Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/244

 212 mSTOKi OF GREECE. No sooner was the deed perpetrated, than the fteliogs of Alex-" dnder underwent an entire revolution. The spectacle of Kleitus, a bleeding corpse on the floor, — the marks of stupefaction and horror evident in all the spectators, and the reaction from a furi- ous impulse instantaneously satiated — plunged him at once into the opposite extreme of remorse and self-condemnation. Hasten- ing out of the hall, and retiring to bed, he passed three days in an agony of distress, without food or drink. He burst into tears and multiplied exclamations on his own mad act ; he dwelt upon the name of Kleitus and Lanike with the debt of gratitude which he owed to each, and denounced himself as unworthy to live- after having requited such services with a ibul murder.' His. friends at length prevailed on him to take food, and retui'n to activity. All joined in trying to restore his self-satisfaction. The Macedonian army passed a public vote that Kleitus had been justly slain, and that his body should remain unburied ; which afforded opportunity to Alexander to reverse the vote, and to direct that it should be buried by his own order.2 The ander himself, not his flatterers, who vilipended Philip ; at least the flatter- ers only did so after him, and following his example. The topic would be dangerous for them to originate, and might easily be carried too far. ?. Among all the topics touched upon by Kleitus, none was so intolerable as the open expression of sympathy, friendship, and regret forParmenio. This stung Alexander in the sorest point of his conscience; be must have known that there were many present who sympathized with it ; and it was probably the main cause which worked him up to phrenzy. Moreover we may be pretty sure that Kleitus, while expatiating upon Philip, would not forget Philip's general in chief and his own old friend, Parmenio. I cannot believe the statement of Aristobulus, that Kleitus was forced by his friends out of the hall, and afterward returned to it of his own accord, to defy Alexander once more. It seems plain from Arrian that Ptolemy said no such thing. The murderous impulse of Alexander was gratified on the spot, and without delay, as soon as he got clear from the gentle re- straint of his surrounding friends. ■ Arrian, iv. 9, 4 ; Curtius, viii. 2, 2. - Curtius, viii. 2, 12. " Quoque mirns casdis puderet, jure interfectum Clitum Macedones decernunt ; sepultura quoque prohibituri, ni rex humari jussisset." In explanation of this monstrous verdict of the soldiers, we must recol- lect that the safety of the whole army (now at Samarcand, almost beyond the boundary of inhabited regions, ef« rrig OLKovfihri^) was felt to depend on the life of Alexander. Compare Justin, xii 0, 15.