Murder of Cleitus

[agesilaos]

The question which occurs to me Hiphys is what became of the other conspirators? Alexander was unarmed surrounded and remained unharmed, wheras Kleitos ended up dead with no word of deposing Alexander only a plea to remember Philip's greatness and not spit on his roots. If Alexander did shout that he was facing the fate of Dareios, and it is part of Curtius' compositional technique to have things in the opening five books with the good Alexander mirrored by things in the second pentad as he declines, he must soon have realised that this was mistaken as far from confronting the ensemble and grabbing a weapon then, he waited to arm himself until Kleitos reappeared.

[hiphys]

I don't believe, of course, there was a real conspiracy against Alexander. I only think - as Alexias said - a conspiracy "may well have been something which flashed into his [ie. Alexander's] mind" for a moment. But, if only for a moment, this thought may have affected his mind and his actions, and, even worse, the mind of the Companions after the murder. Therefore I think it's possible they tried everything to whitewash what they did 'really' in that fateful night, focusing the attention only on Cleitus and Alexander: I think something will be ever confused and untold around this murder.

[Xenophon]

Given the history of Macedonian Royalty - it was a very dangerous thing to be King of Macedon and the fate of his father in particular, it is no surprise that the death of Dareios - assassinated by those nearest him, played on Alexanders' mind, and added to his anxiety, and perhaps justifiable paranoia! This is shown by his exclamation, as mentioned by Arrian [IV.8]

"Alexander could now no longer endure the drunken insolence of Cleitus; but jumped up against him in a great rage. He was however restrained by his boon-companions. As Cleitus did not desist from his insulting remarks, Alexander shouted out a summons for his shield-bearing guards[hypaspists] to attend him; but when no one obeyed him, he said that he was reduced to the same position as Dareios, when he was led about under arrest by Bessus and his adherents, and that he now possessed the mere name of king. Then his companions were no longer able to restrain him; for according to some he leaped up and snatched a javelin from one of his confidential body-guards [somatophylakes]; according to others, a long pike[sarissa] from one of his ordinary guards, with which he struck Celitus and killed him." (Chinock translation)

Clearly Alexander, rightly or wrongly, feared assassination.

[Alexias]

Arrian is slanting this view of events. Alexander's words at this point are directed at getting the Companions to let him go, not principally at Cleitus's intentions. Arrian is also diverting attention. Why does it really matter whether Alexander used a javelin (which he would have thrown), or a pike/spear to kill Cleitus? Does this really affect the intent? Unless he is saying that it was just bad luck that Alexander actually hit his target with a javelin? Was he that poor a soldier?

[agesilaos]

Chinock's 'javelin' is a 'longche' in the text which is rather a short spear capable of being thrown or retained in hand to thrust, this is the weapon that Roman auxiliaries used and the Romans called a 'lancea', the weapon that allegedly pierced Joshua Bar Joseph's side, appropriately enough with Easter almost upon us. Tricky thing translation, there are a number of words for the much lighter thrown weapons, 'akontiston' is a common one in Arrian for javelins in general (translated as 'darts' by Chinock). By pointing out the different versions Arrian is both pointing up his research and the conflicting nature of the stories about Alexander, I don't think it represents mis-direction on his part.