being now quite intoxicated, made other insolent remarks and even greatly reviled him, because forsooth he had saved his life, when the cavalry battle had been fought with the Persians at the Granicus. Then indeed, arrogantly stretching out his right hand, he said:—" This hand, Alexander, preserved thee on that occasion."Alexander could now no longer endure the drunken insolence of Clitus; but jumped up against him in a great rage. He was however restrained by his boon-companions. As Clitus did not desist from his insulting remarks, Alexander shouted out a summons for his shieldbearing guards to attend him; but when no one obeyed him, he said that he was reduced to the same position as Darius, when he was led about under arrest by Bessus and his adherents, and that he now possessed the mere name of king. Then his companions were no longer able to restrain him; for according to some he leaped up and snatched a javelin from one of his confidential bodyguards; according to others, a long pike from one of his ordinary guards, with which he struck Clitus and killed him.[1] Aristobulas does not say whence the drunken quarrel originated, but asserts that the fault was entirely on the side of Clitus, who, when Alexander bad got so enraged with him as to jump up against him with the intention of making an end of him, was led away by Ptolemy, son of Lagus, the confidential body-guard, through the gateway, beyond the wall and ditch of the citadel where the quarrel occurred. He adds that Clitus could not control himself, but went back again, and falling in with Alexander who was calling out for Clitus, he exclaimed:—"Alexander, here is Clitus!" Thereupon he was struck with a long pike and killed.
- ↑ Instead of the usual reading from καὶ ταύτῃ to καὶ ταύτην, Sintenis reads οἱ δὲ σάρισαν παρὰ τῶν φυλάκων τινὸς καὶ ταύτῃ παίσαντα τὸν Κλεῖτον ἀποκτεῖναι.
depreciatingly of Philip, and that Clitus even dared to defend the murdered Farmenio.
