ALEXANDER SLAYS HIS FOSTER-BROTHER
Early in 330 B.C. Alexander left Persepolis to go in search of Darius.
After a long and difficult march of three hundred miles, to which his
soldiers took only eleven days, the king heard that Darius had passed
the defile called the ‘Caspian Gates.’ For five days he allowed his
men, who were utterly exhausted, to rest, before he again started in
pursuit of the fugitive.
After passing through the Caspian Gates, Alexander heard that Bessus,
a kinsman of Darius, who was also his officer or satrap, had made him
a prisoner. Loaded with chains, Darius was being carried away to the
district over which Bessus ruled.
This made the king the more determined to reach the unfortunate
captive. For four days he hurried on until at length he reached a
village where Bessus and his men had stayed the evening before. He was
told that the satrap was going to make a forced march that night.
The king learned of a shorter road, by which he might overtake the
fugitives, but there was no water to be found on the way. Alexander did
not hesitate. With only a small company he set out the same evening,
and when morning dawned he had ridden forty-five miles. The fugitives
were now within sight.
When the barbarians who were with Bessus saw the king in the distance
they fled. The satrap quickly took the chains off his captive, bidding
him mount a horse and follow them. When Darius refused he stabbed him
and rode away, leaving the wretched king to die or to fall into the
hands of his enemy.
A few Macedonians who were riding in front of the king reached the
wounded man first, and gave him water, for which he begged. Darius then
lay back and before Alexander arrived, he had breathed his last.
The king looked at his fallen foe with pity, and then flung over him
his own cloak. His body he sent to the queen-mother, that it might be
buried beside the other Persian kings at Persepolis.
Bessus was betrayed into the hands of Alexander not long afterwards.
Naked and chained he was placed on the road by which Alexander’s army
must pass.
The king stopped when he reached the satrap, and asked him why he had
murdered Darius, who had always treated him well.
Bessus answered that he did it to win Alexander’s favour.
His reply won no pity from the king, who ordered him to be scourged and
sent to prison. Some time after he was brought to trial and sentenced
to a cruel death.
Until now Alexander had lived almost as simply as when he was a lad,
and but lately he had reproved his officers for their indolent and
luxurious habits. Now he gradually began to adopt the customs of
the East. He dressed in purple and surrounded himself with Persian
courtiers, and acted as though he was indeed a descendant of the gods.
The Macedonians were quick to take offence at the favour their king
showed to the Persians.
Philotas, a son of Parmenio, resented the king’s deeds, more perhaps
than any other of his generals. He was proud and his haughty ways had
made his men dislike him.
Parmenio would sometimes say to him, ‘My son, to be not quite so great
would be better.’ But Philotas would take no notice of the rebuke.
One day he declared that but for him and his father, the king would
never have conquered Asia. ‘Yet it is he, the boy Alexander who enjoys
the glory of the victories and the title of king,’ said the foolish
officer.
Alexander was told of the boastful way in which Philotas had spoken,
but he neither reproved nor punished him.
A little later a plot was made against his life, and Philotas would not
allow those who wished to warn the king to enter his presence. Then
Alexander, who knew of this also, ordered Philotas to be seized and
imprisoned.
He was tried before an assembly of Macedonians and confessed that he
had known of the plot to kill the king, and yet had neither warned him
nor allowed others to do so.
The Macedonians condemned him to death, and themselves carried out the
sentence, throwing at him their javelins.
Alexander had been patient with Philotas and his punishment was just,
but now the king did a cruel deed. For thinking that his old and
faithful general Parmenio might have shared in the treachery of his
son, he sent a messenger to slay him.
The king’s despatch was taken to Parmenio and put into his hand. As he
began to read it he was stabbed in the back.
From this time the king’s temper grew less and less controlled. At one
of the royal feasts he lost it altogether. A guest sang a song which
made a jest of some Macedonians who had been beaten by the Persians.
The old soldiers were indignant, the more so that Alexander paid no
heed to their anger and bade the singer sing on.
Clitus, the king’s foster-brother, had a quick temper, and he cried
out, ‘It is not well done to expose the Macedonians before their
enemies; since though it was their unhappiness to be overcome, yet are
they much better men than those who laugh at them.’
‘Clitus pleads his own cause,’ said the king, ‘when he names cowardice
misfortune.’
The king spoke half in jest, half in anger, for he knew well that
Clitus and all his Macedonians were brave men and no cowards.
But Clitus sprang to his feet at Alexander’s words and cried, ‘Yet, O
king, it was my cowardice that once saved your life from the Persians,
and it is by the wounds of Macedonians that you are now the great king.’
‘Speak not so boldly,’ answered the king, and in his voice there was a
threat, ‘or think not you will long enjoy the power to do so.’
Clitus was now too angry to care what he said, and he spoke to the king
yet more bitterly, until Alexander could brook no more. He took an
apple from the table before him, and flinging it at his foster-brother,
felt for his sword. But one of his guards, foreseeing what might
happen, had removed it. His guests now gathered around the king, trying
to soothe his anger. Alexander pushed them aside, and ordered one of
his guard to sound the alarm. This would have assembled the whole army
and the man hesitated, whereupon Alexander struck him on the face.
Meanwhile a friend had hurried Clitus out of the room, but he slipped
back again by another door, and boldly taunted the king with the way in
which he treated his old soldiers.
Then in a passion Alexander snatched a spear from one of his guards,
rushed upon Clitus and stabbed him to death.
A moment later the king’s anger faded away, and he looked in horror
upon the dead body of his foster-brother. He seized the spear again and
tried to kill himself, but his guards wrenched it away, and led him to
his own room. There he lay all through the long night and all through
the following day, weeping for his foster-brother whom he had slain.