Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/225

 rniLOTAS IS ARBESTED AS AN ACCOMPLICE. 193 Some of the generals around Alexander — especially Kraterus, the first suborner of Antigone — fomented these suspicions, from jealousy of the great ascendency of Parmenio and his family. Moreover, Philotas himself was ostentatious and overbearing in his demeanor, so as to have made many enemies among the soldiers.* But whatever may have been his defects on this head — defects Avhich he shared with the other Macedonian generals, all gorged with plunder and presents- — his fidelity as well as his military merits stand attested by the fact that Alexander had continued to employ him in the highest and most confidential command throughout all the long subsequent interval ; and that Parmenio was now general at Ekbatana, the most important military appointment which the king had to confer. Even granting the deposition of Nikomachus to be trustworthy, there was nothing to implicate Pliilotas, whose name had not been included among the accomplices said to have been enumerated by Dimnus. There was not a tittle of evidence against him, except the fact that the deposition had been made known to him, and that he had seen Alexander twice without commu- nicating it. Upon this single fact, however, Kraterus, and the other enemies of Philotas, worked so effectually as to inflame (he suspicions and the pre-existing ill-will of Alexander into fierce rancor. He resolved on the disgrace, torture, and death of Phi- lotas, — and on the death of Parmenio besides.^ To accomplish this, however, against the two highest officers in the Macedonian service, one of them enjoying a separate and distant command — required management. Alexander was obliged to carry the feelings of the soldiers along with him, and to obtain a condemnation from the army ; according to an ancient Macedonian custom, in regard to capital crimes, though Both Ptolemy and Aristobulus recognized these previous communica- tions made to Alexander against Philotas in Egypt, but stated that he did not believe them (Arrian, iii. 26, 1). 1 Plutarch, Alexand. 40-48; Curtius, vi. 11, 3. tarch, Alexand. 39, 40. Even Eumenes enriched himself much ; though being only secretary, and a Greek, he could not take the same liberties ai the great native Macedonian generals (Plutarch, Eumenes, 2). VOL. XII. 17
 * Phylarchus, Fragment. 41. ed. Didot, ap. Athenaeum, xii. p. 539 ; Plu-
 * Plutarch, Alexand. 49 ; Curtius, vi. 8.