Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/253

 (■;tlracti:ii and conduci of kallisthenes. 221 Lira ; next, to the mox'e tree-spirited Macedonians, indignant witnesses of Alexander's increased insolence, and admirers of the courageous Greek who had protested against the motion of Anaxarchus. By such men he was doubtless much extolled ; which praises aggravated his danger, as they were sure to be reported to Alexander. The pretext for his ruin was not long wanting. Among those who admired and sought the conversation of Kallisthenes, was Hermolaus, one of the royal pages — the band^ selected from noble Macedonian families, who did duty about the person of the king. It had happened that this young man, one of Alexander's companions in the chace, on seeing a wild boar rushing up to attack the king, darted his javelin, and slew the animal. Alexander, angry to be anticipated in killing the boar, ordered Hermolaus to be scourged before all the other pages, and deprived him of his horse.^ Thus humiliated and outraged — for an act not merely innocent, but the omission of which, if Alexander had sustained any injury from the boar, might have been held punishable — Hermolaus became resolutely bent on revenge.^ He enlisted in the project his intimate fnend Sostra- tus, with several others among the pages ; and it was agreed among them to kill Alexander in his chamber, on the first night when they were all on guard together. The appointed night arrived, without any divulgation of their secret ; yet the scheme was frustrated by the accident, that Alexander continued till daybreak drinking with his officers, and never retired to bed. On the morrow, one of the conspirators, becoming alarmed or repentant, divulged the scheme to his friend Charikles, with the names of those concerned, Eurylochus, brother to Charikles, apprised by him of what he had heard, immediately informed Ptolemy, through whom it v/as conveyed to Alexander. By Alexander's order, the persons indicated were arrested and put to the torture ; ^ under which they confessed that they had them- selves conspired to kill him, but named no other accomplices, and even denied that any one else was privy to the scheme. In ' Plutarch, Alexand. 54. lie refers to Hermippus, who mentions wh.^ was told to Aristotle by Strcebus, the reader attendant on Kallisthenes. 19*
 * Arrian, iv. 13 ; Curtius, viii. 6, 7. ' Arrian, iv. IS, 1 i.