Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/241

 BAXyLKT OF MAEAKANDA. 209 the memory of Philip was deeply offensive. But among them all, none had been more indignant than Kleitus, with the grow- ing insolence of Alexander — his assumed filiation from Zeus Ammon, which put aside Philip as unworthy — his preference for Persian attendants, who granted or refused admittance to his person — his extending to Macedonian soldiers the contemptuous treatment habitually endured by Asiatics, and even allowing them to be scourged by Persian hands and Persian rods.i The pride of a Macedonian general in the stupendous successes of the last five years, was effaced by his mortification when he saw that they tended only to merge his countrymen amidst a crowd of servile Asiatics, and to inflame the prince with high-flown aspirations transmitted from Xerxes or Ochus. But whatever might be the internal thoughts of Macedonian officers, they held their peace before Alexander, whose formidable character and exorbitant self-estimation would tolerate no criticism. At the banquet of Marakanda, this long suppressed repug- nance found an issue, accidental indeed and unpremeditated, but for that very reason all the more violent and unmeasured. The wine, which made Alexander more boastful and his flatterers fulsome to excess, overpowered altogether the reserve of Kleitus. He rebuked the impiety of those who degraded the ancient heroes in order to make a pedestal for Alexander. He protested against the injustice of disparaging the exalted and legitimate fame of Philip ; whose achievements he loudly extolled, pro- nouncing them to be equal, and even superior to those of his son. For the exploits of Alexander, splendid as they were, had been accomplished, not by himself alone, but by that uncon- querable Macedonian force which he had found ready made to his hands ; '^ whereas those of Philip had been his own — since he had found Macedonia prostrate and disorganized, and had had to create for himself both soldiers, and a miUtary system. The ' Plutarch, Aloxand. 51. Nothing can be more touching than the words put by Plutarch into the mouth of Kleitus — 'AAA' ovSe vvv ;^;a(7;o/ifv, 'AAfiavripc, TOtavra Telrj tuv ttuvuv KOfit^ufievot, fiaKapi^o/uev 6e tovc r/Si) TE'&vijKOTag Trplv kTTidelv M;?(5£/catf fiu^Soi^ ^atvoiiivovg Ma/ceJovcf, Kal Hep- aCiv ^eo/j.Evovg Iva tQ j3aai?ieL Trpoae?.&cjfj.Ev. 2 Arrian, iv. 8, 8. ovkovv fiovnv ye CA'Ai^avSpcv) .".iraTrpu^ai avru, uX'^d rd yap txoIv [i^pog Ma/cedovwv djoL tu epya, etc. 18*