characteristic of the Oriental court, was as prominent as ever (e.g.
Bagoas, Plut. _Alex._ 67, &c.; cf. Arr. vii. 24).
Alexander, however, who impressed his contemporaries by his sexual
continence, kept no harem of the old sort. The number of his wives did
not go beyond two, and the second, the daughter of Darius, he did not
take till a year before his death. In closest contact with the king's
person were the seven, or latterly eight, body-guards, [Greek:
somatophylakes], Macedonians of high rank, including Ptolemy and
Lysimachus, the future kings of Egypt, and Thrace (Arr. vi. 28, 4). The
institution, which the Macedonian court before Alexander had borrowed
from Persia, of a corps of pages composed of the young sons of the
nobility ([Greek: paides basileioi] or [Greek: basilikoi]) continued to
hold an important place in the system of the court and in Alexander's
campaigns (see Arr. iv. 13, 1; Curt. viii. 6, 6; Suid. [Greek: basileioi
paides]; cf. the [Greek: paides] of Eumenes, Diod. xix. 28, 3).
See Spiecker, _Der Hof und die Hofordnung Alex. d. Grossen_ (1904).