Again Philotas

[s]

Well, I knoiw who he was- son of Parmenio, commander of the Companion cavalry, but I've one question- what was his place in Alexander's court? Was he favourite person or maybe some kind of I'm always opposite? Thanks!

[marcus]

A good question. Sometimes Philotas has been portrayed as being one of Alexander's close friends (hence making the 'conspiracy against Philotas' issue seem the more heinous). A good source to check out is Heckel's "The Marshals of Alexander's Empire" where he puts forward a convincing portrait of Philotas as being not particularly favoured by Alexander, and distrusted/disliked by a number of the other officers.During the Pixodarus affair it is possible (though not proven) that Philotas informed Philip about Alexander's plans to offer himself to Pixodarus, instead of Arrhidaios. This is cited as being what 'excluded' Philotas from Alexander's inner circle. He was honoured because he was Parmenion's son, and his appointment as commander of the Companion Cavalry was at least partially to keep Parmenion on-side during the relative chaos of the succession. However, for him to have commanded the elite cavalry squadrons, right up to his arrest in 330, indicates that he was a talented commander.The 'anti-Philotas' message in the main sources only really starts at the point where the conspiracy rears its head. This presents a problem because it would be fairly natural to blacken Philotas' name retrospectively, in order to justify Alexander's actions; but at the same time there must have been something in the accusations, otherwise Alexander would have had no reason to have him arrested and executed.The accusations fall into two types: complaints against his general arrogance and extravagance, and those that claim that he was over-critical of Alexander. The first type includes things like the immense size of his hunting nets, the fact that he kept a 'court' and housed himself and his retinue in the most extravagant buildings. The second that he mocked Alexander, claimed that Alexander's victories were only down to him and his father, and criticisms of Alexander's orientalising. There is also a hint, unproven but quite likely, that there was some conspiracy begun against Alexander in Egypt (in which we don't know if Philotas was directly implicated, and which fizzled out because Parmenion wouldn't let it go ahead before Darius was defeated once and for all).Sorry, this is a bit rambling; but, basically, Philotas appears not to have been a great friend of Alexander's - a talented commander, definitely, but his high position was due to that and to his father rather than for any great friendship that Alexander held for him. There is no evidence that they

[marcus]

There is no evidence that they were 'close friends' as most fictional (cf. Renault, Manfredi) and some academic texts claim.All the bestMarcus

[ruthaki]

He was one of the "companions" of Alexander, the elite group who were chosen to be closest to him throughout his youth and when he became King.

[ruthaki]

This was an excellent in-depth reply. I agree with your comments. He was a chosen 'companion' but that was mainly because his father was one of Philip's top generals so therefore he was already part of the 'court'. His actions later showed a betrayal of Alexander. No doubt, if Kassandros had been allowed on the Persian campaigns, he would have been in on the 'conspiracy'. Not all of the "companions' were faithful to Alexander as several of them proved.